Four hundred fifty-five million years ago, Earth was a hot place with high sea levels that had flooded many of the landmasses, including what would later become North America. This spreading ocean was exploding with new life, such as the bony-plated fish that still stand as some of the oldest-known vertebrates.When they died, some became buried in the sediment that covered the ocean floor and fossilized, to be discovered later by paleontologists living in a drier time. One such find, from ancien ...read more
Pretty much everyone knows what a phobia is: an extreme and unreasoning fear or aversion to something. While there are hundreds of known phobias, some of the most common include claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights) and aquaphobia (fear of water).But if aquaphobia is an aversion to water, then what is hydrophobia? After all, it means fear of water, too. So which term is correct?The answer, oddly enough, is both. But if you were fo ...read more
We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the real number is actually six, because we have two separate salt-taste systems. One of them detects the attractive, relatively low levels of salt that make potato chips taste delicious. The other one registers high levels of salt — enough to make overly salted food offensive and deter overconsumption.Exactly how our taste buds sense the two kinds of saltiness is a mystery that’s ...read more
The Science Near Me blog is a partnership between Discover magazine and ScienceNearMe.org.Humans are naturally curious, and our knack for tinkering has led to some of the world’s greatest inventions. But even if we don’t see ourselves as inventors, getting hands-on with technology, old and new, can be an enriching and educational experience (plus, it’s just plain fun!).In fact, so many people love tinkering and creating that there’s an entire culture dedicated to it, called the maker mov ...read more
People in the oldest stage of life who regularly engage in aerobic activities and strength training exercises perform better on cognitive tests than those who are either sedentary or participate only in aerobic exercise. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the journal GeroScience.We assessed 184 cognitively healthy people ranging in age from 85 to 99. Each participant reported their exercise habits and underwent a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests that were de ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine