The venom of the male blue-lined octopus is made for its predators, its prey, and, apparently, its mating partners. That’s what researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia found after observing the males of the species sedating the females with venom prior to mating. “Injecting the females renders them immobile,” the researchers wrote in a March Current Biology report, “allowing the males to mate successfully.” Read More: The Tiny Blue-Ringed Octopus Is Iridescent and De ...read more
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. Beyond the high economic and healthcare demands, it places a significant physical, emotional, and financial burden on family caregivers.Patients with AD experience memory loss, confusion, mood and personality changes, and difficulty with language, often leading to social withdrawal. The biological cause of AD is linked to the accumulation of amyloid plaques, tau tangles, and synaptic loss in brain regions such as the hipp ...read more
If you’ve been feeling a little down as the “Doomsday Clock” ticks ever closer to midnight, you’re not alone.A new study in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) links the clock’s progress to negative shifts in mortality and mental health. The study, the first of its kind to connect the timepiece metaphor for global catastrophe to mental and physical health, indicates higher rates of death related to Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, unintentional injuries, and alcohol and drug abuse a ...read more
Even during one of Earth’s largest mass extinction events, where heat waves kill of a majority of Earth’s species, at least one oasis of survival existed.The findings suggest that there may have been pockets of protection throughout Earth — challenging the notion that the heat affected life on the planet uniformly, according to a paper in Science Advances.Living Through "The Great Dying"About 250 million years ago, a series of massive volcanic eruptions warmed Earth. This period, sometimes ...read more
Uncertainty is just what it sounds like: not knowing. It’s that state of limbo when you’re waiting to find out if you got the job, if the biopsy is negative, if you’re pregnant or not. It’s not knowing who’s the best candidate or which brand of car is likely to last the longest. It’s also not knowing the answers to those existential questions: Why am I here? How is everything going to turn out? Most research on uncertainty has focused on its negative aspects, primarily anxiety. Ho ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine