In 1902, Albert Einstein applied to become a patent clerk at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property in Bern. Although he would have rather worked as a teacher or lab assistant, the monotonous job turned out to be a vital step in his career. While his body was busy organizing files and mulling over stacks of paperwork, his unstimulated mind was free to wander, leading him to some of his greatest scientific discoveries.This anecdote, slightly embellished over the course of its retelling, has ...read more
On the Game of Thrones scale of dragon awesomeness, the real-life Komodo dragon may seem tame, but it is anything but.Sure, it can’t fly. You can’t ride it into battle. And it doesn’t breathe fire (although if you get close enough to smell its breath, your eyes and nose may feel like they’re burning). But it is the biggest creature of its kind, and a massive, rapacious predator with claws and teeth that can rip prey to shreds. Plus, when the conditions are right (or very, very wrong), it ...read more
A new fresco discovered at Pompeii further muddies the already murky history of pizza and the age-old art of putting toppings on flatbread. Found in an atrium buried under a collapsed ceiling and layers of pumice and volcanic ash, the painting shows a round bun loaded with toppings and condiments next to a massive vessel of wine.Does this 2,000-year-old food item count as an early pizza?A statement from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which oversees the site, says that “Whilst it looks lik ...read more
Picture a giant, duck-billed, camel-backed, feathery omnivore that weighs a massive 7 tons.It may sound like a hybrid creation straight out of the Jurassic World franchise — but this creature actually roamed the Earth some 70 to 66 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. “Deinocheirus was a peculiar, humpbacked dinosaur with a duckbill-like skull that grew to Tyrannosaurus size,” says Yuong-Nam Lee, a professor at Seoul National University who helped describe new research o ...read more
The first signs of the disease are so subtle that they can be tricky to catch. Sometimes, they come in the form of rude remarks or an occasional out-of-character comment. Sometimes, they appear as a struggle to stay organized or an increase in impulsive spending. And sometimes, wrong words and slurred sentences are the initial indications. Though these symptoms can seem small, frontotemporal dementia worsens with time, transforming the way that people act and communicate. Destroying the brain fr ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
