Discover Magazine

Scattered across Greenland's coastline are heaps of ancient garbage, bones, shells, animal waste, and broken objects, frozen solid for thousands of years. The objects inside have told archaeologists a great deal about who lived there. It turns out the bacteria have stories too. A study published in Frontiers in Microbiology analyzed the bacteria preserved inside ancient garbage heaps, known as middens, at sites spanning 4,500 years of human habitation in Greenland.

A small creature living in the remote, icy Antarctic depths harbors a bacterium that not only could kill melanoma cells but also help develop potential cancer treatments. After a six-week expedition to Antarctica, a team of researchers from the University of South Florida (USF), led by chemistry professor Bill Baker, returned with ascidian — sea squirt — samples containing a bacterium, Candidatus Synoicihabitans palmerolidicus.

Playing a board game while bathing may sound like a bizarre combination, but for people living in the medieval Islamic world, it proved to be a relaxing way to unwind. Archaeologists found proof of this pastime at a communal bathhouse, or hammam, in the ruins of Walīla, an abandoned city located in modern-day Morocco; a gameboard carved on steps leading to a pool shows that bathers enjoyed game while visiting communal spaces like the hammam.

After a bad meeting, a difficult phone call, or one of those days when everything feels slightly off, many pet owners turn toward the animal waiting nearby. A dog may bring over a toy, while a cat may nestle up beside them on the couch. Either way, the hope is to find some comfort in their pet. Research published in Frontiers in Psychology found that owners generally reported more positive and fewer negative feelings when they interacted more with their cats or dogs.

Calcium and vitamin D are practically synonymous with bone health. That has made the supplements feel less like an optional extra and more like something older adults should be taking to keep a fall from becoming a fracture. For most older adults, however, routinely taking the supplements to ward off fractures may provide less protection than expected.

Schrödinger's cat is one of science’s best-known metaphors. The scenario — which involves a cat, radioactive material and a bottle of poison — appears bizarre but holds some truth, at least in the strange world of quantum physics. Now, scientists at Oxford University have discovered a new family of Schrödinger-cat-like states (or quantum superpositions), which offer new possibilities in the realm of quantum computing, sensing and error correction.

Learn about new research that suggests there is a link between GLP-1 agonists and reduced breast cancer risk.

A bright blob of X-ray emission near the heart of the Milky Way may be made of scraps from an exploding star. Astronomers spotted the blob with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and after taking a closer look, they think it could be a supernova remnant. A study recently published in The Astrophysical Journal detailed intense X-ray emission in the Sagittarius C star complex, where an expanding bubble of gas might shed light on this environment’s explosive past.

More than 2,400 years after a Celtic warrior was buried beside his chariot, almost nothing remained of the vehicle itself. The wood had rotted away, but metal fittings still marked where its wheels, hubs, and axle had once rested. Archaeologists found the pieces near Bad Camberg, Germany, while examining land intended for a solar park.

Archaeological excavations around Notre-Dame reveal nearly 2,000 years of long-lost history and give us a glimpse of what life was like in ancient Paris. The Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris has been a long-standing icon, even after the 2019 fire brought down the roof and flèche. After a long reconstruction process, the cathedral reopened in 2024, but the roof and flèche aren’t the only parts of Notre-Dame to experience a little work.