Dogs Detect Malaria by Sniffing Worn Socks

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Dogs can be trained to detect malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year. (Credit: Trudie Davidson/Shutterstock) (Inside Science) — Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. Their noses can sniff out illegal drugs, hidden bombs and bed bugs, and they can also help locate everything from criminals to cancer. Now scientists have found a completely new application for these super smellers: detecting malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that killed ...read more

Meet the Biochemist Engineering Proteins From Scratch

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

“We’ve figured out a way to put these building blocks together at the right angles to form these very complex nanostructures,” Baker explains. He plans to stud the exterior with proteins from a whole suite of flu strains so that the immune system will learn to recognize them and be prepared to fend off future invaders. A single Death Star will carry 20 different strains of the influenza virus. Baker hopes this collection will cover the entire range of possible influenza mutatio ...read more

Genomic Study Confirms There's Six Tiger Subspecies Left

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The Bengal tiger is one of six subspecies confirmed by a new genetic study. (Credit: Dangdumrong/shutterstock) You may have heard that no two tiger’s stripes are alike. And according to a new study, each tiger’s distinct genetic and evolutionary history gives it unique characteristics that may be key to saving these majestic big cats from extinction. With less than 4,000 living in the wild due to poaching and habitat loss, tigers are recognized as an endangered species by the World ...read more

How Halloween Has Traveled the Globe

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

(Credit: RugliG/Shutterstock) Wendy Fonarow arrived in Mexico City late in October 2017, eager to observe the nation’s Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. Celebrations for this holiday—also called Día de los Muertos—start on the evening of October 31 and in fact span several days during which people celebrate lost loved ones. On November 1, they memorialize children, and on the second, adults. In many regions of Latin America, families prepare ofrendas, or a ...read more

Hear the Backstage Story of the Apollo Program With Newly Released Audio

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin carrying two components of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package during the Apollo 11 mission. (Credit: NASA) (Inside Science) — On July 20, 1969, just before 11 p.m. Eastern time, Neil Armstrong planted the first human footprints on another world. It was a defining moment in a journey that had transfixed the planet. A few days earlier, Armstrong and his fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins had blasted skyward atop a 6.2 million-pound roc ...read more