The gravitational force is by far the weakest of the four forces of nature. It’s simple to defy gravity: just lift something in the air. But the annoying thing about gravity is that it’s both persistent and has an infinite range, which takes a surprising amount of work to overcome. Gravity is so weak that even if it were a billion times stronger than it is now, it would still be the weakest of all the forces. The whole mass of the Earth is pulling on you, but you can reach over and grab a pe ...read more
Researchers in the U.K. have achieved something of a world first: they have manufactured blood in the lab, which they’ve since administered to humans. The clinical trial will aim to test the safety and effectiveness of the lab-made blood in at least 10 healthy people. Two volunteers have already received a dose. The scientists — from the University of Cambridge, the National Health Service and the University of Bristol — are keen to find out whether their novel blood can last as long ...read more
Among the achievements of the ancient Roman Empire still acclaimed today, historians list things like aqueducts, roads, legal theory, exceptional architecture and the spread of Latin as the language of intellect (along with the Latin alphabet, memorialized nowadays in many popular typefaces). Rome was not known, though, for substantially advancing basic science. But in the realm of articulating and preserving current knowledge about nature, one Roman surpassed all others. He was the polymath Gai ...read more
While it's already known that Neanderthals were skilled hunter-gatherers, new evidence suggests that they decided to hunt and eat some of the biggest animals of their time period. A new study published in Science Advances by a team of researchers from Germany suggests that Neanderthals hunted and ate straight-tusked elephants. Straight-tusked elephants were the largest land animals of the Pleistocene epoch and roamed Europe and Asia between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. Skeletal Analy ...read more
In the late 1950s, a Dutch archeologist visited Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in southern England. The massive stone circle wouldn’t be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for another three decades, and there weren’t swarms of tourists or a protective fence. The archeologist was the only one around that day. He parked his car on the side of the road and walked up to the massive stone circle. The area seemed remote, almost abandoned. Scientists now know that when Stonehenge was ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine