Orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as Killer whales, are easily recognized by their black-and-white markings on their bodies. More specifically, these whales have an iconic white patch near their eyes. But why do these mammals sport the markings? There are various thoughts as to why orcas have these patterns. Their coloring pattern has multiple uses, from camouflage to coordination as they swim. The patterns also help researchers study genetics within a pod.Orca's Stealthy Black and White Camoufla ...read more
In the thick Ituri Rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo wanders a rarely seen okapi. It resembles a zebra, albeit with proportions that got slightly wonky somewhere down the line. Half its body is covered in rippling white stripes that can melt into its dim surroundings under the right lighting, while the rest of it is covered in dark, purplish fur, oily enough that water slides right off it.The little we do know about the okapi comes from a field study conducted in the 1980s using rad ...read more
As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation from across the room. Kirsty Penkman, head of the North East Amino Acid Racemization lab at the University of York, had just read the data printed off the chromatograms and was practically jumping up and down.The instrument had detected telltale signatures of ancient amino acids in eggshell. Amino acids are the building ...read more
In 2013, Elyse Oleksak, co-founder of Bantam Bagels, got a call from her husband Nick about a bite-sized snack that would set some big plans in motion. "Mini bagels stuffed with cream cheese," Oleksak recalls him saying in her recently released memoir A Shark Ate My Bagel: How We Built Bantam Bagels. "Sort of like doughnut holes, but bagels." Oleksak had heard plenty of ambitious ideas from her entrepreneurially-minded husband in the past, but tiny stuffed bagels were one she could get behind. T ...read more
At this point, there’s little doubt Neanderthals ate each other, even if the practice doesn't appear to have been widespread. Bones found in Belgium, France, Spain, and Croatia bear the clear signature of cannibalism — riddled with butchery marks and cracked open for marrow extraction, these remains were found strewn about with apparent disregard for proper funerals. But a deeper and more controversial question remains: Why?As French archaeologists Alban Defleur and Emmanuel Desclaux wrote i ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine