The New Apollo 11 Documentary is Jaw-Droppingly Gorgeous

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The new Apollo 11 documentary boasts that it is a “cinematic event fifty years in the making.” Which it is. It’s less a documentary and more a compilation of restored 16mm film and rarely-if-ever heard audio records from the first lunar landing mission, and it's absolutely incredible. (Heads up: this blog contains spoilers, but then again, most of us know what happened on Apollo 11, right? Right.)  The trailer, just in case you haven't seen it kicking around yet. [embed] ...read more

There’s A Good Reason for Why We ‘Uh’ and ‘Um’ When We Talk

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Our Um's and Uh's Aren't Totally Useless Ever catch yourself saying “uhhh” too many times? Many people vow to cut back on relying on such verbal crutches once they realize they’re using them, but they're not just filler. It seems they act as a cue of sorts for your conversational partners. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics found that listeners actively track when a speaker says “uh” to help predict what kind of word might follow. The ...read more

A Better Solar Panel Through Buckets of Water, Rocks

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Rare is the tech story whose main development is decidedly low-tech – but not impossible. Rather than a fancy atomic clock or rat cyborgs, for instance, this tech story deals with buckets of rocks and water. Well, solar panels too, but that’s not the cool new part. Today, at a meeting of the American Physical Society, Colgate University physicist Beth Parks described a new way to wring even more energy from a solar panel — a major development for people with no access to relia ...read more

A Map to Planet Nine: Hunting Our Solar System’s Most Distant Worlds

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Last December, a trio of astronomers set the record for the most distant object ever discovered in the solar system. Because the small world is located about three times farther from the sun than Pluto, the researchers dubbed it Farout. Now, not to be outdone (even by themselves), the same group of boundary pushers have announced the discovery of an even more far-flung object. And since the new find sits a couple billion miles farther out than Farout, the team has fittingly nicknamed it Farf ...read more

Are Insects Going Extinct? The Debate Obscures the Real Dangers They Face

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Insects, the most abundant and diverse animals on Earth, are facing a crisis of epic proportions, according to a growing body of research and a rash of alarmist media reports that have followed. If left unchecked, some scientists say, recent population declines could one day lead to a world without insects. “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here,” New York Times Magazine avowed in an in-depth story examining the trend, while other outlets have warned of an impending “ecological Armage ...read more