In every major body of water in the world, there are sunken ships resting on the seafloor. Near the coast of North Carolina, for example, there is a graveyard of ships torpedoed during the Second World War by German submarines. And in the Great Lakes, an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 ships have been lost at sea.These wreckages, however, weren’t the intent of the captain or crew. Most ran into bad weather or enemy crosshairs. However, on the coast of a Hawaiian island, there is a ship graveyard whe ...read more
Helicopters draw a lot of attention with their almost magical ability to hover, fly in any direction and operate without runways. They also help save many lives, often dramatically, with their extensive use in all-weather military missions, ambulance duties and search-and-rescue roles.When things go wrong, dramatic images and news stories about helicopter accidents grab the public’s attention. This is especially true when high-profile celebrities or government officials are involved.However, m ...read more
Humans likely butchered 6-foot-long armadillo-like animals over 20,000 years ago, according to a report in PLOS ONE. These findings not only represent an interesting dietary choice (and make one wonder just what ancient armadillo must have tasted like), but they also bump back the time of known human occupation of South America by about 6,000 years.Pleistocene ButchersScientists analyzed cut marks on parts of the pelvis, tail, and body armor of a creature called glyptodont, also referred to as N ...read more
Isaac Newton would never have discovered the laws of motion had he studied only cats.Suppose you hold a cat, stomach up, and drop it from a second-story window. If a cat is simply a mechanical system that obeys Newton’s rules of matter in motion, it should land on its back. (OK, there’s some technicalities — like this should be done in a vacuum, but ignore that for now.) Instead, most cats usually avoid injury by twisting themselves on the way down to land on their feet.Most people are not ...read more
When I was in middle school, my biology teacher showed our class the sci-fi movie “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”The plot drew me in, with its depiction of the “Genesis Project” – a new technology that transformed a dead alien world into one brimming with life.After watching the movie, my teacher asked us to write an essay about such technology. Was it realistic? Was it ethical? And to channel our inner Spock: Was it logical? This assignment had a huge impact on me.Fast-forward ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine