Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake (and the largest tropical lake in the world), spreading into three countries and supporting over 47 million people. But it has a significant problem that threatens the future of that support – it’s turning green. Why is Lake Victoria turning green? ADVERTISEMENT Unfortunately, this isn’t because of a St […]
This Is The Age When Your Brain Starts Aging Faster – And It Starts A “Critical Window”
Much about aging feels like a gradual process – you don’t go to bed fresh-faced the day before your 60th birthday and then wake up looking saggier than a Shar Pei. But, when it comes to the brain, a recent study suggests that there’s a point where it begins to age much more rapidly, before […]
Physicist Thinks He May Have Solved The Time Travel “Grandfather Paradox”, But There’s A Twist
A physicist believes he may have solved the notorious “grandfather paradox”, suggesting that time travel to the past may not be ruled out by this particular branch of physics. ADVERTISEMENT First off, what is the grandfather paradox? Unlike the bootstrap paradox, which gets a little messy, the grandfather paradox is fairly simple to explain. Say […]
Want To Hear What A Shark Sounds Like? Vitamin A Should Not Be Used As A Home Remedy For Measles, And Much More This Week
This week, a lost aurora on Neptune that was first hinted at 36 years ago has finally been captured by JWST, a newly discovered 90-million-year-old therizinosaur species has shocked scientists with one “unusual” trait, and, new evidence suggests the first giant land organism may have no living relatives, concluding they may be part of an […]
Are Emulsifiers Really Bad For Our Health?
IFLScience needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out ourPrivacy Policy Deborah BloomfieldSource Link: Are Emulsifiers Really Bad […]
In 1979, A Deep-Sea Mining Experiment Carved Up The Seabed. 44 Years On, We’re Finding Out Its Impacts
The world needs more batteries. That’s what we keep hearing in the push for greener energy, and we can’t build enough to meet global demand without obtaining more battery metals. ADVERTISEMENT Here we come across a bit of a sticking point, because getting more metal has historically called for more mining. Mine on land and […]
Magic Mushroom Medicine, Neptune’s Aurora Confirmed, And First-Ever Shark Sounds
This week on Break It Down: a new study has become the first to document what sound a shark makes, Neptune has been confirmed to have an aurora thanks to the best telescope ever, a pipeline construction site turned up the terrifying claw of a new species of therizinosaur, why people are trying to prevent […]
Arctic Sea Ice Winter Maximum At Lowest Level Since Records Began 47 Years Ago
Last weekend, on March 22, the Arctic Sea reached its maximum coverage of ice for the winter season and it is the lowest since satellite records began 47 years ago. The sea ice covered 14.33 million square kilometers (5.53 million square miles), about 1.3 million square kilometers (506,000 square miles) below the 1981-2010 average. That […]
It’s Spring In The US – And That Means It’s Time To Be “Bear Aware”. Here’s How
Spring has well and truly sprung in the Northern Hemisphere, and while that might see more of us reaching for the antihistamines as the blooms bring pollen, hay fever isn’t the only thing to be cautious of. In the US, some bears are beginning to come out of hibernation, and that means it’s time to […]
The Mpemba Effect: The Bizarre Phenomenon Where Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold
Imagine, if you will, two glasses of water, identical in all respects but one: their temperature. One contains hot water; the other, cold. You put both in the freezer. Which ices up first? ADVERTISEMENT The answer seems obvious, right? It’s gotta be the cold glass – the water inside has fewer degrees to drop. And […]
Bill Gates Predicts We Could Have A Two-Day Work Week By 2035, Thanks To AI
Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in February and made some bold predictions for the future and the role that artificial intelligence (AI) might play in it. The comments have recently making the rounds online – and there are a lot of feelings surrounding them. ADVERTISEMENT Gates […]
Caterpillar-Like Hummingbird Chick Could Be Rare Example Of Batesian Mimicry In Birds
The animal world is always full of surprises. Even a long-studied species can hold a few secrets hidden between their fur or scales. From the sounds sharks make to the hunting habits of cuttlefish, there is always something new to discover. Now researchers may have stumbled upon a rare case of bird mimicry inside a […]
If Correlation Does Not Mean Causation, How Do Scientists Prove Stuff?
Humans are clever things. We’re inventors, artists, scientists, and so much more, but despite our incredible achievements, we’re still pretty dumb when we want to be. Our brains are evolutionarily and psychologically predisposed to make certain fallacies when it comes to our thinking, and a common one relates to the subtle difference between causation and […]
Don’t Wash Your Rice? Hope You Like The Taste Of Rice Weevils
There could be a pantry invader hiding in your rice and you wouldn’t know it. The crafty rice weevil can get into bags of rice in its larval form, tucked safely inside a grain as it develops. ADVERTISEMENT Rice weevils aren’t especially uncommon, and even if you did eat them nothing bad would happen. They […]
What Was The First Book To Be Banned In America?
The early history of European colonization of America is often romanticized, but this is far from the messy truth. In reality, colonization was achieved by rival groups of settlers with competing agendas, ideologies, and religious beliefs. As these groups jostled for control, conflicts were bound to occur, and they were just as petty as many […]
Individuals Who’ve Had COVID Could Be 8 Times As Likely To Develop The Chronic Condition ME/CFS
COVID-19 appears to be associated with a substantial rise in the number of ME/CFS cases, according to a new study. Using data from a long COVID research initiative run by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the scientists calculated that the incidence of ME/CFS is now 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels, and found […]
Ancient Maya Took Their Ancestors’ Bones With Them When They Moved House
A 2,000-year-old Maya burial in Belize has revealed some wild insights into the nature of pre-Hispanic removals. By identifying the remains of two non-local individuals, a researcher suggests that these bones may have been packed up and relocated when the site’s inhabitants first moved in, in an attempt to infuse their new house with the […]
Why We’ll Never Find A Frozen Dinosaur, But There Are Mummified Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago (well, apart from those feathered ones still alive today), but despite the incredible age of their fossils, we do find soft tissues intact. These mummified samples have provided snapshots into everything from dietary preferences to how dinosaurs had sex. ADVERTISEMENT Impressive stuff, but wouldn’t it be great if […]
Unexplained Structures Found Deep Underneath The Pacific Ocean
Geoscientists have used earthquakes to study the composition of the lower portion of the Earth’s mantle under the Pacific Ocean – and they’ve discovered something quite peculiar. There are zones where the seismic waves move in different ways, suggesting structures that are colder or have a different composition than the surrounding molten rocks. The team […]
The Faroe Islands Space Program Aims To Never Leave Earth (On Purpose)
On the Faroe Islands, there is a space program different from all others. Its aim is not to leave Earth and head into space, but to venture out into the depths of the Atlantic to harness a renewable energy source that originates from space, right here on Earth. Staggeringly, over 80 percent of global energy […]
