How Humans Are Evolving Right Now

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

(Credit: dotshock/Shutterstock) Studies of human evolution typically look at spans of thousands of years — the length of time it often takes various mutations to take hold and become noticeable. Evolution is more dynamic than that though; it’s an ongoing process with subtle variations on traits emerging while others dip into the background. Measuring the kinds of changes that are going on right now would give us valuable insights about not only our past, but also into where we ...read more

Help Cornell Researchers Find the Lost Ladybugs

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

By: Megan Ray Nichols It’s always fun to have a ladybug land on your arm while outside — but these days, it’s more and more likely that any ladybugs landing on you or the plants in your garden are not native to North America. Over the past three decades, several ladybug species native to North America have all but disappeared from the landscape. At the same time, other species, introduced from Europe and Asia, have proliferated.  What’s happening to our native ladybu ...read more

This is Why the Apollo 11 Moonwalkers Look Ghostly

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Ghostly Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. NASA. A close look at the Apollo 11 EVA footage shows ghostly astronauts, which of course has launched speculation that the footage is faked. If NASA could get to the Moon, why couldn’t it capture good video?! The footage wasn’t faked. The poor quality and ghostly look is an artifact from the odd way NASA had to convert the lunar footage to a format that could be broadcast. To understand this, we have to unpack how exactly TVs work ...read more

Research Funding: It's a Group Effort

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A scientist creates a crowdfunding platform for other researchers. Like many undergrads in science fields, Cindy Wu was intrigued by an academic career in research. After the biology major graduated in 2011, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Washington in Seattle, her alma mater. While there, she wanted to repurpose a treatment for anthrax to help clear up staph infections, but wasn’t sure how to get money for her idea. When she approached her adviser about it, W ...read more