And since natural selection shares so many features with play, we may, with some justification, maintain that life, in a most fundamental sense, is playful. At Cambridge University Library, along with all the books, maps, and manuscripts, there’s a child’s drawing that curators have titled “The Battle of the Fruit and Vegetable Soldiers.”The drawing depicts a turbaned cavalry soldier facing off against an English dragoon. It’s a bit trippy: The British soldier sits astride a carrot, an ...read more
The years between 662 million years and 700 million years ago — just before and after glaciers left a half-mile thick rock layer — were mysterious. There is little information about the planet's conditions just before the period of the deep freeze, which covered the planet in ice and is sometimes referred to as Snowball Earth.Now, researchers have examined a rock feature showing what life on the planet was like — both before the freeze and after the subsequent thaw. The report in the Journ ...read more
From the first time a curious wolf approached fearful humans and managed to befriend them, dogs have been a big part of the human experience. For over 15,000 years, they’ve been our co-workers and companions. Since then, we've learned a lot about dogs and our relationship to them (as you'll learn if you watch Inside the Mind of a Dog, a new documentary on Netflix that includes research based on citizen science contributions). And yet there’s still so much we don’t know about them! To celeb ...read more
Did all dinosaurs become extinct, killed when an asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago? Or could a few of them, somehow, have survived that mass extinction event – with their descendants living even today?It is exciting to imagine that gigantic dinosaurs are still rumbling and lumbering around in some remote part of the world. But no evidence of this exists. There are no cousins of Tyrannosaurus rex stomping through the vast woods of Siberia, no Apatosaurus ambling through the Congo rain ...read more
Cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, is a clear, colorless liquid that plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and function of your central nervous system. It cushions the brain and spinal cord, provides nutrients and removes waste products.Despite its importance, problems related to CSF often go unnoticed until something goes wrong.I am a neurologist and headache specialist. In my work treating patients with CSF pressure disorders, I have seen these conditions present in many different ways. Her ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine