Low on Juice: How Phone Batteries Shape the Rhythms of Our Daily Lives

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Feeling stressed yet? (Credit: boyhey/Shutterstock) It's happened to all of us. You're out and about when you notice that your phone is running low on battery. For many, the realization sparks a sense of urgency, and lends new meaning to plans we may have already laid. Edging that battery icon back up becomes a goal of singular urgency, a task that lends a frisson of unease to our everyday lives. At least, that's what two researchers in Europe found when they surveyed a small group of Lon ...read more

Human Hearts Evolved for Endurance — and They Need It to Stay Healthy

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

(Credit: lzf/Shutterstock) (Inside Science) -- Millions of years ago, after the ancestors of humans diverged from the last link they shared with chimpanzees, they began developing the numerous adaptations that made endurance one of the defining traits of our species. By about 2 million years ago, the genus Homo had emerged and the process really took off. Today, humans can run for miles or walk all day thanks to those changes. In new research, scientists have shown just how substant ...read more

Hubble Spots a Dim, Dark Matter-Rich Galaxy

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

(Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti) Some 30 million light-years from Earth, a faint monster lurks in the constellation Cetus the Whale. Astronomers dub the object UGC 695, and astronomers recently caught this image of it using the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s a galaxy fainter than even the background brightness of our planet’s atmosphere, which makes it tough to see with Earth-bound telescopes. These so-called “low-surface-brightness galaxies” get thei ...read more

Giant Volcano on Jupiter’s Moon Could Erupt Any Second

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A true color approximation of Jupiter's moon Io taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1999. (credit: PIRL/University of Arizona) A volcano spread across an area greater than Lake Michigan could erupt any day. Located on Jupiter’s moon Io scientists predict that Loki, named after the Norse trickster god, is due to explode sometime in mid-September. The volcano last erupted in May 2018, an event also predicted by scientists.  “Loki volcano is huge — 200 kilometers across ...read more

When Did Humans Reach North America? The Question Keeps Growing More Complex

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Native Americans have been visiting Calvert Island off the Canadian coast for more than 10,000 years. (Credit: Pacific Northwest Sailing/Shutterstock) Humans have long found comfort on Calvert Island, just off the coast of mainland British Columbia. For millennia, they have climbed the island’s rocky outcrops, walked through its rainy conifer forests, and waded through its chilly intertidal pools to collect crabs, mussels, and other marine life. There, in 2014, a group of Canadian re ...read more