Invented in China around 5,500 years ago, silk was the slipperiest, most mysterious material in the ancient world. Fashioned from the twisted threads of the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm, the fabric’s process of production was protected by the state for several thousand years. That said, the secrecy of silk manufacturing didn’t mean that the material remained restricted to China for all of antiquity. In fact, traces of the finished fabric made their way west well before the strategies of ...read more
When people think about evolution and human beings, the assumption is often made that we have stopped evolving. Once upon a time, we had to evade predators, compete with other hominid species and fight off disease. And thanks to modern society, agriculture, medicine, and technology, we've largely alleviated these physical selection pressures on our species. Are Humans Still Evolving? Perhaps we haven't stopped after all. Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the gene ...read more
NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers who led the discovery of this planet, called TOI-700 e. TOI-700 e is just over 100 light years from Earth – too far away for humans to visit – but we do know that it is similar in size to the Earth, likely rocky in composition and could potentially support life. You've probably heard about some of the many other exoplanet discoveries ...read more
During the 1992 NBA Championship finals, Michael Jordan hit six 3-pointers in 18 minutes then turned to the crowd with an iconic shrug. Later, he said he was so “in the zone” he literally didn’t know how he did it. He was talking about, of course, that thrilling feeling of flow. A term coined by the late positive psychology expert Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow is the state of being hyper-focused, fully absorbed and energized by the task at hand. “Flow is the feeling of being immersed ...read more
In 1846, a Japanese policeman drew a legendary mermaid with scales like a coat of mail and flowing hair that ran all the way down to three mer-fins. He’d come across the creature while investigating a report of a greenish glow in the water and had listened as the fish-person forecasted a good harvest and added, almost as an aside: “Should an epidemic come,” the beaked Amabie said, “draw me and show me to the people.” An early Japanese newspaper re-printed the drawing using wooden block ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine