Whether it’s a whimper when they need to pee or those classic puppy eyes when they want food, dogs have many tactics for communicating with their owners.What we may not realize, however, is the intentionality behind some of these actions.Researchers have probed this world of dog communication — which has evolved over thousands of years in domestication with humans — and are beginning to interpret their barks and ploys for attention.The Basis of a Dog BarkingWhile dog barks may seem simple ...read more
We need sleep to strengthen our memory banks, keep our moods on an even keel, flush out toxins and balance hormones in our bodies. Without it, we eventually become an agitated, delirious mess.Take the case of an espresso-drinking 18-year-old who skipped sleep during a class trip to Italy and eventually had to be hospitalized:“At some point, I tried to speak exclusively in rhyme. On another day, I renounced speech altogether. I remember telling people that circles were divine and instituting a ...read more
On October 2, 2022, four days after Hurricane Ian hit Florida, a search-and-rescue Rottweiler named Ares was walking the ravaged streets of Fort Myers when the moment came that he had been training for. Ares picked up a scent within a smashed home and raced upstairs, with his handler trailing behind, picking his way gingerly through the debris.They found a man who had been trapped inside his bathroom for two days after the ceiling caved in. Some 152 people died in Ian, one of Florida’s worst h ...read more
For years, researchers who visited the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) passed over a collection of encoded letters. Someone had misdated the letters as originating from the 1520s and mistakenly cataloged the content as pertaining to Italy.The letters, however, were encrypted in a complex code. No one actually knew what was in the letters and who wrote or received them.Then, an interdisciplinary research team studying Mary, Queen of Scots, suspected the queen wrote the letters during he ...read more
For more than two centuries, hundreds of human bones have rested (in peace) under the London home of Benjamin Franklin — one of the founding fathers of the U.S. But the secret of these bones isn’t quite as horrific as you might suspect.As it turns out, the son-in-law of Franklin’s landlady taught anatomy privately in the house, at a time when the new field of science was just taking off in England. But that doesn’t mean the bones were completely innocent: The practice of dissection wasnâ ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
