In the spring of 1993, a 30-minute program called Bill Nye the Science Guy aired for the first time on KCTS-TV, a Seattle-based PBS affiliate. Within months, the show was being syndicated nationally, and what followed was life-changing for the show’s titular host: six seasons, 100 episodes and substantial underwriting from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Bill Nye was suddenly famous — broadcast into the homes and schools of millions of children, to explain ...read more
Several years back, a woman checked herself into a hospital psychiatric unit. She needed help, she told her doctors, because she was terrified of… zombies. Her doctors did what good doctors do: They used cognitive behavior therapy to help the woman question her thoughts and fears. Within days, the woman was laughing at her folly, and she was discharged. It’s possible that zombies do lurch about our world — just not in the ways depicted in popular movies or television shows. Real Life Zombi ...read more
Psychedelic drugs have become all the rage among scientists. But not for the reasons you might think. From early, rudimentary research of psychedelics in the 1950s and '60s to today’s sophisticated technology, there is a deep interest in understanding how psychedelics affect the brain. Scientists have been digging for meaningful answers, whether to learn the psychedelic effects on human consciousness or their potential as therapeutics. But what exactly are psychedelics? What are Psychedelics? ...read more
As a founding father in the fields of physics and astronomy, Galileo Galilei is known for countless contributions to science. The Italian thinker stressed a methodical, mathematical approach to studying the universe, and inspired the modern scientific method that remains a bedrock of scientific inquiry — even 380 years after his death. His innovations in the realm of motion and gravity are equally exceptional and have laid the foundations for today’s physics and made him one of the greatest ...read more
Though known for the sound of their hissing and slithering, snakes themselves were long believed to be deaf. Now we know that couldn’t be farther from the truth, according to a growing body of research by scientists who are working to show that snakes use sound to interact with their environment. How exactly these slithering reptiles understand noise still has the scientific jury puzzled, however. One school of thought argues that snakes sense vibrations in the ground — but new research doub ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine