It’s Women’s History Month AND we’re just two short weeks from Citizen Science Month. And that’s why we have Rosie the Robot urging everyone to roll up their sleeves and do their part by signing up for the One Million Acts of Science Challenge! If we all work together We Can Do It!Portrait of Maria Mitchell, ca. 1851, painted four years after Mitchell achieved fame for discovering what came to be known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet." (Credit: Public Domain, from The Archives and Special Coll ...read more
Magnesium is an essential mineral that’s integral to our health. The human body doesn’t produce magnesium, so we must get it from food or supplements. Found naturally in seawater, salt lake brines, crustal rocks, and deposits, magnesium makes up 13 percent of Earth’s mass and is the eighth most abundant element in the planet’s crust. There are varying estimates of how much of the American population is magnesium deficient — with a wide range spanning from 12 percent to more than 50 per ...read more
In 2019, a fin whale beached itself along the Gulf of California in Mexico. The gigantic creature was so frightened by the team of orcas trying to take it down that it ran itself into the ground on the beach and later died.While there have been only two documented instances of fin whales beaching themselves to escape killer whales, these giant mammals are being attacked more often, according to experts like Robert Pitman, a biologist who specializes in the study of killer whales at Oregon State ...read more
The word “leprosy” conjures images of biblical plagues, but the disease is still with us today. Caused by infectious bacteria, some 200,000 new cases are reported each year, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, leprosy has been entrenched for more than a century in parts of the South where people came into contact with armadillos, the principle proven linkage from animal to humans. However, the more recent outbreaks in the Southeast, especially Florida, have not ...read more
Gamma rays are weightless, high-energy packets of electromagnetic radiation — the same stuff that makes up light. However, while visible light can comfortably light up a room, gamma rays can penetrate concrete, and cause serious damage to the human body as they pass through. While we may assume we’re safe from the effects of gamma radiation, one particular cosmic phenomenon — gamma-ray bursts — poses a chilling question: What would happen if one of these massive spikes of radiation hit t ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine