Be glad our species wasn't around some 400 million years ago...we would have had to contend with giant sea scorpions, some more than 10 feet in length and capable of prowling about on land in search of a meal. And that's not all: Researchers reveal that at least one of these Monsters of Deep Time had a particularly violent — and unusual — way of dispatching its prey.
Published today in The American Naturalist, the spine-tingling tale of a stabby sea scorpion is ...read more
But in reality, it is a flying saucer moon named Atlas
Who knew? I certainly didn't... Saturn has a moon shaped eerily like a flying saucer.
Check it out in the image above, acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on April 12, 2017 during a flyby that came as close as 7,000 miles from the moon.
This is the closest image ever taken of the moon, named Atlas, according to NASA. The object is just 19 miles across; it orbits Saturn just outside the giant planet's A ring —& ...read more
The equatorial Pacific Ocean is suffering from a split personality disorder: El Niño-ish in the east; La Niña-ish to the west. El Niño is likely to win out.
Climate forecast models are predicting a full-fledged El Niño by summer or fall. If it should happen, it would bring all manner of disruption to global weather patterns.
And it would also be an extraordinary event.
If you'll recall, in 2015-16, the planet experienced a monster El Niño event, one of the ...read more
You've likely seen some version of this scenario on television or in the halls of a university: A researcher runs out of the lab in a frenzy, electrified after suddenly arriving at the solution to an impossible problem. These "aha!" moments are supremely satisfying, whether you're a scientist, a hard-bitten detective or an unlucky horror movie actress realizing that something's just not right.
But what happens to us in the moments just before the light bulb turns on? New research from ...read more
In a thought-provoking new paper called What are neural correlates neural correlates of?, NYU sociologist Gabriel Abend argues that neuroscientists need to pay more attention to philosophy, social science, and the humanities.
Abend's main argument is that if we are to study the neural correlates or neural basis of a certain phenomenon, we must first define that phenomenon and know how to identify instances of it.
Sometimes, this identification is straightforward: in a study of brai ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine