Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world for six years straight. And many other Northern European countries like Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Norway are also highly ranked. But the Finnish people wouldn't necessarily claim they were happy; they would say they were content — more satisfied with their lot in life.Contentment is less common in the U.S., where striving for the American dream makes us one of the most ambitious countries on Earth. So is all this striving impacting ou ...read more
It’s likely you’ve heard of malaria, HIV-AIDs and tuberculosis. These three diseases continue to have a massive impact on human health across the globe. You may not be familiar, however, with schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis or trachoma, which fall under the umbrella of “neglected tropical diseases” (or NTDs for short).What Are Neglected Tropical Diseases?NTDs comprise a range of illnesses mostly caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites. Together, these include at l ...read more
The Milky Way dominates the night sky. It appears as a hazy band of light that stretches from one horizon to the other. But this side-on view hides the galaxy’s structure and prevents astronomers deciphering the shape of our home galaxy.Nevertheless, astronomers currently believe that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy consisting of a central bulge or bar with four main spiral arms and several others branching away. Now Ye Xu at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China, and colleagues, ...read more
How plants communicate has long been a question up for debate.In fact, it was initially very controversial: Books like “The Secret Life of Plants” (1973) seemingly undermined the credibility of some of the first studies in the field by suggesting that plants thrive if you, say, sing or play classical music.While many of those statements were later debunked, researchers remain adamant that there is some sort of communication going on between plants — and between plants and animals.Can Plant ...read more
As the animations below dramatically illustrate, it really has been boom year for snow in the western United States. That's especially so for water-starved California, as well as the megadrought-afflicted Colorado River Basin, whose dwindling waters support a $1.4 trillion economy.Before-and-after satellite images, one captured on April 8, 2022 by the NOAA-20 satellite, and the other on April 10, 2023 by the Suomi-NPP spacecraft, show a dramatic difference in snowpack in the mountains of the Ame ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
