Inhoudsopgave van March/April 2025 - Discover

THE WORD reptilian doesn’t describe just lizards and snakes. When applied to humans, it denotes an unfriendly, unfeeling type of person. That’s because for decades, reptiles have been characterized as cold, emotionless, and even primitive creatures. But scientists agree that reptiles aren’t emotionless — they’re misunderstood. Extensive research has shown that reptiles experience a wide range of emotions, and that they’re highly socially complex animals. Despite this wealth of evidence demonstrating reptiles’ emotional capacity, however, they’ve retained a reputation for being as cold-blooded emotionally as they are physically. These misconceptions can lead to a lack of awareness for reptiles’ needs in captivity and in the wild, advocates say. “They don’t follow the same sort of rules that birds or mammals follow, and so we understand them a lot less,” says conservationist…

IT’S OFTEN appropriate to say that a particular practice “isn’t brain surgery” — except when it is. That may be the case in incisions to an ancient Egyptian skull that shows signs of an operation, according to a study published in Frontiers in Medicine in May 2024. The researchers in the study examined two skulls from the University of Cambridge’s Duckworth Collection, curious about cancer in ancient Egypt. In Skull 236 (dating from between 2687 and 2345 B.C.E., from a male), microscopic observation revealed a large wound consistent with excessive tissue destruction caused by a tumor, as well as 30 or so smaller lesions that resemble marks made by metastasis. But what took the scientists aback was the trace of incisions around some wounds. “It was surprising to see the…

EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE is in such constant flux that we have a tired old saying about it: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” If we lived on Jupiter — where a single storm has been raging uninterrupted for almost two centuries, and possibly much longer — we’d have to muster more patience. But perhaps we wouldn’t have to wait forever. The Great Red Spot, an enormous high-pressure system which astronomers have tracked regularly since the late 19th century, is steadily dwindling. In its heyday at about 25,500 miles across at its long axis, it was large enough to engulf our planet three times over; now it hardly spans a single Earth. On Jan. 6, 2024, the spot measured just 8,700 miles at its long axis and 6,100 miles…

Meg Lamont and her team make their way through the swampy edges of a salt marsh that nestles in St. Joseph Bay on Florida’s panhandle. The summer sun beats down from a pale blue sky, and the shallow water is so warm it’s almost hot. The air is heavy with the ripe smell of seawater. Prickly black needlerush and cordgrass scrape against their shins as they tromp through the muck. Nevertheless, the team is chatty and upbeat, full of enthusiasm for the work ahead. They’re going to tag terrapins. Lamont, a research biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, is an expert on the habitat and movement patterns of coastal and marine vertebrates in the Gulf of Mexico. The current project she is leading involves finding diamondback…

1900 Max Planck proposes that energy isn’t transferred continuously, but rather comes in tiny, discrete bundles, known as quanta. 1905 Albert Einstein discovers the photoelectric effect, in which a particle of light (photon) strikes a metal surface, releasing a photo-electron whose energy is given by its emission from the metal by the light. 1913 Niels Bohr develops a model of the atom in which electrons orbit the nucleus, but only at specific energy levels. The electrons absorb or emit photons to jump between energy levels. 1924 Louis de Broglie shows that particles of matter, like light, can be described as waves. The heavier the particle, the shorter its wavelength, if the velocity is constant. This wave–particle duality would play a central role in the development of quantum mechanics. 1925 Werner Heisenberg heads development of “matrix…

A STELLAR START Two objects float freely in this image of NGC 1333, a nebula almost 1,000 light-years away in the Perseus constellation. Spotted in a James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopic survey, the objects (circled above) are among six plausible free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFPMOs) newly identified in the nebula, all five to 15 times the size of Jupiter and free from the orbits of the stars. At least one of the objects, introduced in The Astronomical Journal in September 2024, originated in isolation. While some FFPMOs arise alongside stars through the process of planet formation (only to split from their star systems at a later time), others arise alone, a lot like stars themselves. Evidence indicates that the least massive plausible FFPMO is likely one of the smallest examples of…

THERE ARE some moments in life that jolt you into awareness when you think of them: You’re minding your own business, and all of a sudden, you’re reminded of how mortified you felt at a specific moment, weeks, months, or even years ago. Embarrassing memories can still carry the same emotional weight in the present as they did in the moment they were happening. It’s the brain’s way of telling us not to make the same mistake twice. The good news is that you don’t have to suffer at the hands of past cringeworthy moments — and over time, their power over your psychological state will start to diminish. THE BRAIN is programmed to respond to negative threats, so we’re more likely to relive negative memories out of nowhere compared…

The 10-year-old boy, freckled, stocky, central-casting New England Irish, looked unsettled. “Brian’s never sick,” his mom explained. “But he’s been throwing up since yesterday, with bad stomach cramps. He’s never sick. I got some ginger ale into him yesterday, but he puked all last night. No better today, so it was time for the ER.” She paused to stroke his clammy forehead. “He’s trying. Aren’t you, Bry?” Brian nodded, barely. The boy had no other medical problems. The vomiting had started along with the belly cramps; he couldn’t remember which came first. Vital signs were normal except for a slightly elevated heart rate and a low-grade fever of 100.4. “Where does your stomach hurt most, buddy?” I asked. His cheeks flushed red. “Kinda everywhere,” he finally answered, then added, “Down…

