Why Felines Can’t Resist the #CatSquare

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Twitter’s been on fire with people amazed by cats that seem compelled to park themselves in squares of tape marked out on the floor. These felines appear powerless to resist the call of the #CatSquare. This social media fascination is a variation on a question I heard over and over as a panelist on Animal Planet’s “America’s Cutest Pets” series. I was asked to watch video after video of cats climbing into cardboard boxes, suitcases, sinks, plastic storage bins, cu ...read more

Arr, Matey! This Sea Scorpion Be A ‘Primordial Swashbuckler,’ Yarr!

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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

It sure does look like a flying saucer zinging around Saturn

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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

Say, WHAT? After one of the strongest El Niños on record, another one may brewing

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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

Eye Movements Betray ‘Eureka!’ Moments

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

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