This story was originally published in our Mar/Apr 2023 issue. Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one. In 1995, NASA was strapped for cash — and the search for life beyond Earth looked like it could be in trouble. Years of steep cuts had reduced the space agency’s five-year budget plan by just over 30 percent. Interest in exobiology — the study of the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe — had been drying up for decades. After the 1976 Viking ...read more
It took almost 75 years for researchers to record the first footage of the remains of the Titanic, buried over 2 miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. It then took them nearly 40 years more to release the footage in its fuller form. This week, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) released 80 minutes of untrimmed footage from its first filmed voyage to the sunken ship. Captured only months after a team from the WHOI found the wreck in 1985, the footage features several shots ...read more
Unless you’re a fan of comic-book series (and Netflix film) The Old Guard, you may never have heard of the Scythians before now, but chances are you’ve seen some aspect of their influence, down through the long years of human history. They are believed to originate from ancient Iran around 900 B.C., spreading from Central Asia into what is now Ukraine and parts of Russia. They were a formidable force in this part of the world for nearly a thousand years. Although archaeologists and anthropol ...read more
In the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, surgical resident Izzy agrees to donate bone marrow. In a scene that likely made donation professionals cringe, Izzy grimaced on the operating table as the physician inserted a needle into her hip and aggressively rotated it. In real life, doctors have designed bone marrow donations to be as painless as possible. Most donors give stem cells that are harvested from the bloodstream before the blood is returned to the body. And those who give directly fr ...read more
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois, is the tallest man who has ever lived. He was 8 foot 11 inches and weighed in at 439 lbs. But he had a sad life, plagued with injury due to his towering height and the weight that put pressure on his joints and feet. What Happened to Robert Wadlow? Wadlow died in 1940 at just 22 years old due to a blister on his ankle that became infected and triggered septic shock in his body. "He is a pre-acromegalic giant of ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine