“Musth,” an annual ordeal which turns male elephants into oozing, aggressive pachyderms, appears to have also affected male mammoths that lived thousands of years ago, according to a new study.Researchers from the University of Michigan led a team that procured a male mammoth tusk first discovered by a diamond-mining company in Siberia in 2007. From this massive tooth, they would detect ancient testosterone levels using a novel method.[embedded content]How to Detect Mammoth TestosteroneFirst ...read more
Our sense of smell and taste has played a vital role in human evolution. To this day, we rely on these two senses to help us identify proper foods to eat and recognize potential dangers like fires or gas leaks. A deficit in these senses can negatively impact our lives. And while preventing the impairment or loss of these senses is not always possible, we can often use methods to improve them. The most common related disorders are: Ageusia: The loss of sense of taste.Anosmia: The loss of sens ...read more
In a lab mouse version of The Truman Show, researchers from Harvard Medical School constructed a little world for a new paper. An eight-inch-wide platform raised 20 inches off the ground stood at the center, covered in mouse bedding. All around curved a tall LED screen, blank until a white, disorienting stripe flashed to one side or the other.The researchers were looking for head direction cells in the mouse, which act as an inner compass in the brains of humans, insects, animals and fish. While ...read more
In the animal kingdom, the general rule is the larger you are the longer you live. Elephants and whales are some of the longest living groups of animals on the planet, and they are respectively the largest organisms on land and in the ocean. Conversely, mice, and other rodents tend to experience much shorter lifespans. However, one strange counterexample is the contrast in lifespan among different sized dog breeds. It is well-known that large dogs don’t live as long as their smaller relatives. ...read more
[embedded content]On Aug. 16, 2020, a lightning strike sparked a wildfire at Cima Dome in the Mojave Desert and burned about 1.3 million Joshua trees, leaving behind a standing graveyard of the iconic trees. “They take hundreds of years to get to the size that they are,” says Bri Montoro, a project manager with the Nevada Conservation Corps, in the video. “Seeing them burnt is beautiful and devastating.”Drew Kaiser, a botanist with the Mojave National Preserve, watched the habitat burn i ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
