Discover

Discover Magazine will amaze you, enlighten you, and open your eyes to the awe and wonder of science and technology. Discover reveals secrets, solves mysteries, and debunks old myths. Discover shares new findings and shows you what makes our universe tick.

Remembering Jerry

Discover

INBOX

THE LATEST NEWS AND NOTES • DID LANGUAGE START WITH HAND GESTURES? • SINUS INFLAMMATION AND BRAIN FOG HUMMUS ON THE MOON • “I COULD EAT YOU UP”: THE SCIENCE OF CUTE AGGRESSION

HAND GESTURES MAY HAVE SPARKED HUMAN LANGUAGE • OUR UNIQUE LANGUAGE SYSTEMS DISTINGUISH US FROM OTHER SPECIES. BUT DID EARLY HAND GESTURES PAVE THE WAY FOR CIVILIZATION? RESEARCHERS DISAGREE.

Sinus Inflammation May Be Linked to Brain Fog • CHRONIC SINUSITIS COULD MESS WITH YOUR THINKING. RESEARCHERS ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SINUS INFLAMMATION AND PERSISTENT BRAIN FOG.

Space Hummus, Anyone? • LUNAR SOIL IS FILLED WITH TOXINS THAT WOULD PREVENT PLANT GROWTH. BUT RESEARCHERS CAN NOW GROW CHICKPEAS IN SIMULATED MOONDUST BY USING FUNGUS AND WORMS.

The Science Behind Cute Aggression • WANTING TO SQUEEZE OR BITE AN ANIMAL’S EARS OR FEET IS CALLED CUTE AGGRESSION, AND SCIENTISTS ARE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE DO IT.

Against the Flow • ALL SIGNS POINTED TO CANCER WHEN A PREVIOUSLY HEALTHY 27-YEAR-OLD FOUND HERSELF UNABLE TO EAT, BECOMING SICKLY AND THIN AS HER WEIGHT PLUMMETED. BUT THE REAL CULPRIT WAS SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY.

THE PROBLEM WITH PARASITES • CLIMATE CHANGE IS PUTTING PARASITES — THE UNSEEN PESTS RUNNING OUR PLANET — IN PERIL, BUT A SMALL BAND OF SCIENTISTS IS FIGHTING TO SAVE THEM FROM EXTINCTION.

PECULIAR PARASITES • PARASITES MAKE UP 40 percent of all known animal species on Earth. Animals aside, they’re also found splayed across all living organisms, from microbes like bacteria and protozoans to various species of plants. Here are some of the strangest among nature’s most maligned creatures.

PRESERVING PARASITES

Animals That Changed HUMANITY FOREVER • FROM DOGS TO HORSES, DOMESTICATION WAS A GAME-CHANGER FOR US, AND FOR THE CREATURES WE TOOK INTO OUR CARE.

Man’s Best (and Oldest) FRIEND

THE FIRST LIVESTOCK

When the Cat Came HOME • If it were possible to get one to go on the record, cats might well argue that they have never been domesticated. They certainly weren’t when we first met them, nor for a long time thereafter.

There and Back Again: A HORSE TALE

Revealing VENUS • EARTH’S SISTER WORLD DOES NOT GIVE UP ITS SECRETS EASILY TO VISITING SPACECRAFT.

How Venus Saved OUR SKIN

Collecting Your Thoughts • RESEARCH IS REVEALING WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BRAIN WHEN WE COLLECT AND CATEGORIZE COVETED ITEMS — AND HOW DOING SO MAY HAVE COGNITIVE BENEFITS.

Mystery and Malarkey • A BELOVED YET DUBIOUS ROADSIDE ATTRACTION TEACHES VALUABLE LESSONS ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND PSEUDOSCIENCE.

How to Diagram a Planet • IN A 1980S EFFORT TO FIGHT FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE, NASA DEVELOPED A PROGRAM TO STUDY HOW ALL THE LIFE SYSTEMS ON EARTH INTERACTED AND INFLUENCED EACH OTHER. STEP ONE: FIGURE OUT HOW TO VISUALIZE IT ALL.

THE ART OF EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE • REMOTE SENSING, ESPECIALLY VIA SATELLITES, ENABLED NOT JUST THE BRETHERTON DIAGRAM, BUT THE WHOLE FIELD OF EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE (ESS).

ECCENTRIC ISLANDS