What, Exactly, Happens When Drone Meets Head?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Watch out dummy, there’s a drone coming at you! (Credit: Virginia Tech) Thanks to a dummy we now have a better idea of what happens when a drone hits a person’s head. A study by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) test sites, suggests that commercial-sized drones can cause a wide range of injuries to people on the ground. In the United States, drone fligh ...read more

Growing Up Neanderthal

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The remains of a Neanderthal boy who died 49,000 years ago is revealing information about the skeletal and physiological growth of our instinct cousins. (Credit: Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC) Though his life was short — he never reached the age of 8 — his fossil remains could have far-reaching influence in hominin research. A paper to be published Friday in Science reveals the discovery of the well-preserved skeleton of a Neanderthal boy who lived in Spain 49,000 yea ...read more

Jellyfish Sleep, Too

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Upside-down jellyfish in a tank. (Credit: Caltech) Bees, sharks, anteaters, humans, we all share the need for sleep. Why we do it is of course still largely a mystery, but the fact of it remains incontrovertible. Now, new research on jellyfish is pushing the origin of sleep even further back down the evolutionary tree, before even the appearance of brains. It’s long been known that any creature with a central nervous system needs to sleep, but jellyfish are effectively bra ...read more

Study: Mysterious Bursts From Space Occur Every Second

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The Parkes radio telescope “heard” the first fast radio burst in 2001. Could bursts actually be going off every second? (Credit: CSIRO) Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the hottest topics in astronomy right now. These short but extremely powerful bursts last only milliseconds, but release tremendous amounts of energy during that minute period of time. Since publication of their initial discovery in 2007 (the burst itself occurred in 2001), just over 25 of these sources have been ...read more

Discovering our Common Humanity through Space Archaeology

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Like many people, I was first introduced to the world of archaeology by Indiana Jones, that adventuresome character who lit up the big screen rescuing artifacts from villains by the skin of his teeth. Indy was awesome and will always have a place in my heart. But while he succeeded in making archaeology seem romantic, I never understood why it was important or believed I could join the adventure until I was introduced (via the small screen) to a real life archaeologist named Sarah Parcak. Parcak ...read more