Scientists Gave Monkeys Ayahuasca and It Helped Their Depression

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

In a 1973 study, scientists at the University of Chicago fitted cocaine-dependent rhesus monkeys with stainless steel catheter harnesses, allowing them to self-administer PCP to until they were “highly intoxicated.” This type of research isn’t exactly unusual — for decades, humans have been pumping primates full of psychedelics like LSD and DMT to study the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. But in a recent first, researchers at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Nor ...read more

Fasting and Exercise: A Perfect Pair?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Athletes training for endurance competitions tend to eat a lot, especially carbohydrates, which produce glucose to fuel the muscles. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps took in 12,000 calories a day during the 2008 Summer Olympics, for example. Regimented nutrition diets are also popular among athletes. The top Mixed Martial Arts fighters employ full-time nutritionists who prepare each meal for them. But fasting? More bodybuilders, professional cyclists and other athletes are turning up the ...read more

We Still Don’t Know How to Deal With Moon Dust

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

If we're going back to the moon, we're going to need to learn how to deal with the dust. U.S. President Donald Trump has made returning to the moon a priority, and China and India both have lunar landers in the works. The endeavor is difficult for myriad reasons, but one borders on the prosaic — moon dust. Dust Bowl The moon is a dirty place. Apollo astronauts reported returning to their lander covered in dust that smelled of spent gunpowder — astronaut Alan Bean even worried t ...read more

Flashback Friday: Woodpeckers Use Wood-eating Fungus to Make Their Pecking Easier

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

It has been proposed that woodpeckers and fungi might work together in a symbiotic relationship, with birds spreading fungi to new environments, and the fungi helping to soften the wood to make hole-boring easier. Although attractive, there has never been direct evidence supporting this hypothesis... until now! In this study, scientists show that woodpeckers cary specific species of fungi that are also found in holes made by woodpeckers. They went on to track the fungi growing in man-made ho ...read more

Accelerating clinical research through mobile technology

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Researchers face a number of challenges when conducting a clinical study.1 Investigators spend considerable time and money recruiting and screening viable participants. If recruitment takes too long, important studies can get scrapped before they are even started. Once a study is underway, participants must sacrifice their own time to make clinic visits, which, for long-term studies, can reduce participant retention. Incorporating internet and mobile technologies into a study's design can r ...read more