It sounds like a setup for a horror movie: a meat-eating, cannibalistic caterpillar hiding in the shadows of a spiderweb and dressed in the remains of its former prey. But this incredible species, dubbed the “bone collector” and previously unknown to biologists, is real and living in a small section of forest on the Hawai'ian island of O’ahu.For the research team from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, this extremely rare discovery was 20 years in the making and shocked everyone involv ...read more
During the Apollo missions, astronauts faced challenges from sharp, fine particles of lunar dust that clung to nearly everything, posing potential health risks while causing instrument malfunctions and allergy-like symptoms. As the space sector prepares for future Mars missions, astronauts and researchers are investigating how Mars dust may impact astronauts and their equipment. Mars, the Toxic Beach Justin Wang, a medical student at the University of Southern California, has a background in p ...read more
There’s a lot that goes on inside our brains. But there are times that our minds go… well… what’s the word? Blank? Reviewing available research on mind blanking, a new article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences says that the moments in which we are “thinking about nothing” are actually a lot more complex than we might think, as they tend to correspond with physiological, neural, and cognitive changes in our brains and bodies. Taken as a whole, the new article suggests that the blanking ...read more
Meteorites carry clues that are pivotal in exploring the history of our Solar System, yet they don’t all look the same after impact. Colliding with a planetary surface sends shockwaves through meteorites, changing their configuration in various ways. Scientists noticed, though, that meteorites containing carbon often appear as if they experienced less intense impacts and look less “shocked” than meteorites without carbon. A new study has discovered that this is because evidence from these ...read more
When it comes to bonobo hierarchy, the ladies stick together. New research out of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior finds that female bonobos team up to keep male bonobos in line, even though the males are larger and stronger than the females. This type of social structure is uncommon among social mammals in the animal kingdom, and researchers now have a better understanding of why, according to a new study published in Communications Biology. Bonobos: Queens of the JungleAccording ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine