Oldest Figurative Cave Art in Borneo Challenge Eurocentric Views of Art Origins

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The worlds oldest figurative artwork from Borneo dated to a minimum of 40,000 years. (Credit: Luc-Henri Fage) The oldest known figurative cave art painting in the world may be a 40,000-year-old rendering of a species of wild cattle found in a Borneo cave by a group of Griffith University researchers. It is considerably older than a 35,400-year-old pig-deer painting discovered by the same team a few years ago in a cave located on Sulawesi, another island in Indonesia. These recen ...read more

The 19th-Century Antarctic Air Molecules That Could Change Climate Models

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Air bubbles trapped in a thin ice core slice. (Credit: Tas van Ommen/Australian Antarctic Division) “Don’t forget to write!” Friends and loved ones bid adieu to members of the latest research team to begin the long trek to Antarctica this weekend. The goal of this latest expedition, which is scheduled to return mid-February, is to see whether concentrations of an atmospheric molecule called hydroxyl, or OH, has changed over time since the industrial revolution. The answe ...read more

Hot Metals Swirl Around White Dwarf in an Ultra-Hot Discovery

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

An artist’s impression of the hot white dwarf GALEXJ014636.8+323615 (white) and its ultra-hot magnetosphere (purple) trapped with the magnetic field (green). (Credit: Nicole Reindl) Some 1,200 light-years from Earth, an international team of astronomers has discovered an ultra-hot magnetosphere, or magnetic field, surrounding a sun-like star. The star, dubbed GALEXJ014636.8+323615, is a white dwarf, the dense core of a dead star. “White dwarfs are the remnants of about 95 perc ...read more

Using Ultrasound, Scientists Deliver Drugs To Specific Brain Regions

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Scientists used ultrasound to deliver a drug to a rat, like the one captured here. (Credit: Pan Xunbin/shutterstock) At least 50 million people worldwide live with epilepsy. For nearly one-third of those people, anti-seizure medications don’t work. Surgery to remove the part of the brain that causes epileptic fits is an option for some, but the intrusive treatment might not work. It could also lead to memory and language problems, among other complications. Now researchers from Stanford ...read more

Nemi Ships: How Caligula's Floating Pleasure Palaces Were Found and Lost Again

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The second Nemi ship emerges from the lake. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) For centuries, the medieval fishermen who sailed in the placid waters of Lake Nemi, 19 miles south of Rome, knew a secret. It was said that the rotting timbers of a gigantic ancient shipwreck lurked below the water’s quiet surface. But the lake was tiny, with an area of only 0.6 square miles. And with no other body of water connected to it, what could a vessel of that size be doing there? Still, the stories about the ...read more