More than 350 million years ago, our distant fishy ancestors traded in the life aquatic for land. Once ashore, these four-limbed vertebrates, called tetrapods, branched into an impressive range of animals: amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds and mammals. The fossil record shows that as species evolved to fill particular ecological niches, a few of the tetrapod clan lost limbs (snakes), turned arms into wings (bats, birds and pterosaurs) or decided the heck with dry land and headed back to sea ...read more
When we’re presented with a choice, we carefully weigh the alternatives and choose the option that makes the most sense — or do we? Only recently has science begun to unravel how we really make decisions.
In the face of stress or time pressure, or even seemingly unrelated cues, our assessment of situations and the choices we ultimately make can be colored by innate biases, flawed assumptions and prejudices born of personal experience. And we’re clueless about how they influence ...read more
Communities of tiny plants and organisms protect arid landscapes. Now their survival is threatened.
On a cool September morning, a caravan of international scientists rumbles past the iconic formations of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Over the eons, wind and water have carved this landscape into a maze of stunning red sandstone arches and spires. The researchers marvel at the formations, so different from their own backyards — places as distant as China, Niger, Australia and Spai ...read more
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Getting an edge with high tech and lowly microbes.
In 13th-century China, a field worker was killed with a sickle — and all villagers’ sickles were alike. So the investigator had every worker lay down his tool in a field, and observed that just one sickle attracted blowflies, which were known to seek out blood. Its owner, the culprit, immediately confessed. The Chinese sickle slaying is one of the first reported cases of forensic investigation. The role of science in evidence co ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
