Why did the lion swim across crocodile-infested waters? It was his only remaining option to find a mate, according to a study in Ecology and Evolution. That report was based on observations of lion behaviors driven by skewed sex ratios in a Uganda national park. The swim — across a channel over half a mile wide — may be the longest recorded by a lion.The swim’s length, as well as its obstacles (the waters contained plenty of hippos as well as crocs) shows the lengths that lions will go to ...read more
One of the great fears of modern times is that generative AI systems are giving malicious actors unprecedented power to lie, manipulate and steal on a scale previously unimaginable and that this will undermine our systems of trust, democracy and society. Examples abound of from election interference to the mass-production of fake reviews. Indeed, it’s easy to imagine that these are just a small fraction of the insidious endeavor currently undermining our way of life. The truth is more nuanced ...read more
Tardigrades are the undisputed masters of survival. Bake them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, freeze them to within a degree of absolute zero, deprive them of water and oxygen, subject them to the vacuum of space — they will still survive. And now scientists have begun to show how we can harness their legendary resilience to advance human medicine. Inspired by the feats of these near-microscopic animals (also known as water bears), researchers at the University of Wyoming wanted to see what would h ...read more
To fully understand how ancient plastic surgery is one need only look to the root of its meaning.The term plastic surgery has nothing to do with plastic. In fact, it comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means to mold. And plastic surgery is just that: the molding of human tissue.The word came along long before the plastic industry, says Darrick Antell, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the only plastic surgeon ...read more
Beyond our planet’s atmosphere, the system of timekeeping that gives structure to life falls apart. The words “day” and “night” mean something radically different when you’re completing an orbit of Earth every 90 minutes, as astronauts do aboard the International Space Station (that’s 16 sunrises and sunsets in each 24-hour period).Since the human body and its circadian rhythms — patterns of sleep and wakefulness regulated by our internal clock — evolved here on Earth, we’re ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine