How to Tell if Your Cat Is Sick

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

If you feel like something is wrong — say, your stomach or your leg is hurting — you can typically explain to others what’s going on. Maybe you tell a doctor what your symptoms are and what your pain level is, while adding other information to aid the practitioner’s understanding.But cats can’t tell us how they’re feeling.Whatever their ailment, what are some signs that might help us understand our feline friends better and to know if something is wrong? Read on to learn what to look ...read more

Palm-Sized Sea Creature Named the World’s Oldest Animal

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Scientists have long thought the humble sea sponge, an animal that feeds by filtering water through itself, forms the oldest group of animals on earth. But a new study claims that the comb jelly phylum is in fact older and carries genetic material from distant, non-animal ancestors.Comb jellies, which look like miniature jellyfishes, use rows of cilia hairs to swim through the ocean and catch prey with tentacles that release a sticky, mucous-like substance. Like other animals, they meet the stan ...read more

The New 3D Scan of Titanic Wreck Footage Is Grim

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

A new 3D model of the Titanic, produced using 700,000 images shot by submersibles, reveals the 111-year-old shipwreck to be in a battered condition. Such landmarks as the grand staircase, now lie in complete ruins, while “rusticles” formed by iron-eating bacteria cover the surface.The clock is ticking for the sunken ocean liner, once thought to be “unsinkable,” as experts say it has mere decades before it succumbs completely to the ocean floor.To accelerate research, the new model provid ...read more

The Dangers of Microplastics in Humans

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

We're hearing a lot about microplastics — those teeny pieces of plastic that have become so ubiquitous in our water, air and soil that they can now be found in human blood. These minuscule pieces of plastic are the product of broken-down waste because plastic does not biodegrade like other materials. Plastics make up a bulk of our packaging, toys, cars, toiletries and building materials; the list goes on and on.What's more, plastics are made up of numerous toxins and chemicals that, when brok ...read more

Ancient Humans Mapped Out Hunting Device on Boulders

Posted on Categories Discover Magazine

Humans who built massive “desert kites” in ancient times first carved to-scale plans of them, creating an 8,000-year-old schematic, a new study says.Scientists found the maps carved into boulders lying on the ground in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, not far from the kites they depicted. Desert kites are ancient, keyhole-shaped structures designed to funnel in animals, which walk in through one end and get stuck in the round enclosure or pit at the other.What Were Desert Kites Used For?The current ...read more

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