The “space pups” made from freeze-dried sperm flown aboard the ISS. (Credit: Teruhiko Wakayama et al.)
Before they were born, these mice were astronauts. Or, rather, the sperm that would go on to deliver half of their genetic material were.
For nine months, mouse sperm was kept aboard the International Space Station, freeze-dried to preserve it. Brought back to Earth, the sperm was rehydrated, introduced to an egg and allowed to divide for about 20 days. The resulting mouse pups ca ...read more
What kinds of secrets does the average person keep? In a new paper, Columbia University researchers Michael L. Slepian and colleagues carried out a survey of secrets.
Slepian et al. developed a ‘Common Secrets Questionnaire’ (CSQ) and gave it to 600 participants recruited anonymously online. Participants were asked whether they’d ever had various secrets, at any point in their lives. The results are a monument to all our sins:
It turns out that extra-relational thoughts & ...read more
Infrared: IPAC/NASA Ultraviolet: STScI (NASA)
There’s a star 1,300 light years away that has exhibited some of the strangest behavior ever seen: something dims 20 percent of its light, something that is beyond the size of a planet. It’s called KIC 8462852, but most people shorthand it Tabby’s Star, or Boyajian’s Star for its discoverer, Tabitha Boyajian.
Here’s the thing, though. Absolutely nobody knows why it’s dimming that much. It could be a massive fleet ...read more
A shield-snouted brown snake (Pseudonaja aspidorhyncha) from Northern Territory, Australia. Photo by Christopher Watson
There’s an age old belief that baby snakes are more dangerous than adult ones. There are generally two proposed reasons why this could be: either a) young snakes have yet to learn how to control how much venom they inject, so they deliver all of their venom per bite, or b) that because the snakes are smaller, they need more potent toxins to successful ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
