Scientists Struggle to tell Rodents Apart. Mouse Sperm May Offer a Solution

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

It’s easy to stereotype mice: They really can all look alike. In fact, even armed with genetic knowledge about their DNA, it can be hard for biologists to tell apart different species. They’re just so similar. Well, not every bit of them is. A group at biologists recently found a new way to tell apart their murine specimens — by looking at mouse sperm. Their findings appear in the Journal of Mammalogy, and could mean not just improved games of Guess Who in the lab, but also sh ...read more

Black Holes Surrounded by Gaseous ‘Fountains,’ Not ‘Donuts’

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Black Hole Fountains Where once were donuts, now there may be fountains. Not literally, unfortunately, but new astronomical observations are rewriting scientists' conceptions of what the area around a black hole looks like, and the new evidence seems to lean heavily away from the morning delicacy. Scientists estimate that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center, pulling in everything around them with tremendous gravitational forces. Up until now, astronomers believed&n ...read more

Why Don’t We Have an AIDS Vaccine?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

I mentioned to a friend, a gay man nearing 60, that World AIDS Day, which has been observed on Dec. 1 since 1988, was almost upon us. He had no idea that World AIDS Day still exists. This lack of knowledge is a testament to the great accomplishments that have occurred since World AIDS Day was created 30 years ago. It is also due to an accident in the timing of his birth that my friend escaped the devastation wreaked by AIDS among gay men in the U.S., before there was antiretroviral therap ...read more

2019 Could Be a Big Year for Private Spaceflight

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Future of Spaceflight The upcoming year is shaping up to be a big one for private spaceflight. A number of big players in the race to get paying passengers to space seem poised to actually make that happen, and companies like Boeing and SpaceX have announced a number of ambitious goals. It looks like they might be beat by the Brit, though. Last week, billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson claimed that his company Virgin Galactic will send astronauts into space by Christmas of this year. ...read more

SNAPSHOT: How The Devil Ray Got Its Horns

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

How did the manta ray get its horns? That’s something biologists at San Francisco State University have been trying to figure out. While not actual horns, the two fleshy growths are the reason why the manta are called “devil rays.” A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution shows that these hornlike lumps, known as “cephalic lobes,” are actually the foremost part of the manta ray’s fin and not separate appendages, as pre ...read more