Learning that a shiny rock is fool’s gold rather than the valuable mineral is generally cause for disappointment. But for scientists who discovered a new 450-million-year-old arthropod preserved in iron pyrite, the substance could be considered priceless.Fossils of ancient arthropods — a group of animals including spiders, centipedes, and insects — are especially rare, because they are made up primarily of soft tissue, which usually starts decaying days after death. Due to some rare geoche ...read more
Imagine holding a piece of the early solar system in your hands — a 4.5-billion-year-old artifact that predates our planet. Thanks to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, and China’s 2024 Chang’e-6 mission, researchers now have the opportunity to hold, and study, lunar samples that provide a unique glimpse into the distant past.Moon rocks, brought back to Earth by NASA's Apollo missions and China's Chang’e probes, are far more than ordinary space debris. These samples hold invaluabl ...read more
In 1997, a team of scientists reared several chicken eggs in two different incubators: one was a normal, sterile incubator, while the other one was infused with the sweet, fruity aroma of strawberries. Sometimes, they even rubbed the experimental group with strawberry aromas straight on the shell.Once the chicks hatched, much to the scientist’s amusement, the few baby chickens that had been exposed to strawberries while still embryos loved the scent and the taste of it: they liked strawberry-f ...read more
One of the big ideas of modern science is that small things can sometimes have huge, irreversible consequences. These so-called tipping points crop up in all walks of life, from economics and finance to human health and the environment. Indeed, they are a fundamental feature of what scientists call complex systems.In an effort to better understand tipping points, scientists have invested much time and effort into simulating complex systems like the climate and the economy, and then gathering dat ...read more
We don’t know how language first began. The first writing didn’t occur until around 3200 B.C.E., and we know that spoken language came before that. Some experts contend that it started with hand gestures along with sounds and signals that, in short order, gave humans a leg up when it came to survival.Fast forward a few thousand years, and the ancients were steeped in it. The Ancient Greeks, for example, were known for their linguistic achievement. By this time, an abundance of languages woul ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine