Discover July/Aug 2020

Features 

5| EDITOR’S NOTE
A User’s Guide to Us
How did the global pandemic change the way we looked at this special issue of the magazine?

6| INBOX
Readers weigh in on dogs riding with their heads out the window, the ethics of bringing back extinct animals and more.

7| THE CRUX
Special Report on COVID-19: How the pandemic is affecting a doctor on the front
lines, what you can do to prevent the spread, how the virus affects the body, and more.

26| VITAL SIGNS
A Wildfire in the Brain
Doctors remove an oozing mass inside a woman’s skull. Then, it comes back.
BY CLAIRE PANOSIAN DUNAVAN

30| NOTES FROM EARTH
Oceans Beneath the Oceans
The water stored in the inner layers of Earth may be more plentiful — and important — than scientists previously thought.
BY STEVE NADIS

62| PROGNOSIS
When the Fever Doesn’t Break
The spread of dengue taps into a perfect storm of climate change and economic strife.
BY STEPHEN ROBERT MILLER

68| HISTORY LESSONS
Your Hyperbolic Mind
How a form of geometry once considered mathematical heresy could help us understand human perception.
BY STEPHEN ORNES

74| 20 THINGS YOU
DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT …Longevity
Is there a secret to living a long and prosperous life?
BY JONATHON KEATS