Chytridiomycosis, the most destructive disease to ever affect vertebrates, moves swiftly. As a doomsday disease affecting amphibians, it often begins when a microscopic zoospore propelled by a squiggly flagellum tail collides with the skin of a frog. From there, it penetrates the tissue and through a complex process widens the infection and produces new zoospores.The disease tends to affect the keratin-producing skin in the frog’s groin and legs and throws off the amphibian’s normal regulati ...read more
According to the myth, handsome Narcissus once gazed at himself in a pool of water and fell in love with his own reflection, a self-obsession that would ultimately doom him.While we can be grateful to this cautionary tale for inspiring the term narcissism, it seems a tad unfair for us to fault one Greek youth for being fascinated by his own appearance. After all, humans have been obsessed with their reflections for millennia, and that obsession would trigger the development of one of the greates ...read more
What's more appetizing than a mouthful of fluffy feathers? Not much, apparently, for a rare type of arthropod from the planet's remote past.That's because around 105 million years ago, ancient beetles fed on the feathers of the dinosaurs. In fact, fossilized remains trapped in amber recently revealed this relationship between the arthropods and the theropods, according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.(Credit: CN IGME-CSIC) The larval molts of the beetles w ...read more
Recently, Kobi Gal, an AI researcher at Ben-Gurion University and the University of Edinburgh, asked GPT4 to generate messages for SciStarter, based on self-determination theory (the motivation behind people's choices). Kobi and his team created an AI-powered recommendation system for SciStarter as described here, here, and here.And here are the motivation messages from GPT4 based on Self-Determination Theory to motivate SciStarter.org volunteers:Autonomy: "As a SciStarter.org volunteer, you ha ...read more
Just minutes into his latest six-part docuseries The End is Nye, Bill Nye gets drenched in a rainstorm. Later on, a hurricane sends him hurtling into a car’s windshield. In a later episode, he explodes in a fiery inferno after being struck by debris from a wayward comet. Don’t worry: Nye, the science educator and engineer who became a household name in the 90’s thanks to his much-loved Bill Nye the Science Guy show, meets his (fictional) demise in every single episode. In a recent intervie ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
