When athletes line up at the start of a race, the crowd often hushes in anticipation until the quiet is broken by the crack of a starter pistol. The discharge sounds like a real gunshot, yet most people aren’t filled with fear. Instead, the race begins, the fans cheer, and the blast is forgotten. To not react negatively to a starter pistol, the brain has to recognize the blast as harmless and then shut down any fearful reactions. But how does the brain know when to ignore a starter pistol but ...read more
Researchers are starting to reveal the science of red sprites. No, not the supernatural spirits that flit through fairytales, but the bursts of rare red lightning that flicker and flash through the middle-upper atmosphere. Teasing out the timing of over 90 red sprites and tying over 60 of them to specific strokes of parent lightning, the research reveals that one of South Asia’s largest shows of sprite fireworks arose within a cluster of thunderstorms above the Himalayas in 2022. Its appearanc ...read more
The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope has just magnified our view of the universe with the release of its first wave of survey data, capturing hundreds of thousands of galaxies in remarkable detail. The latest update shares a preview of three deep fields, areas chock-full of galaxies that Euclid will inspect as part of its mission to map one-third of the entire sky. With one scan of each deep field, Euclid has been able to spot 26 million galaxies, the farthest of which lie 10.5 billio ...read more
There’s some good news and bad news about treating back pain. The good news is research has identified what actually works. The bad news is, it’s not very much.Only about 10 percent of common, nonsurgical treatments for lower back pain appear effective, with many therapies working only slightly better than a placebo, according to research in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.For acute or temporary lower back pain, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like ibuprofen, naproxen, and celecox ...read more
Imagine a lush and vibrant rainforest teeming with life, with various insects crawling and flying around, and abundant aquatic fauna. This is what the now cool, temperate Central Tablelands in southwestern Australia would have looked like around 15 million years ago.This was confirmed by a spectacular recent discovery at the McGrath Flat fossil site near Gulgong in New South Wales, Australia. The site is classified as a "Lagerstätte" — a location that contains fossils of exceptional quality w ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine