One thing that many people in the Pacific Northwest are holding their breath for is "The Big One" -- the next recurrence of a massive earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction zone. This earthquake could be greater than a magnitude 8 and cause immense damage to cities like Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. This hypothetical earthquake could even potentially triggering a tsunami that will cross the Pacific Ocean just like a similar temblor in 1700 did when waves washed ashore in Japan. It is a ser ...read more
If you're a fan of muscley men, listen up: those guns might come at the cost of a man's fertility. In this study (published in the journal Animal Behavior, because we ain't nothin' but mammals), the researchers report that physical strength in men, while seen as attractive by women, is also associated with "lower ejaculate quality." Boxer shorts, anyone?
Perceived physical strength in men is attractive to women but may come at a cost to ejaculate quality
"Studies of sexual selectio ...read more
To learn more from fossils they find in nature, paleontologists are trying to create their own.
For decades, paleontologists have been experimenting with heat, pressure, and other factors to mimic nature’s ability to preserve the bodies of living things as fossils. Trying to copy fossilization in a laboratory would allow paleontologists to better understand the process and learn more about the history of life on our planet from the fossils they find.
In a study published i ...read more
In October 1957, a basketball-sized metallic sphere began circling Earth, transmitting a beacon from above. For many, the launch of Sputnik 1 heralded in the Space Age.
But lost often in the story of Sputnik, the Space Age, and the Space Race is that Sputnik wasn’t the first spaceflight, and that the first image of Earth from space didn’t come in the 1960s, but the 1940s.
The actual first spaceflight is a matter of debate. The Air Force defines space as ...read more
A mind-altering parasite that can make rats suicidally attracted to cat pee may also make people more likely to start a new business, according to new findings. The scientists say that their results reveal how parasites could help shape the global economy.
The parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects more than 2 billion people — that is, more than a quarter of the world population. The protozoans can live in many warm-blooded creatures, where they reproducing asexually, but they ul ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine