Stronger men have weaker sperm.

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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 Understand Fossils, These Paleontologists Are Making Faux-ssils

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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

Nazis And Dead Dogs: Spaceflight Before The Space Race

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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 Parasite In Cat Poo Could Push People To Take Risks

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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

Meet Lingwulong, The “Amazing Dragon”

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Lingwulong shenqi, a newly described, 174-million-year-old dinosaur, is more than just another giant herbivore to add to the fossil record. Its age and location are unexpected, and upset notions about dino diversity and distribution during the Jurassic Period. Lingwulong's name translates as "the amazing dragon of Lingwu," the region in northwestern China where multiple specimens have been excavated over the past 13 years. I'll be honest with you ...read more