The sore throat. The packed and painful sinuses. The fatigue. Sure, it’s “just a cold,” but it can feel miserable. And after several days, one can easily wonder when they can expect to feel better.Scientists are still learning about colds and how they impact the body. One thing researchers know for sure — symptoms can last the better part of a month. If it seems like someone in the household is always sick, colds might be the culprit. Adults typically catch two to four colds per year. ...read more
Your heart’s job is to keep your pulse steady to pump blood throughout your body. Sometimes your heart rate is slower when you’re relaxing, and sometimes it’s faster when you’re exercising or stressed. If your heart’s ability to keep the beat starts to go awry, cardiac electrophysiologists like me look for outside help from an implantable device.There are two common implantable devices for the heart: artificial pacemakers and defibrillators. Artificial pacemakers keep blood and ox ...read more
In 2017, Jim Webster began going out at night near his New Jersey home to take pictures of our galaxy. With a 14-millimeter lens and a DSLR, he would capture long exposures of the Milky Way galaxy, revealing the delicate filaments of nebulae and countless clusters of stars hidden within the band of the galaxy’s arm.It was a rekindling of a childhood passion for science and astronomy, first sparked by learning about the Apollo program at school. At home, Webster would stick his telescope out of ...read more
When it comes to the great mathematical problems of the 21st century, the conundrums of jigsaws have been unjustly overlooked for too long. All that now changes thanks to the work of Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, a data scientist at the University of Toronto and Kent Bonsma-Fisher, a quantum physicist, who have settled a problem that has bedeviled puzzlers the world over.The question at the heart of their endeavor is this: if you have a jigsaw of N pieces that once assembled, fills an area equal to A ...read more
Dog breeds like French bulldogs, pugs, and dachshunds may be suffering from an overdose in cuteness. Essentially, selective breeding for the traits that makes them popular is making it harder for some of them to live normal lives.“It’s truly incredible what people have done with really what is supposed to be our companion,” says Enid Stiles, a veterinarian in Montreal who has been practicing for more than two decades. “Unfortunately, we have managed to totally mess them up.”What Is the ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine