Darkness Will Reveal the Sun's Mysterious Corona

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

An image of the sun’s corona taken during a 2008 solar eclipse in Mongolia. (Credit: Miloslav Druckmüller (Brno U. of Tech.), Martin Dietzel, Peter Aniol, Vojtech Rušin) When the moon slides in front of the sun Monday, millions of viewers will catch a glimpse of the sun’s corona, which will appear as a hazy glow outlining the solid shadow in front of our star. Scientists will be watching closely as well, because eclipses are one of the few times they can easily gather d ...read more

Israeli Military Veterans Built a Sniper Drone

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The TIKAD drone can carry marksman rifles, assault rifles and even grenade launchers. Credit: Duke Robotics In 2015, Israeli Special Forces likely made history by using a sniper rifle mounted on a commercial drone to take out a target. The robotic solution that achieved such pinpoint accuracy came from Duke Robotics, a startup founded by veterans of the Israel Defense Forces. That startup has since developed a multi-rotor sniper drone capable of accurately firing a wide arr ...read more

What Time Is the Total Solar Eclipse?

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

We’re now counting down the time until the Great American eclipse in hours, not days. Are you ready? If you aren’t, don’t worry, we have you covered with the Eclipse 2017 Widget from our partners at Astronomy magazine. Powered by SkySafari 5, this interactive widget well let you know exactly when the show will begin, and when you’ll reach maximum eclipse in your area. If you click “view” on the time readouts in the event column, you can al ...read more

Flashback Friday: Tooth-brushing-induced orgasms. Look ma, no cavities!

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Photo: flickr/Marcela G Sometimes the human brain does weird things. Take the woman described in this case study, for example; when she brushed her teeth, it would induce a seizure that resulted in an orgasm before she passed out. It seems that there was reduced blood flow (hypoperfusion) and some damage (atrophy) in part of her brain that likely caused her tooth-brushing-induced orgasms. No other activity seemed to produce this effect, including brushing without toothpaste. Why this part ...read more