It was called "The City of Darkness" — a place so densely constructed that light itself did not penetrate the narrow footpaths between its high rises. For several decades in the second half of the 20th century, the Kowloon Walled City — an enclave within the sprawling city of Hong Kong — was far and away the most densely populated place in the world. By the late 1980s, at least 30,000 people were living inside, in a space only 6.4 acres in size, or roughly 0.01 of a square mile.That transl ...read more
In 1978, Kathy Kleiner was asleep in her bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University when serial killer Ted Bundy entered through an unlocked door. After attacking two of her sorority sisters, Bundy found Kathy's door also unlocked.Kathy survived the attack and is one of only a few Bundy survivors. When we began writing her memoir, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy, she said she wanted to weave in as many stories about the other victims as possible.For abou ...read more
A creature that lurks in lakes and ponds, crawls up your nose and eats your brain. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? Nope, it's all too real.The organism that does all this damage is called Naegleria fowleri. Find out why this sneaky predator is alarming to both scientists and the general public.What Is Naegleria fowleri?Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba that lives in warm freshwater, such as lakes, ponds and rivers. There are many species of Naegleria, and most of t ...read more
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
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine