The cicadas emerging this year have waited 17 years to resurface. Their buzzing sounds are part of their life cycle and it's going to get pretty loud. The insects will chorus and buzz as they mate and communicate, reaching up to 106 decibels, or nearly the sound of a motorcycle. The year’s double brood is a once-in-a-lifetime event because two broods of cicadas do not usually emerge at the same time. But those sensitive to sound might find the continuous buzzing uncomfortable or overwhelming. ...read more
In 1869, swindler George Hull pitched a tent in upstate New York and charged people 50 cents to step right up and view the remains of a petrified giant.The Cardiff Giant was supposedly the skeleton of an extinct human species. In reality, Hull had two sculptors carve a 10-foot-tall, realistic giant from stone. He made $56,000 (more than $1 million in today’s money) before his scam was debunked.For decades, Hull boasted he had tricked the public into believing his giant was real. But he actuall ...read more
It’s become common to read that microplastics – little bits of plastic, smaller than a pencil eraser – are turning up everywhere and in everything, including the ocean, farmland, food and human bodies. Now a new term is gaining attention: nanoplastics. These particles are even tinier than microplastics – so small that they’re invisible to the naked eye.Nanoplastics are a type of microplastic, distinguished by their extremely small size. Microplastics are usually less than 5 millimeters ...read more
If you were to draw a simple kitty on a piece of paper, maybe you would include three lines on each side of the cat’s face to signify whiskers. In reality, our feline friends typically have about 12 on each side of the face (except for say, hairless cats, or sphynx cats, who might have short, broken ones, or none at all). Cats can also have shorter whiskers on their eyebrows and the back of their wrists.We all know cats have whiskers, but do you ever wonder why and what they’re used for exac ...read more
The last pandemic was bad, but COVID-19 is only one of many infectious diseases that emerged since the turn of this century.Since 2000, the world has experienced 15 novel Ebola epidemics, the global spread of a 1918-like influenza strain and major outbreaks of three new and unusually deadly coronavirus infections: SARS, MERS and, of course, COVID-19. Every year, researchers discover two or three entirely new pathogens: the viruses, bacteria and microparasites that sicken and kill people.While so ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine