Science of Music
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Listen up! ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Nearly two decades of revealing satellite images now available at your fingertips
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Bear witness to the changing face of our planet using an easy-to-use tool for accessing a trove of satellite data A comparison of views of Shanghai acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite, one on March 26, 2000, and the other on March 10, 2018. (Images: NASA Worldview. Animation: Tom Yulsman) The longest continuous daily satellite observation record of Earth ever compiled is now available for all of us to peruse. All you need is access to a computer. Multiple instruments aboard ...read more
“The Love of Neuroscience” and the Neuroscience of Love
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
There is a growing research literature on the ‘Neuroscience of Love’. But what exactly is this ‘love’ that is being studied? Sociologist Gabriel Abend asks these questions in a new paper called The Love of Neuroscience published in Sociological Theory. Last year I discussed one of Abend’s previous papers which asked more general questions about how neuroscientists define the objects they study. In the new paper, Abend looks specifically at ‘love’ and h ...read more
When Did Humans First Learn to Count?
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Where did our written numbers come from? (Credit: Nikita Rogul/Shutterstock) The history of math is murky, predating any written records. When did humans first grasp the basic concept of a number? What about size and magnitude, or form and shape? In my math history courses and my research travels in Guatemala, Egypt and Japan, I’ve been especially interested in the commonality and differences of mathematics from various cultures. Although no one knows math’s exact origins, modern m ...read more
The Forgotten Female Cosmonaut Class
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Valentina Tereshkova. NASA. On June 16, 1963, Valeriy Bykovsky had been orbiting in Vostok 5 for a little under a day when he gained a companion: Valentina Tereshkova in Vostok 6. After more than a year of intensive training, she became, on that Sunday afternoon, the first woman in space. Tereshkova’s story starts towards the end of 1961 with Sergei Korolev. Korolev was the Soviet space program’s Chief Designer and the mastermind behind the nation’s earliest space triump ...read more