The human body is, on average, 60 percent water. So it makes sense that water is doing something important in there. And indeed, water is necessary for almost all physiological processes. In the past few years, research on hydration has shifted from studying the role of hydration in athletic performance to water’s role in overall health. And scientists are finding some interesting connections.Water Is Essential to the BodyThere is evidence that insufficient hydration can cause inflammation, s ...read more
We process our world differently when we’re stressed out, and so, too, do mice. According to a new paper in PLOS Biology, mice perceive sounds in a different way when they’ve been subjected to repeated stressors, responding to some louder sounds as if they were softer. “We found that repetitive stress alters sound processing,” the study authors stated in their paper. “These alterations in auditory processing culminated in perceptual shifts, particularly a reduction in loudness percepti ...read more
After noticing a fish with striking red stripes under its eyes, Chinese scientists knew they’d identified a new species. The fish — a species of tilefish — appears to be wearing red face paint and thus has been named after San, a character from Princess Mononoke, a Studio Ghibli film. With this rare find, researchers are hoping to learn more about this genus and further investigate the species genetic diversity. The findings were recently published in ZooKeys.“Finding a new species in ...read more
Until recently, civilization (as a whole) had never endured severe climate change at global scale. Individual cultures, on the other hand, have confronted regional climate shifts time and again, and for the people involved, they’ve been no less devastating. In fact, many of those cultures collapsed in the turmoil of fluctuating temperatures and dwindling precipitation (and, surely, other political and economic factors). From the deserts of the Middle East to the rainforest of Central America, ...read more
Back in 1971, a couple of British astronomers predicted the existence of a black hole at the center of our galaxy. And in 1974, other astronomers found it, naming it Sagittarius A*. Since then, astronomers have discovered that a similar “supermassive black hole” sits at the center of almost every other large galaxy. In 2019, they took the first image of a supermassive black hole. Today, these exotic objects are a fundamental part of our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. But what ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine