Discover October 2018

It was an autumn day, and I was standing in the kitchen, hunched over the counter and trying to figure out how many calories were in a bowl of homemade yogurt and fruit. And I was frustrated. I was 16, and my best friend and I had gone to our first Weight Watchers meeting. It was the rage in the mid-1980s, and even though I was an athlete, like many teen girls I didn’t necessarily like what I saw in the mirror. But after a week or so of logging every meal and snack and calculating the calories, I had had enough. I went back to my routine of chowing what I wanted, running and skiing, and let that be that. And it’s still pretty much what I do; as…

What’s Wrong With Octopi? (“Everything Worth Knowing: Octopuses,” July/August 2018) I’ve been reading Discover since the first promotional issue hit my mailbox eons ago, and I look forward to every issue. I loved the latest Everything Worth Knowing issue, especially the enlightening article on listeria. The main reason I am writing, though, is octopi! I have often wondered why it became octopuses, which I find terribly awkward. I will now go with octopodes and confuse everyone. Thank you so much for keeping the magazine as excellent as it’s always been. Roy Blazejowski Meriden, Conn. Trippy Treatment (“Into the Mystic,” April 2018) I was excited to see this article, and I hope to hear about more research on the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin. I’d like to see the Drug Enforcement Administration…

Crickets Are the New Cows (“A New Animal Farm,” July/August 2018) Meat — it’s what’s for dinner. Though maybe not for much longer. Entrepreneurs are working to find a protein alternative to serve up to the public, and it looks like crickets could be the answer. Twitter users respond to the idea of mass cricket consumption: @PeterPumer (Butter Emails) If it’s a matter of forestalling climate change for a few more years, I’m taking one for the team. @praisehonk (Jimjamyaha) Nah, jog on. We know how this goes and why they want to be able to feed their lower classes insects. Eat it yourself. Feedback is edited for space and clarity.…

MOTION DETECTOR For most patients, getting an MRI means holding still while a massive machine scans a body part, building an image one slice at a time. But researchers at the New York University School of Medicine have engineered a novel MRI design woven into a flexible glove that, for the first time, can capture detailed images of moving joints (inset). The device shows potential in diagnosing repetitive strain injuries and creating a more versatile hand anatomy atlas, the researchers say.…

SHOTS RANG OUT ACROSS a Phoenix apartment complex one cool desert night last December. A patrolman arrived to investigate. Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 36, answered his knock at the door — covered in blood. His mom and stepdad were dead inside. Within just days (short work for crime-solving), detectives discovered that distinct markings on the bullets from the apartment matched others from violent crime scenes across the Phoenix area. Cooksey’s guns ultimately tied him to nine gruesome murders that had occurred over a three-week period. The quick analysis came thanks to a new digital technique for comparing the markings on bullets. It’s a long-awaited technological update that removes subjective human interpretation and — once widely adopted — could revolutionize solving violent crimes. Forensic scientists around the world currently rely on a…

ONCE YOU BECOME AN ADULT, it’s all downhill for your neurons: You can lose them, but you can’t gain any more. That was the prevailing theory until research over the last two decades convinced scientists that older brains do create new neurons — a process called neurogenesis. Neurons are added to two regions of the brain, most notably the hippocampus, where they may contribute to the region’s role in learning and memory. Or maybe not: The neurogenesis debate was recently reignited. In Science Smackdown, we let experts argue the evidence. The Claim NOT A SINGLE NEW NEURON In a March paper in Nature, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco said they couldn’t find any evidence of adult neurogenesis. “If it happens, it is a very rare phenomenon,” says…