When the Aboriginal people first landed in Australia 60,000 years ago, a menacing gang of megafauna were waiting to greet them. Within the group were fierce apex predators like Thylacoleo carnifex, a marsupial lion with a similar build and bigger brain than a modern lioness. Less abundant but more formidable was Varanus priscus, a monster lizard rivaling a hippo in girth. Fast forward 30,000 years, and humans had wiped out many of Australia’s most sizable fauna — or so researchers once thought. Through the work of Vanderbilt University paleontologist Larisa DeSantis, we’re learning that these massive beasts may have been done in by Australia’s aridification, rather than human hunting, as the continent’s already-arid forests transformed into swaths of desert shrubs and grasses. DeSantis has spent her career studying these mega-sized…

IN THE INTEREST of historical accuracy, it’s worth noting that Schrödinger did not intend for people to take his live/dead cat scenario seriously. He proposed it as an absurdity, a criticism of then-current thinking regarding quantum theory. But that criticism has adopted a life (and death) of its own ever since. Put simply, Schrödinger’s Cat asks us to imagine a sealed box containing a cat, a radioactive material, a vial of poisonous gas, a hammer, and a Geiger counter. If a radioactive particle decays, it triggers the Geiger counter which releases the hammer, smashing the vial and killing the cat. (Remember, it’s just a thought experiment!) But suppose quantum mechanics says that, after one hour, there’s a 50 percent chance of the decay having taken place. Until we open the…

THE ART OF theater is probably one of the oldest forms of entertainment out there. Even now, audiences still gather in open-air amphitheaters, black box theaters, and multiplex cinemas to sit and watch all kinds of stories unfold before their eyes. And those experiences would not be possible without the performers who take on various roles to tell the tales. Acting is far more than just pretending to be someone else, and with certain techniques, like method acting, it’s a complex process that requires an individual to fully embody another person. This includes their personality, emotions, motivations, and mannerisms. Given acting’s demands, let’s take a look at the neural mechanisms of getting into character. THE INTRICATE cognitive pathways and emotional processes involved in acting are little understood by science: Only…

To some, sunglasses are a fashion accessory… The sun rises and sets at peak travel periods, during the early morning and afternoon rush hours and many drivers find themselves temporarily blinded while driving directly into the glare of the sun. Deadly accidents are regularly caused by such blinding glare with danger arising from reflected light off another vehicle, the pavement, or even from waxed and oily windshields that can make matters worse. Early morning dew can exacerbate this situation. Yet, motorists struggle on despite being blinded by the sun’s glare that can cause countless accidents every year. Not all sunglasses are created equal. Protecting your eyes is serious business. With all the fancy fashion frames out there it can be easy to overlook what really matters––the lenses. So we did…

NEANDERTHALS stopped roaming Earth around 40,000 years ago. As time marches on, however, new technologies are helping scientists learn more about Homo neanderthalensis, how they might have lived, and what similarities they may have shared with Homo sapiens. For instance: Scientists have long debated what Neanderthals sounded like, or whether they even possessed the anatomical ability to vocalize. In the 1980s, scientists discovered the skeleton of a Neanderthal male in Kebara Cave, Israel. Known as Kebara 2, the skeleton was well intact and allowed scientists to examine its neck bones. In particular, the researchers found that the specimen’s hyoid bone, a U-shaped bone in the neck that supports the tongue, was similar to the same structure in humans, suggesting that Neanderthals were indeed capable of speech. But the question of…

At the time of the American Revolution, Great Britain’s king was fighting his own battles. King George III had long suffered from physical and mental ailments that seemed to come and go in episodes. In 1765, for example, it was reported he had flulike complaints that led to a period of depression. In a second, far worse bout in 1788-89, physical symptoms were accompanied by more extreme, even manic, mental health symptoms and behaviors. The king’s equerry, Robert Greville, wrote a diary of the time period, labeling it a “Journal of His Majesty’s most serious and afflicting Illness.” The king would talk for hours, sometimes until he foamed at the mouth; Greville recounts an instance when he talked incessantly for 19 hours straight. He hallucinated — later episodes would include…

NOT EVERYONE CAN PLAY BILLARDS at the championship level, but everyone gets how the game works: A player uses a wooden cue to strike the white cue ball, which rolls along the felt tabletop until it strikes another ball, or perhaps more than one ball; eventually (if you’re good at it) one or more balls drops into a pocket. Isaac Newton, had he felt the urge, could have written a perfectly good handbook for billiards, since all of the relevant physics upon which the game operates is contained in the laws of motion that he worked out back in the late 17th century. It would be great if the whole universe worked according to those laws — and many nonscientists assume that they do. But as physicists discovered toward the end…

The dancers sprawled on stage, backs arched, with their shoulders and feet supporting their stretched bodies. Taking deep, shuddering breaths, they trembled and swayed in time with the music — a dark, droning tone typical of butoh, an avant-garde style of dance invented in Japan in the 1950s. Less typical of butoh were the brain scanners that sat atop the dancers’ scalps, and the brain scan visualizations that swelled behind the dancers’ bodies in real time. The performance, which took place in February 2023 at the University of Houston, Texas, was a collaboration between researchers and artists to capture what happens in our brains when we dance. According to the team, the performance was the first time that researchers have synchronously recorded and visualized brain activity from five performers at…