An emperor scorpion. (Credit: By Vova Shevchuk/Shutterstock)
A scorpion’s sting doesn’t just impart venom — it uses a special acid to bring the pain.
In research published Wednesday in Science Advances, a team of researchers looked into why scorpion venom packs such a punch. The venom targets several pain receptors to warn away would-be predators, and it uses acid to make the sting all the more excruciating.
Packing A Punch
Scorpion venom is custom designed to hurt like ...read more
Smoke from wildfires blankets a large portion of the Pacific Northwest, as seen in this image from the GOES-16 weather satellite acquired on Aug. 2, 2017. (Source: RAMMB/CIRA)
The Pacific Northwest is sitting under a massive heat dome and a horrible pall of thick smoke from raging wildfires in British Columbia and Washington.
Source: RAMMB/CIRA
You can see the grayish smoke clearly in the image above from the GOES-16 weather satellite. Make sure to click on it to view it full-sized. Als ...read more
The transparent ceramic “window.” (Credit: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering)
One of the biggest problems in neuroscience is very simple — access. The brain is encased in the bony cranium, and many regions are buried beneath layers of brain tissue, making any intrusion potentially dangerous. Physically probing into the brain is also extremely difficult, and because you can’t just cut it open and sew it back up afterward as you might another or ...read more
U.S. Astronaut Randy Bresnik took this photograph of Typhoon Noru from the International Space Station. (Source: Randy Bresnik/@AstroKomrade via Twitter)
After a very long and strange trip, powerful Typhoon Noru has turned toward Japan.
As of Wednesday afternoon in the U.S., the storm’s maximum sustained winds were pegged at about 115 miles per hour, putting it in Category 3 territory. It now looks like Noru will come ashore on Saturday in the northern reaches of the Ryukyu Islands, ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
