WE ARE ALL ONE
All Mammals Take 12 Seconds To Poop
A wide-ranging study on the pooping habits of mammals shows a near-universal time for the length of defecation.
Discover Magazine Blogs
FOOD OF FRESH AIR
What Can You Eat To Avoid Garlic Breath? Science Has The Answer
Garlic! So delicious, yet so stinky.
A DOG IN A LOW-RENT TIGER COSTUME
Inside The Head Of The Extinct Tasmanian Tiger
The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, believed extinct, had the quick wit of a killer new research reveals.
BECAUSE OUR LAZINESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS
Walmart Has Patented Self-Driving Shopping Carts
If it has wheels, there’s a good chance someone, somewhere is going figuring out how to make it roll on its own.
AN UNNATURAL PROPENSITY FOR FAVA BEANS
What Makes A Person Creepy?
When someone is creepy, you can just feel it, but what qualities actually add up make a person creepy? One study tried to find out.
WINGED DICKERY
Birds Learn To Recognize Humans They Hate
Antarctic seabirds called skuas are so clever that they can recognize individual humans after seeing them only a few times.
WE'VE BEEN GRUMPY SINCE THE BEGINNING
Is The 'Nope' Face Hardwired Into All Humans?
When your boss asks you to work over the weekend, your face will say it all — actually. A new study shows that the facial expression that signals a negative reaction to something is understood all over the world.
SOMETHING SMELLS FUNGI
On The Hunt For Hawai'i's Orgasm-Inducing Mushroom
Is it possible that a mushroom that can give you an orgasm just by smelling it?
AMERICA'S ANIMAL IMMIGRATION DEBATE
How America Got Rid Of Canine Rabies And How It Plans To Keep It That Way
The international transport of dogs poses a threat to the hard-won victory in the US against canine rabies.
LIKE WHEN YOU RAID YOUR MOM'S FRIDGE
Christmastime Is The Season For Symbiosis
"As the people nearby revel in merry delight, the forest is alive with the yuletide spirit, brimming with ecological interactions that only occur during this very special time of year."
IT'S CALLED SEX PANTHER
How The Unsmellable Snake Camouflages Its Scent
Snakes and other creatures that hunt by ambush, waiting for their prey to wander past, often have impressive visual camouflage. But at least one type of viper seems to disguise itself in another way, too: its smell is undetectable to predators.
UNDERWATER WAYS
A $7 Million Map Of The Oceans
It’s an oceanographer’s favorite aphorism, that we know more about the surface of Mars than we do our own planet’s oceans. And, in many ways, it’s true.
TECHNOLOGY HAS GONE TO THE DOGS
Why Design Animal-Specific Tech?
Humans aren’t the only animals who benefit from technology, and the emerging field of animal-computer interactions (ACI) seeks to understand how animals interact with human-made technology in order to adapt tools to animals’ innate characteristics.
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Global Temperatures Skyrocketed In October, And That's Bad News
The first of several monthly climate analyses for October is out, and the news is sobering: Global average temperature across the land and seas skyrocketed compared to previous Octobers, shattering the previous record for warmth set just last year.
SOUNDS NEUROTIC
What Did Neuroscientists Find When They Studied Their Own Brains?
In a new study, a group of neuroscientists looked at how other neuroscientists' brains responded to a paper published in their name.
ONE HYPOTHESIS
The Scientific Method Is A Myth
The so-called scientific method is a myth. That is not to say that scientists don’t do things that can be described and are unique to their fields of study. But to squeeze a diverse set of practices that span cultural anthropology, paleobotany, and theoretical physics into a handful of steps is an inevitable distortion and, to be blunt, displays a serious poverty of imagination.
OUT OF (PARA)SITE
Something Fishy In The Food Chain
The Pacific broad tapeworm thrives in the guts of the sea lions that frolic in the waves of the Pacific Ocean, has been identified in the preserved poop of Peruvians mummified some five millennia ago, and is now making its way to seafood-loving Europeans through the briny conduits of the worldwide commercial fish trade.
YOU WON'T BE GRINNING AFTER THIS
How Tetanus Causes Horrific Deaths
For centuries, a dreaded complication from an innocent blister or a bullet wound was the untreatable and catastrophic tetanus, caused by Clostridium tetani.
SOMETHING STINKS
People Are More Suspicious When Things Smell Fishy... Literally
According to this study, it’s no mere coincidence that we call suspicious circumstances “fishy.”
A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE
3-D Printing Robots To Build Future-Bridge In Amsterdam
A 3-D printer that makes steel structures appear out of thin air will try its hand at building — wait, printing — a pedestrian bridge.
