(Credit: Christos Georghiou/Shutterstock)
In 2016, the National Institutes of Health introduced a regulation to address a growing issue in clinical research — sex differences. Until then, most work that relied on animal models tended to use only male critters. The trend was problematic, particularly since any drug therapies based on these studies often worked differently once females were factored into the equation.
Since the recent push for more balance, researchers are discovering ...read more
A striking circle of clouds with a bullseye center is seen over Asia in a high-resolution satellite image, and an animation of multiple images
NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of a circular swirl of clouds over Lake Balkhash in eastern Kazakhstan on May 22, 2018. (Source: NASA Worldview)
We’re accustomed to seeing satellite images of clouds organized in big swirly circles. They are, of course, called cyclones.
And, in fact, as I’m writing this post, one of ...read more
Threaten a sea urchin, and you may see it point its spines at you. This defensive response is pretty unremarkable—except for the fact that, if you look closer, you will not see the sea urchin’s eyes. It doesn’t have any.
Sea urchins are the only animals that have vision despite “conspicuously lacking eyes,” write Dan-Eric Nilsson, a biologist at the University of Lund in Sweden who studies animal vision, and his colleagues. In a new study, the researchers gave the ...read more
Lava flows from Fissure 8. The lava fountain from the fissure can be seen in the background. Seen on May 28, 2018. Image: USGS
What is rapidly becoming the new normal in the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea continued over last few days. Fissures in the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens have waxed and waned, with Fissure 8 taking center stage now, producing ~60 meter (200 foot) lava fountains and a lava flow that moved at ~15 meters per hour. Many other fissures have quieted as has the mul ...read more
Peggy Whitson took her record-setting 8th spacewalk outside the ISS on March 30, 2017. (Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center)
Life is all about bubbles. Every cell in your body is a bubble, a membrane holding together a miniature world of organelles, ribosomes, and genetic material. Your body itself is another bubble, a skin wrapped around a wet, salty interior that carries a distant memory of the oceans in which our ancestors lived hundreds of millions of years ago. And our entire planet is a bu ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
