We're about a month away from the 60th annual rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater Texas. The event proudly calls itself the world's largest—and for good reason. Last year, nearly 8,000 lbs of snakes were killed in this barbaric slaughterfest. But there are so many reasons why this all-out assault on Texas' reptiles is a terrible idea. Rattlesnakes have complex social lives, can live for decades, and are essential to their native ecosystems. As predators, they help keep po ...read more
Image: Flickr/Tax Credits
Urban legend has it that “all” of our paper currency is tainted with cocaine. These scientists decided to test whether this is true, and if so, how much of the drug is there. By testing over four thousand bills of various denominations gathered from 90 locations over more than a decade, they estimate that the “average” bill carries only 2.34 ng of cocaine (a tiny, tiny amount), but any given bill has ~15% chance of having more than 20 ...read more
And what's happening in the New Arctic is not staying there
Another month, yet another record low for Arctic sea ice extent in a warming world.
January's average ice extent in the Arctic was 525,000 square miles below the 1981-to-2010 average, making it the lowest January extent in the satellite record. This is an astonishingly large loss of ice — equivalent to 80 percent of Alaska.
But what happened in January was equally, if not more significant, for its timing. I ...read more
The oceans are largely unexplored, but if you want to find something interesting, there's no better place to visit than a hydrothermal vent.
Often marked by dark plumes gushing into frigid water, the vents mark spots where magma rises close to the seafloor and heats the water to temperatures that can reach over 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Warmth and nutrients from the vents provide the basis for a vibrant deep-sea community, populated by creatures that often never see the sun's light ...read more
When it comes to improving memory, being in the right place at the right time could be key. Scientists are figuring out how to do that.
Michael Kahana, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and his team developed an experimental brain stimulation technique that improves memory by applying a pulse of electricity directly to the brain when and where it’s needed most. In an early demonstration, they say their approach improved word recall in epilepsy patients by 15 perc ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine