Old Tom, a particularly long-lived orca that participated in whale hunts in the early 1900s, may have sounded a call-to-arms early in the morning, or even in the middle of the night — a loud slapping of tail fins off the surface of the water.In a small town called Eden off the coast of southeastern Australian, orca pods would alert whalers and heard humpback whales that swam through these waters every year towards the Twofold Bay area. The whalers would then get out on the water as quickly as ...read more
For tens of millions of years, the asteroid Bennu traveled through the vacuum of space, likely originating from our own solar system. But one small hunk of debris from the sample brought back to Earth — the first piece of an asteroid ever obtained by NASA — took its most recent trip on a subway car in Washington, D.C.“The good people at [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] can say they transported a piece of Bennu,” says Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian ...read more
There’s an academic exercise in psychology classes that asks students to take Sigmund Freud’s concept of the id, ego, and superego and apply it to characters from The Simpsons. Homer’s impulsiveness typically casts him as the id, Marge’s down-to-earth mentality makes her the ego, and Lisa’s conscientiousness represents the superego.The activity helps students learn about the history of psychology, and although Freud’s theory directed the discipline for decades, scholars now debat ...read more
An ancient planet named Theia collided with Earth some 4.5 billion years ago and left large amounts of its iron-rich material embedded in our planet, according to a new study.Researchers first identified the material by studying seismic waves, which travel more slowly in the denser material. The continent-sized deposits lie beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean and are each about twice the size of the moon.Earth's Collision With an Ancient PlanetAs dramatic as it may sound, our collision with a w ...read more
If you’ve ever listened to a recording of whale song, you know that it can be haunting, beautiful, and moving. The songs of humpbacks and the clicks, called codas, of sperm whales are sophisticated forms of communication, according to research.But what are they actually saying to each other? We humans don’t know, but some scientists are trying to find out. And when they do, they hope that being able to communicate with whales could not only help save life on this planet but also allow us ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine