Much of our genome has no apparent purpose. Is it so-called "junk DNA" or do we simply not understand it? (Credit: ktsdesign/Shutterstock)
Would
you purchase a book with over 98 percent of the text written in gibberish?
Biology has no business in the book industry, yet it still writes a pretty
fascinating guidebook: DNA. Our genetic manual holds the instructions for the proteins
that make up and power our bodies. But less than 2 percent of our DNA actually
codes for them.
The
rest — ...read more
Hemlock trees killed by hemlock woolly adelgid in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina. (Courtesy Songlin Fei)
With its sparkling green wings, the emerald ash borer, a tiny beetle no longer than a knuckle-length, is almost beautiful. The insect however has been ravaging America’s forests for nearly 20 years. First seen in Michigan in the early 2000s, the invasive pest has killed millions of ash trees in more than 30 states.
The ash borer is not the only species d ...read more
In this artist illustration, the sun (the yellow star at center) moves through a clump of interstellar gas that may still be raining down radioactive iron from a long-ago supernova explosion. (Credit: NASA/Goddard/Adler/U. Chicago/Wesleyan)
Antarctica is one of the most pristine places on the planet. Thanks to its generally inhospitable nature, as well as its natural isolation, it’s a good place for astronomers to search for meteorites and other materials that fall from the sky. They te ...read more
10 Shaft in the Superior-Resolution copper prospect in Arizona. Resolution Copper.
Copper is one of the most valuable metals on the planet. Sure, it lacks the cachet of gold, silver, platinum -- no, those are "precious metals". Yet, without copper, the world as we know it would not operate. If you have electricity, you need copper.
This week, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest mining companies, were given permission from the US Forest Service to move ahead with the Res ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine