Researching intelligence is an extremely difficult task, even in animals alive today. In part that’s because much of the scientific jury is still out on what intelligence even is. So, estimating the smarts of any creature that is now extinct is an especially tall order. In the case of dinosaurs, combine the fact that they have been gone for tens of millions of years, and this task requires … even more brains, and speculation.Nevertheless, scholars have pursued several different methods to t ...read more
One of the most active volcanoes on Earth is Russia's Sheveluch. Over the past few decades, it has produced dozens of explosive eruptions while also building a new lava dome in the vacated remains of an even larger eruption and collapse. However, when it comes to volcano's like Sheveluch, all that work to create the dome can be ruined in a moment. A massive blast earlier in April looks to have eviscerated the Shiveluch's lava dome.The dome (see above and below) had been growing off and on since ...read more
Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world for six years straight. And many other Northern European countries like Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Norway are also highly ranked. But the Finnish people wouldn't necessarily claim they were happy; they would say they were content — more satisfied with their lot in life.Contentment is less common in the U.S., where striving for the American dream makes us one of the most ambitious countries on Earth. So is all this striving impacting ou ...read more
It’s likely you’ve heard of malaria, HIV-AIDs and tuberculosis. These three diseases continue to have a massive impact on human health across the globe. You may not be familiar, however, with schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis or trachoma, which fall under the umbrella of “neglected tropical diseases” (or NTDs for short).What Are Neglected Tropical Diseases?NTDs comprise a range of illnesses mostly caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites. Together, these include at l ...read more
The Milky Way dominates the night sky. It appears as a hazy band of light that stretches from one horizon to the other. But this side-on view hides the galaxy’s structure and prevents astronomers deciphering the shape of our home galaxy.Nevertheless, astronomers currently believe that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy consisting of a central bulge or bar with four main spiral arms and several others branching away. Now Ye Xu at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China, and colleagues, ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
