Our understanding of cats, their behavior, and their ways of communication is still in its infancy. While cat domestication has been around for over 10,000 years, dating all the way back to Ancient Egypt, there is still a lot we don’t know about our feline friends. And the pets seem, at first sight, to have only one facial expression: aloof.But research is slowly catching up. A recent study carried out by researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that when interacti ...read more
The animal kingdom is brutal. To survive, many animals have evolved with built-in weapons, including horns, quills, shells, claws, and tusks, to name a few. Members of the Cervidae family — including the white-tail deer, mule deer, elk, moose, and reindeer/caribou — have developed antlers to serve as a defense system. But they also have other purposes. Here, we answer all your antler questions. Read on to find out more.1. What Are Antlers?(Credit: Rick Fansler/Shutterstock) Antlers are bony ...read more
Many, but not all, laws of physics have been broken over the centuries. Some are actively being broken right now, which is a good thing, because that means there’s more to learn about the universe.What Are the Laws of Physics?First off, the word “law” when it comes to physics has a bit of a loose definition, even among physicists. Sometimes the term applies to properties of the natural world that we have consistently observed to be true for a very long time. Sometimes the word is attached ...read more
Almost four years to the day after an unexpected explosion at New Zealand's White Island killed 22 people, tragedy has struck another volcano that is frequented by climbers and tourists. Marapi (not to be confused with Merapi) in Indonesia experienced a small and unexpected explosion on Sunday. The aftermath of the blast appears to be at least 11 hikers dead and a dozen more missing. Sadly, we again have to discuss the dangers of tourism on a potentially active volcano.Much like Whakaari (White ...read more
The Science Near Me blog is a partnership between Discover magazine and ScienceNearMe.org.When Jake Baskin attends hands-on coding events in classrooms during Computer Science Week, he’s learned to expect a curious occurrence.“There's always at least one student who is really upset when the hour ends,” says Baskin, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association, an organization that supports computer science education across the country.Some of the kids his organization wo ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine