Pushy Bonobo Moms Help Their Sons Get Lucky

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

(Credit: Gudkov Andrey/Shutterstock) Seeing anyone special? Thinking about having kids? When am I going to have some grandchildren? Many moms nag their adult children about the prospect of grandchildren. But bonobo moms take their maternal harassment to another level: They actively participate in helping their sons find mates. Even more surprisingly, the pushy tactic gets results. The sons of overbearing mothers are more likely to father offspring, says a group of researchers. "Th ...read more

Scientists Gear Up to Look For Fossils on Mars

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Upcoming missions like NASA’s Mars 2020 might already have the technology to find tiny micro-fossils on the Red Planet. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) When most people imagine hunting for fossils, they probably think of finding dinosaur bones laid down in layers of rock. But the vast majority of life – and therefore fossils – across Earth’s history has been microorganisms. These tiny lifeforms, either plants, animals or fungi, can be smaller than the width of a human hair. ...read more

Artificial Intelligence meets Citizen Science

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The potential for AI to propel citizen science efforts forward is incredible; from rapidly analyzing your data or identifying insects, to helping you find and join the best project for your research goals. Here are some ongoing citizen science projects and research efforts that involve AI and citizen science to maximize the efforts of participants and scientists. Cheers, The SciStarter Team Intelligent recommendation for citizen science Thanks to a new grant from NESTA, ...read more

Weird, Mysterious and Threatened: Can Scientists Save the Platypus?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) pauses for a moment after being released by scientists into the Little Yarra River, its home stream in Victoria, Australia. (Credit: Douglas Gimesy) With the bill of a duck, the body of an otter, and the tail of a beaver, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a long history of confounding the humans who’ve encountered it. Early European settlers took to calling the strange, semi-aquatic mammals they found living in eastern Australian streams ...read more

The Definition Of a Kilogram Changes Today — What That Means

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

As of today, new standard defines the kilogram. (Credit: Shutterstock/Piotr Wytrazek) We measure stuff all the time – how long, how heavy, how hot, and so on – because we need to for things such as trade, health and knowledge. But making sure our measurements compare apples with apples has been a challenge: how to know if my kilogram weight or meter length is the same as yours. Attempts have been made to define the units of measurement over the years. But today – Interna ...read more