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In fond memory of the Spirit rover. RIP.

In Memory of the Spirit Rover
NASA said its last good-bye to the Spirit rover five years ago, but the mobile science station packed a lot of discoveries into its time on the Red Planet.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Researching the mysteries of "microbial dark matter" deep beneath the ocean.

Atomic Tracers Illuminate Microbial Dark Matter in the Deep Sea
Microorganisms are the base of the planet’s biological pyramid, shaping the world we know today in innumerable unseen ways. Nearly everywhere scientists have looked – from subglacial Antarctic lakes to acidic rivers and the ocean’s depths – microbes persist. Yet the vast majority – so-called microbi...
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Our ancestors might have gotten it on with the hominins much earlier than we thought.

Were Humans and Neanderthals Swapping DNA Earlier Than We Thought?
New evidence indicates Neanderthals interbred with a much earlier wave of human migration, one that left Africa at least 100,000 years ago.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Maybe killing all those rays wasn't necessary after all.

Ray Fillets Won't Save The Bay: Cownose Rays Exonerated
Scourges of the sea or scapegoats? A new study says cownose rays aren't to blame for shellfish declines, overturning a Science paper published 9 years ago.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Some of our knowledge of ancient societies comes from an unlikely source: fossilized feces.

Uncovering Our Ancestral Microbiomes
To discover the evolution of the bacterial residents we host, a new field of research delves deep into unexpected corners of our fossil record.
discovermagazine.com

Depression has its roots in two key genetic markers.

Team Identifies Genetic Markers for Depression
DNA sequencing shifts focus from neurons to metabolism.
discovermagazine.com

Star Trek is still pretty far off guys.

What It Will Take to Become an Interstellar Civilization
Researchers met recently to discuss the hurdles that we'll need to overcome before humanity can spread across interstellar space.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

For coma patients, brain activity under 42% means they won’t wake up. bit.ly/25qVjTY

Brain Scans Probe the Limits of Consciousness
Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, researchers say they were able to predict with 94 percent accuracy whether a coma patient would wake up
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Fish born and raised in hatcheries are far different from their wild counterparts.

Are Hatcheries Helping, or Hurting, Wild Fish Populations?
Hatcheries can help stabilize populations, but fish grown in hatcheries are genetically different than their wild counterparts.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Photographing the planet's lost amphibians. bit.ly/20xyOGb

Discover Magazine's photo.

Earbuds that let you adjust the volume of the world at will.

New Earbuds Let You Manipulate Sounds in World Around You
The Here earbuds filter sound in real-time, allowing you to turn down the volume of a crying baby, or turn up the bass at a live performance.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Eyes are the window to the…person behind the camera?

Eye Reflections in Photos Can Reliably Identify Who's Behind the Lens
A person can learn a lot from looking deeply into someone's eyes---perhaps even enough to identify suspects of a crime.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

You can't escape the noise even at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The Deepest, Darkest Place on Earth Is Eerily Noisy
NOAA scientists release recordings of whales, earthquakes and cyclones captured at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

The story of X-rays and the first Nobel Prize in physics.

Invisible Hands, Peeping Toms, and the First Physics Nobel Prize - Out There
Sometimes the Nobel prize in physics requires a fair bit of decoding for the non-expert (such as last year’s award for the theory behind the Higgs boson, or the award the year before “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems”). The...
blogs.discovermagazine.com

The link between sliced meat and human evolution: bit.ly/1Ldk90p

How Sliced Meat Altered the Course of Human Evolution
Researchers at Harvard find a link between processing food — slicing and cooking it — charted a new course for human evolution.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Prairie dogs aren't the only herbivores to break bad.

Cute and Cuddly Herbivores Can Be Bloodthirsty Savage
While murderous prairie dogs may shock some, their behavior is actually perfectly rational — and indeed quite common.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

The "nope" face transcends language barriers

The 'Not Face' Is Universally Understood
Regardless of language barriers, when you make the "Not Face," people everywhere will understand the point you're trying to get across.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

Eight centuries later, they were all gone.

Ancient Southwest Baby Boom Offers Lesson in Overpopulation
An ancient baby boom, and subsequent decline, in the Southwest could reveal insights about our current civilization's potential downfall.
blogs.discovermagazine.com

A conscientious cosmologist rejects Einstein's notion that time is an illusion and the future is set.

Is the Future Already Written?
discovermagazine.com

A new test can determine if a person is going to wake up from a coma.

Brain Scans Probe the Limits of Consciousness
Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, researchers say they were able to predict with 94 percent accuracy whether a coma patient would wake up
blogs.discovermagazine.com