For anyone living in the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine a battle scene that isn’t plastered with camouflage: soldiers in muted green-brown fatigues, marching beside tanks painted the same colors. These days the pattern is even a perennial fixture of mainstream fashion. But in fact, it’s a relatively recent military tactic, albeit one with roots in some of the most ancient survival strategies. More than 2,000 years ago, in The Art of War, the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrote that, “Al ...read more
When humans first set their sights on the stars, space exploration was dominated by superpowers, national pride, and the race to outdo rival nations. After all, the Apollo Moon landings were carried out as more of a statement of Cold War superiority than a business venture. But in recent decades, a shift has occurred — a shift that has slowly seen the reins of space exploration handed from government agencies to commercial enterprises. The commercialization of space is no longer a futuristic d ...read more
Astronomers exploring the faraway universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful telescope, have found a class of galaxies that challenges even the most skillful creatures in mimicry – like the mimic octopus. This creature can impersonate other marine animals to avoid predators. Need to be a flatfish? No problem. A sea snake? Easy.When astronomers analyzed the first Webb images of the remote parts of the universe, they spotted a never-before-seen group of galaxies. These ...read more
Nineteen-year-old U.S. Army Pvt. David Lewis set out from Fort Dix on a 50-mile hike with his unit on Feb. 5, 1976. On that bitter cold day, he collapsed and died. Autopsy specimens unexpectedly tested positive for an H1N1 swine influenza virus.Virus disease surveillance at Fort Dix found another 13 cases among recruits who had been hospitalized for respiratory illness. Additional serum antibody testing revealed that over 200 recruits had been infected but not hospitalized with the novel swine H ...read more
Paleontologists have long debated whether pterosaurs could fly. An analysis of fossils from two separate species of the ancient, winged dinosaur relatives suggest that not only did they fly, but also at least one species likely glided on air currents while another probably flapped its wings, according to a report in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Researchers determined these different abilities by using CT scans to analyze the fossilized bones. Scanning the humerus of Arambourgiania phi ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine