Despite making its appearance only once every roughly 75 years, Halley’s Comet is perhaps one of the most famous objects in the night sky. It last passed by Earth in 1986, and both astronomers and skywatchers are eagerly anticipating its return in 2061. When Halley’s Comet reappears in Earth’s skies, it will likely be a spectacle that will yet again captivate much of the world — and potentially worry some. But, since we still have some time before Halley’s Comet returns, let’s dive i ...read more
Back in the 1970s, biologists began to observe a remarkable social phenomenon in bacteria. They had long been aware that individual bacteria could sense and seek out nutrients in their environment, a phenomenon known as chemotaxis. What they hadn’t realized was that bacteria could communicate between themselves using signaling molecules. In this way, bacteria can sense the presence of others and regulate their behavior accordingly, such as becoming bioluminescent or forming biofilms when their ...read more
The Higgs boson is special kind of particle that doesn’t really appear in everyday life. Instead, it subtly interacts with many other particles and is responsible for giving them mass. Additionally, it plays a crucial role in the determining the characteristics of the forces of nature.The Discovery of Higgs Boson CERN research center, Geneva Switzerland (Credit: Dominionart/Shutterstock)In 1964, several researchers, including British physicist Peter Higgs, found a clever solution to a troublin ...read more
How do you know when an Ice Age teen hits puberty? You can see it in their bones.A research group for the first time applied a technique initially developed for contemporary clinical observations to Paleolithic fossils. They reported in the Journal of Human Evolution that Ice Age teens experienced the same physiological changes as contemporary young adolescents at roughly the same time. Ice Age Bones Reveal Clues About AdolescenceThe scientists studied the bones of 13 ancient humans between 10 a ...read more
The Fermi paradox boils down to a simple question: where is everybody? In other words, if we’re not alone in the universe, then why haven’t we seen any evidence for aliens yet? To date, there is no consensus resolution to the Fermi Paradox…and we still have no evidence for aliens.Who Came Up With the Fermi Paradox?(Credit: Janusz Pienkowski/Shutterstock)Lore has it that in the summer of 1950, famed Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi was out to lunch one day with some friends and colle ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine