Cranes Base Their Migration Strategy on Shifting Environmental Conditions

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Many wonder how birds migrate vast distances. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences investigates that and also looks into the “where,” “when,” and “why” of avian travel. They found that birds flock to drastically different environmental conditions that meet different needs over the course of a year.Crane TrackingResearchers affixed GPS tracking devices to the legs of 104 cranes in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They learned that some cranes traveled nearly 4,000 m ...read more

Some of the Earliest Known Jokes Were Written Down 4,000 Years Ago

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Some jokes are like a fine wine and age well with time; others get rather lost in translation as the centuries pass. One joke, etched in the ancient cuneiform writing of the Sumerian people, stands as the oldest recorded bar joke and dates back roughly 4,000 years. It reads: “A dog walks in a bar and says, ‘I cannot see a thing. I’ll open this one.” Surely, this joke was hilarious in its time, but today, this nonsensical one-liner has sparked much debate and theories about why exactly it ...read more

Magnesium May Reduce Risk of Dementia — But It’s Not That Simple

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Dementia is one of the most devastating illnesses you’re likely to get. How likely? According to the World Health Organization, 55 million people worldwide currently have some form of dementia. In the United States, perhaps as many as one in ten have dementia, while another 22 percent suffer from mild cognitive impairment. Risk increases as you age. Among those over 90 years old, the rate is 35 percent.Unfortunately, there’s no cure for dementia, and despite some encouraging news in the last ...read more

The Science Behind Nootropics – Do They Actually Work?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Sometime in 2024, I started getting ads in my Instagram feed from a supplement company called Thesis. The ads generally featured good-looking, fashionable people telling neat, 30-second stories about how the supplements had solved their chronic procrastination, indecision, or distractibility. Many of the evangelists were identified as high-achievers in their respective fields — a Ph.D. neuroscientist, a CEO, or a surgeon.I’d be lying if I said that the ads weren’t compelling. As a digital ...read more

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