Survivors in the Forest: Help Scientists by Identifying Resilient Trees

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Calling all tree lovers! This Arbor Day, help scientists study trees near you with TreeSnap, an easy-to-use app. Are you a tree lover with a smartphone? If so, you can help out scientists who are trying to breed stronger trees. Like all living beings, trees face a variety of challenges and illnesses. In addition to threats like climate change, pollution, and loss of habitat, they also can be attacked by bugs or fall ill. Luckily, many scientists and community members are working together ...read more

Humanity’s Early Ancestors Were Upright Walking Apes

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Roughly 8 million years ago, some apes stood up and started human evolution. Okay, that’s not really what happened. But it is a fair characterization of the way scientists identify the oldest fossils likely to be human ancestors. Upright walking apes mark the start of the study of human evolution in many texts and classes. That’s because bipedalism, or two-legged locomotion, was the first major evolutionary change in human ancestors, which is evident from bones. Other distinguishin ...read more

LIGO Spots Two Gravitational Waves in Two Days

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

It took astronomers a century to make the first-ever gravitational wave detection, confirming a core prediction of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. But this month, the floodgates have opened. On Friday, scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced they’ve likely detected a second gravitational wave event in as many days. Detectors at three locations around the world caught the arrival of a probable ripple in space-time arou ...read more

Robot Astrobees Honey and Bumble Report for Duty on the ISS

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

On April 19, the Cygnus spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Among plenty of other cargo, it carried special passengers: two small robots named Honey and Bumble. These “Astrobees” will soon become part of the station’s working crew, helping with such tasks as checking inventory, recording astronauts and experiments and running their own research projects. Bees in Space Terry Fong, Chief Roboticist at NASA Ames, expects that the robots might start work as e ...read more