How do boneworms dissolve bones?
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
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Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
The Ethics of Citation
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Earlier this week, Jordan Anaya asked an interesting question on Twitter: Why do we blame the media for reporting on bad studies but we don’t blame scientists for citing bad studies? — Omnes Res (@OmnesResNetwork) March 6, 2017 This got me thinking about what we might call the ethics of citation. Citation is a little-discussed subject in science. Certainly, there’s plenty of talk about citations – about whether it is right to judge papers by the number of citations the ...read more
It’s Raining Cats and Dogs and CoCoRaHS Wants to Know Where and How Many Fell
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
You may have noticed some strange weather recently where you live. For example, in February, it reached 100o in Mangum, Oklahoma when 56o is the average. For the first time ever, temperatures in Antartica rose to the high 60s. And when was the last time you saw a headline reading Hawaii Has Had More Snow than Chicago or Denver in 2017? Some may link these strange events to a changing climate, and although climate influences weather patterns, it’s important to make a distinction between the ...read more
This Is Where Stardust Comes From
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
ALMA observations have uncovered an extremely young, dusty galaxy already polluted with the products of supernovae, as pictured in this artist’s impression. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser) The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Chilean Andes has made several groundbreaking discoveries since it was brought online in 2011. Able to image the sky in millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, ALMA can spot emission associated with molecular gas and dust, which are ...read more
Flashback Friday: Have a song stuck in your head? Here’s how to get rid of it.
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
Photo: flickr/jonny goldstein We’ve all experienced it: the dreaded “earworm,” in which a song keeps playing in your head long after you’ve heard it on the radio. The causes of this phenomenon are still unclear, although studies suggest that random events, sounds, and thoughts may be to blame, and it might happen more often when we are thinking too much or too little. But more important is knowing how how to get rid of this “involuntary musical imagery” ...read more