For a long time, philosophers have pondered the nature of what we hear and by association, the nature of the perception of silence. Do we only hear sounds? Some might argue that we hear sounds and their sources — a singer and her voice. However, experience leads us to believe that we also hear silence, the absence of sound, for example, when a dramatic piece of music comes to an end.The view that we only hear sounds centers on the idea that perception is only ever of positive things and that w ...read more
Scientists have identified five major episodes of mass extinction in the past 550 million years. These episodes were rare but extremely deadly, and at least 76 percent of species were lost forever. The last mass extinction happened about 65 million years ago when an asteroid destroyed dinosaur life.Many scientists now say the planet is experiencing its sixth great mass extinction, and the greatest acceleration in the loss of animal life has happened in the past century. A 2022 study in Nat ...read more
A new study of a cave used by prehistoric people in southern Spain has uncovered a mystifying set of practices involving possible cannibalism and the manipulation of dead bodies.Scientists have studied the Cueva de los Marmoles (Marble Cave) since 1934, but the most recent effort by researchers from the University of Bern and the Universidad de Córdoba is the first comprehensive study of the human remains there. The analysis relies on 411 bone fragments collected from the site, along with 47 at ...read more
When 17 people were in orbit around the Earth all at the same time on May 30, 2023, it set a record. With NASA and other federal space agencies planning more manned missions and commercial companies bringing people to space, opportunities for human space travel are rapidly expanding.However, traveling to space poses risks to the human body. Since NASA wants to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, scientists need to find solutions for these hazards sooner rather than later.As a kinesio ...read more
Until the middle of the 19th century, surgery was performed with no anesthesia. You don’t need a fertile imagination to realize how excruciating the experience was for patients. Nor did the surgeons who administered this particular type of torment take it lightly. In The Worst of Evils: The Fight Against Pain, Thomas Dormandy tells how the 19th-century surgeon and medical pioneer Sir James Paget recalled those gruesome days before anesthesia in his memoirs: “They had been the worst night ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine