You might not give them much thought, but parasites are everywhere. Estimates vary, but it’s likely that at least 40 percent of the species on Earth are parasites, and maybe as many as half.A parasite is an organism that lives on or in another organism and lives at the expense of that organism. In other words, a parasite takes what it needs to survive from its host and gives nothing in return. Well, it can give quite a bit of suffering. Not all parasites are deadly and disgusting, but some gh ...read more
Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro are weight loss and diabetes drugs that have made quite a splash in health news. They target regulatory pathways involved in both obesity and diabetes and are widely considered breakthroughs for weight loss and blood sugar control.But do these drugs point toward a root cause of metabolic disease? What inspired their development in the first place?It turns out your body produces natural versions of these drugs – also known as incretin hormones – in your gu ...read more
When you hear “megalodon,” what comes to mind? If the answer is a gigantic version of a great white shark, the latest revelation in megalodon research might make you reconsider. A recent find by researchers dashes this common perception of the extinct species and grants it a reimagined shape, describing it as more slender than the great white shark. What Shark Is Similar to the Megalodon?The modern great white shark has often been referenced when replicating the body of the megalodon (Otodu ...read more
Four recent catastrophic building collapses and a near miss are raising concerns about the state of America’s aging buildings and questions about who, if anyone, is checking their safety.Many cities have buildings showing signs of aging and in need of repair. In New York City, where a seven-story apartment building partially collapsed in December 2023, the median building age is about 90 years, and many neighborhoods were built before 1900.As a civil engineer, I study building failures, an ...read more
A grand network of connected cities and villages existed in the Amazon for at least 1,000 years.A new discovery reveals a thriving level of social organization in the jungle from roughly 500 B.C. to 600 A.D. that was very different from that of the Indigenous Americans who have inhabited many parts of the Amazon today.“It’s really a fantastic archeological situation,” says Stéphen Rostain, an archaeologist with the French National Center for Scientific Research — a governmental institu ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine