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.

Discover

Hindsight Is 2020

INBOX

THE LATEST NEWS AND NOTES • DARK MATTER • SNAKEBITE STORY • SEAHORSE SANCTUARY • GAMES TO PLAY BOOK & PODCAST REVIEWS • ANCIENT CITIES • FICTION READERS

Do All Galaxies Have Dark Matter? • THE DISCOVERY OF TWO GHOSTLY GALAXIES CREATED A HULLABALOO IN THE ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY. BUT THE JURY’S STILL OUT ON WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON.

Once Bitten • AFTER SUFFERING A VENOMOUS SNAKEBITE, HERPETOLOGIST GERRY MARTIN WAS STRANDED FOR DAYS IN AN INDIAN VILLAGE.

Seahorse Paradise • RESEARCHERS ARE RUSHING TO SAVE A BAHAMIAN POND CRITICAL TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF SEAHORSE ECOLOGY — AS WELL AS THEIR EVOLUTION.

WHAT WE’RE READING

More Pages to Turn

TUNE IN

WHAT WE’RE PLAYING

More Games to Play

WHICH ANCIENT CITY IS CONSIDERED THE OLDEST IN THE WORLD? • ARCHAEOLOGISTS STILL DEBATE WHICH CITY CAME FIRST — LET ALONE HOW TO DEFINE ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT A FEW SETTLEMENTS OFFER ILLUMINATING VIEWS OF EARLY URBAN LIFE.

THE EMPATHETIC READER • MAYBE A FICTION LOVER REALLY DOES “LIVE A THOUSAND LIVES BEFORE HE DIES.”

THE STATE OF SCIENCE 2021 • COVID-19 • RACISM: AN INSIDE LOOK • EXPEDITION • THE BODY • UNEARTHED • WATER & AIR • FORCES • TECH • YEAR IN PHOTOS

ALL EYES ON COVID • In 2020, the world looked to science as a new virus spread across the globe, leaving a permanent mark on human health, behavior and nature — and on science itself.

COVID-19 TIMELINE

A BRIEF GUIDE TO VACCINE TYPES

THE SOCIAL SYMPTOMS OF COVID-19 • Isolation, loneliness and resistance to health guidelines: Scientists are evaluating the psychological impact of the COVID pandemic.

DID COVID HEAL NATURE? • A global shutdown seemed to turn over city streets (and, supposedly, canals) to wildlife. Ecologists saw something deeper.

THE VIRUS THAT CHANGED SCIENCE • COVID-19 uprooted much of human life — including how we do research. The pandemic could bring permanent changes to the field.

Black in Academia • How far have we come, and how far do we still have to go?

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR SPACE TRAVEL • SpaceX launches the first privately owned capsule carrying NASA astronauts to the space station and back.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST POLAR EXPEDITION • How thin ice and historically warm Arctic summers complicated MOSAiC’s $150-million hunt for climate data.

Strange Space Signals • Odd detections at the South Pole defied explanation, inviting theories beyond conventional physics.

CRISPR Gets Under the Skin • Gene editing leaps to the next level with the injection of a CRISPR complex directly into a patient’s eye to combat a form of hereditary blindness.

HOW IT WORKS

NEW HOPE IN FIGHTING FOOD ALLERGIES • FDA’s OK of first drug signals more treatments to come.

DAWN OF THE STEM CELL REVOLUTION? • Researchers test more therapies with novel techniques for a range of diseases.

EDITING THE MITOCHONDRIA • There’s a mini second genome inside your cells, but no one could figure out how to edit it — until now.

MTDNA CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS EDITOR

A WATER-DWELLING DINO, LOST AND FOUND • More than a century after its discovery, one of the strangest dinosaurs of all time is swimming into focus.

Chipped Teeth Offer Evolutionary Clues • Researchers salvage ancient proteins to learn more about human ancestors.

NOPE, THIS SKULL WAS NO BABOON • A fossil that sat exposed at a cave site for eight years upends...