Midway through the Roman empire, an unnamed court official who answered to Emperor Tiberius stepped on a fish and changed the course of medical history. The electric torpedo fish, common to the Mediterranean, shocked the administrator, who noticed afterward that the gout pain in his leg had greatly subsided. Word reached Roman physician Scribonius Largus, who then famously recommended the shocks, when applied to the head, to treat headaches. A new study explores a modern-day form of the torpedo- ...read more
Whether you're a jet setter or a nervous flier, if you sit and think about it hard enough, the fact that we have built machines that soar into the sky for thousands of miles with hundreds of people aboard is baffling. Even though it's common to have flight jitters — flying is one of the safest modes of transportation. Wrapping our heads around flying can actually be a bit challenging; however, Professor Doug Drury, head of aviation at CQUniversity in Australia, is here to help answer our ques ...read more
Black holes are absolutely silent, as they are creatures of pure gravity. But while black holes produce no sound of their own, they can generate sound waves in their environment. A Simple Black Hole Black holes are surprisingly simple objects. In the general theory of relativity, which is the framework we use to understand all things gravity, you only need three numbers to completely and totally describe a black hole: its mass, its spin and its charge. Seriously, that’s it. If you encounter an ...read more
Everyone — myself included — wants their cat to live forever. But it’s important to remember that as the years pile up, so does the likelihood of your feline friend developing age-related health issues. Among the most perplexing of these issues is cat dementia, also called feline cognitive dysfunction. Can Cats Get Dementia? Gary Landsberg, a veterinary behaviorist based in Ontario, has seen his fair share of it over the past few decades. He describes it as a progressive neurodegenerative ...read more
It is no secret that exercise can do wonders for our health. Exercise is good for losing weight, preventing illnesses, improving heart health and boosting well-being. Also, let’s be honest – if you are a workout buff, you know how good exercising feels. There is plenty of research to support these claims. Still, the benefits of exercising go beyond the physiological effects. Not surprisingly, it also impacts our neurobiology. As a machine working around the clock, the brain bears the brunt ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine