We celebrate the halfway point of Citizen Science Month next week! Join SciStarter for a 12-hour nonstop Palooza of Zooniverse Projects (ZooniPalooza?). Pick your favorite project and hop online with a SciStarter Team Member. The rest of the week, we count bats, chat with dolphins and try a whole slew of projects supported by our friends at the National Science Foundation!As of this writing, we're almost exactly at 500,000 completed Acts of Science, so we're well on our way. But we can't let up! ...read more
Language gave humans a leg up compared to all other species. By working together outside of the family unit through communication, we were able to hunt and gather, farm, and build great civilizations. There’s a lot we don’t know about how it all started because there were no recording devices, and the first writing didn’t occur until around 3200 B.C.E. As a result, there’s no record of how it all began, but we do have some clues. Language and Social StructureIt’s important to note tha ...read more
Orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as Killer whales, are easily recognized by their black-and-white markings on their bodies. More specifically, these whales have an iconic white patch near their eyes. But why do these mammals sport the markings? There are various thoughts as to why orcas have these patterns. Their coloring pattern has multiple uses, from camouflage to coordination as they swim. The patterns also help researchers study genetics within a pod.Orca's Stealthy Black and White Camoufla ...read more
In the thick Ituri Rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo wanders a rarely seen okapi. It resembles a zebra, albeit with proportions that got slightly wonky somewhere down the line. Half its body is covered in rippling white stripes that can melt into its dim surroundings under the right lighting, while the rest of it is covered in dark, purplish fur, oily enough that water slides right off it.The little we do know about the okapi comes from a field study conducted in the 1980s using rad ...read more
As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation from across the room. Kirsty Penkman, head of the North East Amino Acid Racemization lab at the University of York, had just read the data printed off the chromatograms and was practically jumping up and down.The instrument had detected telltale signatures of ancient amino acids in eggshell. Amino acids are the building ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine