For many years, the Cave of the Malalmuerzo (“bad lunch”) near Granada, Spain, located near rocky farmland, stood open to the public. Local residents stooped under the low ceiling and wound their way through stalactites, and some made the belly-crawl to the deeper reaches of the cave and the early paintings there. They took home “some artifact […] ceramics, bits of bone, etc.,” writes a local businessman. In 1983, the first archaeologists showed up, but the souvenir-hunting continued ...read more
Technically, every single object in the universe with mass or energy emits a gravitational field, and scientists have been able to measure the gravitational field of objects far smaller than a human. General Relativity Einstein revolutionized our understanding of gravity with his magnum opus, the general theory of relativity. The theory transformed our perspective of gravity from a simple property of objects relating to their mass, to a view of the cosmos where space and time can bend, flex and ...read more
For most American workers who commute, the trip to and from the office takes nearly one full hour a day – 26 minutes each way on average, with 7.7% of workers spending two hours or more on the road. Many people think of commuting as a chore and a waste of time. However, during the remote work surge resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, several journalists curiously noted that people were – could it be? – missing their commutes. One woman told The Washington Post that even though she ...read more
Invented in China around 5,500 years ago, silk was the slipperiest, most mysterious material in the ancient world. Fashioned from the twisted threads of the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm, the fabric’s process of production was protected by the state for several thousand years. That said, the secrecy of silk manufacturing didn’t mean that the material remained restricted to China for all of antiquity. In fact, traces of the finished fabric made their way west well before the strategies of ...read more
When people think about evolution and human beings, the assumption is often made that we have stopped evolving. Once upon a time, we had to evade predators, compete with other hominid species and fight off disease. And thanks to modern society, agriculture, medicine, and technology, we've largely alleviated these physical selection pressures on our species. Are Humans Still Evolving? Perhaps we haven't stopped after all. Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the gene ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine