As a person with life-long hearing loss, I rely on hearing aids to help me navigate my muffled world. Because I have layers of hearing loss in one of my ears, I function as a “one-eared listener,” and sometimes, my hearing aids aren’t enough. The sounds I hear are often garbled due to my auditory processing disorder, which can make language hard to decipher.Yet, I love music. This might seem counterintuitive — how can a person with hearing loss enjoy music?With the help of brain imaging, ...read more
As sessile living things, plants must adapt and respond to their ever-changing environments. And in recent years, understanding how roots may regulate high temperatures has gained traction among scientists.Biologists thought young plant shoots controlled temperature within the plants and acted as a transmitter that signaled the root to alter its growth, said Marcel Quint, a plant biologist and study author at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, in a statement.Now, plant biologists fou ...read more
We all forget things from time to time. Whether it’s a mistaken name or a misplaced wallet, forgetfulness is a normal part of life. But older adults are particularly prone to worrying about their memory. According to recent research, around 48 percent of adults in their 50s and early 60s anticipate developing dementia in the United States as they age, and around 44 percent worry about the possibility of memory-deteriorating disorders.Of course, that tendency to worry makes sense, since Alzheim ...read more
Supermassive black holes take time to form. That’s why scientists are puzzling over the discovery of one that existed a mere 570 million years after the Big Bang, only 100 to 300 years after the first stars began to form in the nascent universe.Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have indicated that the black hole – at the center of an early galaxy, CEERS 1019 – was busy some 13 billion years ago, sucking down gas and growing larger. Meanwhile, its host galaxy was creat ...read more
Human beings have evolved to thrive in the conditions of our planet. Often though, people thrust themselves into extreme environments: scientists studying Antarctic weather patterns, divers recovering wreckage from the deep sea, or explorers mapping sprawling cave systems.What we know is that people are resilient, and the human psyche can adapt to deal with a range of scenarios. But what about being marooned on another planet, with only a thin barrier separating you and your peers from the vacuu ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
