People Are Terrible at Spotting Fake Photos

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

We exist in a veritable flood of digital images, with at least 350 million a day uploaded to Facebook alone, and odds are significant number of those images are fake. And, given results from a recent study, most people can’t tell the difference. Can you identify the part of the top photo that’s been altered? Don’t worry, we’ll tell you later. Psychologist Sophie Nightingale and her colleagues at the University of Warwick used photo-editing software to doctor real-world p ...read more

If You Could Dig a Hole Through The Earth, Here's Where You'd Pop Out

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A map showing the Earth’s antipodes — the places where you’d appear on the other side if you dug straight down. Most are in the middle of the ocean. (Credit: imgur) Almost every child, shovel in hand, is struck by a tempting thought. What if I just kept digging and popped out on the other side of the world? The imagination conjures a muddy face emerging in the middle of a Shaolin temple or some such, China being the nominal “other side of the world” to Americans. ...read more

African Wild Dogs Can't Take The Heat, Face Extinction From Climate Change

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

New study suggests African wild dogs may be doomed by climate change. Photo by Mathias Appel Things aren’t looking good for Africa’s iconic wildlife. Already, many species are threatened by human activities and habitat loss. Even species once thought to be resilient, like giraffes, are suddenly struggling. Just earlier this week, scientists reported that aardvarks, one of sub-saharan Africa’s most successful and adorable insect-eaters and essential ecosystem engineers—fa ...read more

The Soviet Rovers that Died on Mars

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

The Prop M rover. via NASA Before Curiosity took selfies and Opportunity rolled a marathon, rovers on Mars were more modest. Sojourner, NASA’s first rover, was a microwave-sized robot designed to last just seven days, and more than two decades earlier the Soviet Prop M rovers were tiny little squat boxes that reached the red planet for a ski vacation.  Mars 2 and Mars 3 were twin missions launched to the red planet in 1971,May 19 and May 28 respectively. Both were landers designed su ...read more