once the craft had left Earth. 11 While the damage
remains under investigation, researchers back on the
ground resolved a different “extraterrestrial” mystery
surrounding a mummiied skeleton sometimes
called the Atacama Alien. 12 The tiny individual,
just 6 inches long and supericially reminiscent of
large-eyed Hollywood aliens, has stoked conspiracy
theories about E.T. loose in the Chilean desert ever
since it was found there in 2003. 13 But high-quality
DNA analysis published in Genome Research in
March conirmed that the body is that of an unfortu-
nate human fetus with multiple catastrophic genetic
abnormalities. 14 Different tiny remains made big
news in paleontology: The journal PeerJ published
a report on the toe claw of a young Spinosaurus, the
largest known predatory dinosaur, which prowled
massive African river systems 100 million years ago.
15 By analyzing the bone’s texture, the researchers
determined little Spiny died in infancy — but was
still nearly 6 feet long. 16 Though described for
the irst time in May, that teensy toe tip wasn’t new
to science. It was collected in Morocco in 1999,
but went unstudied until now. 17 Other fossils are
still awaiting analysis on museum shelves around
the world, their potential signiicance unknown. A
September study in Biology Letters estimated that
the amount of such “dark data” could be 23 times
that of published material. 18 We’re a little less in
the dark about STEVE, however. For decades, these
Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancements
— brief but brilliant purplish ribbons across upper
latitude night skies — were thought to be a rare kind
of aurora. 19 In a Geophysical Research Letters
paper published in August, however, researchers
reported that STEVE is deinitely not an aurora.
That’s because the charged particles that rain down
from Earth’s magnetosphere and cause auroras
aren’t necessarily present when STEVE is seen. But
no one has found just what causes STEVE — yet.
20 We lost a different Steve of sorts this year:
physicist Stephen Hawking, who died March 14
(Pi Day, no less). As we step into 2019, let’s take his
advice to heart: “Be curious.”^ DGemma Tarlach is senior editor at Discover.1 Across the nation, we were deeply divided...
between those who heard “laurel” in a sound clip and
those who insisted it was “yanny.” The actual word in
the audio ile, circulated on social media in May, was
“laurel.” (Sorry, Team Yanny.) 2 The word perceived
in the low-quality recording of an online pronuncia-
tion guide depended on factors such as whether a
listener’s hearing was biased toward low or high
frequencies, according to a Current Biology study
published in July. 3 Such auditory illusions are essen-
tially our brains trying to make sense of ambiguous
information. Want a little more brain ambiguity?
Paleoanthropologists are rethinking a basic idea
about how our gray matter evolved. 4 Modern
human brains are exceptionally large and complex,
and researchers assumed size came irst, or at least in
tandem with the development of sophisticated cere-
bral structures. 5 But in May, in the journal PNAS, a
team used endocasts — impressions of the cranium’s
interior — to reconstruct the brain of Homo naledi, a
distant cousin of ours irst described in 2015. 6 The
smaller-brained South African hominin
appears to have had some of the architec-
ture associated with advanced cognitive
processes. The indings hint that human
brains may have evolved complexity irst
and size second. 7 Marine biologists are
taking a creative approach to studying some
other squishy stuff: delicate invertebrates
such as jellyish. A new, origami-inspired
tool offers a way to collect data on the
animal without damaging it. 8 Described in July in
Science Robotics, the device looks like a ower when
open but, once its ive “petals” close around the speci-
men, resembles a translucent soccer ball, allowing
scientists to catch and release invertebrates without
harm. 9 The culprit in the irst space-based whodunit
has yet to be caught. First reported in September
as possible micrometeorite damage, a small hole
that caused a drop in pressure in a Soyuz transport
craft docked at the International Space Station
now appears to have been drilled. 10 Russia’s space
agency pushed back against media reports suggesting
botched construction, and hinted instead that it
may have been a deliberate action by a crew memberDISCOVER (ISSN 0274-7529, USPS# 555-190) is published monthly, except for combined issues in January/February and July/August. Vol. 40, no. 1. Published by Kalmbach Media Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612,
Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. Periodical postage paid at Waukesha, WI, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DISCOVER, P.O. Box 8520, Big Sandy, TX 75755. Canada Publication Agreement
# 40010760. Back issues available. All rights reserved. Nothing herein contained may be reproduced without written permission of Kalmbach Media Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612.
Printed in the U.S.A. FROM TOP: HEATHER GARVIN; EMERY SMITH; MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND WYSS INSTITUTE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY; DAVID MONTGOMERY/GETTY IMAGEShe Year in Science
BY GEMMA TARLACH20 Things You Didn’t Know About ...
98 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
From top: A digital
reconstruction
of the brain
of our cousin
Homo naledi; the
“Atacama Alien,” a
Chilean — and very
human — mummy;
an origami-inspired
device that provides
a gentler way to
study fragile marine
invertebrates;
physicist Stephen
Hawking in 1993.