Every parent who has ever sifted through their child’s hair with a nit comb has had the temptation to just grab the electric razor and be done with it. Yet while a kindergarten full of hairless toddlers may eliminate one local infestation, what would happen if we expanded the anti-lice campaign on a global scale? […]
Scrawny Star With Large Planet Breaks Galactic Speed Record At 1.9 Million Kilometers Per Hour
Around the galaxy exist stars that have been given a push, and orbit much faster than the vast majority of their stellar companions. These are known as hypervelocity stars, with some moving faster than the escape velocity of the Milky Way of around 600 kilometers (373 miles) per second. There is another star that is […]
The Woman Who Helped Astronomers Map The Stars And Prove A Universe Beyond Our Galaxy
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: The Woman Who Helped […]
Watch Amazon River Dolphins Pee Straight Up Into The Air: They May Be Sending Messages To Their Mates
It’s not unusual for species to have a few tricks up their sleeves that we never knew about. Blue whales can sing low enough to remain undetected by killer whales, tarantulas can run just as fast with six legs as they do with eight, and now research has revealed that Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) […]
Deep Sea Beryllium Spike Shows Something Big Happened 10 Million Years Ago, But What?
The Pacific seafloor laid down around 10 million years ago is dramatically enriched in beryllium-10, compared to older and younger layers. The geologists who discovered this spike propose it could be the result of a major shift in ocean currents, which reshaped the climate for a period. Alternatively, it could indicate a nearby supernova we […]
How Did The XB-1 Jet Break The Sound Barrier Without Producing An Audible Sonic Boom?
Boom Supersonic, the company aiming to create commercial planes that can travel faster than the speed of sound, have successfully tested their XB-1 jet. According to the company, the jet was able to fly without producing a sonic boom that was audible from the ground. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE During the flight on 28 January, […]
Does Pregnancy Change The Father’s Brain? Here’s What We Know
Beyond the expected, like morning sickness and weird food cravings, pregnancy can cause all sorts of bizarre changes in the body. Research has shown that these changes extend even as far as the structure of the brain, which makes sense when you consider that the body is growing an entirely new life and preparing for […]
“They’re Advancing Much Faster Than Anticipated,” Hybrid Fire Ant Threat Heats Up In Virginia
A strange invader is marching across the United States, born of two different species. Red fire ants and black fire ants have both been imported to the US, and now they’ve teamed up to create a hybrid that’s more aggressive and more resilient than either of its parents. Meet Solenopsis invicta × richteri. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
What Is “Lemonading”? Scientists Name A Superpower For Navigating Tough Times
When the proverbial shit hits the fan, we all have different ways of dealing with it, but a new study has identified a personality type that may fare better than others during tough times: playful. Yes, that thing we do constantly as kids but that can get squashed out of us as we grow, it […]
Plants Have Given Us Crucial Lifesaving Drugs – And Now We Risk Losing Them
“We often say that anybody who doesn’t believe that herbal medicines work has obviously never tried morphine,” Professor John Newton, consultant public health physician and Garden Fellow at The Royal College of Physicians’ garden of medicinal plants tells me. The college, a leading professional body for doctors in the UK, is also home to a […]
A Black Hole May Be Firing Fast Stars At Us From The Large Magellanic Cloud
Some fast-moving stars within the Milky Way have been traced back to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In a preprint paper that has not yet completed peer review, the astronomers who demonstrated these stars’ origin consider them evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole within the nearby galaxy, whose gravity is accelerating the […]
Some Cockatoos Love Condiments, Though Their Flavor Combos Are Questionable
Can you not bear to eat fries without smothering them in ketchup? Perhaps you like to dip yours in a Wendy’s Frosty. Well, it turns out this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to be exclusive to humans – a new study has found some Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) love a condiment too. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]
The Byford Dolphin Diving Incident
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: The Byford Dolphin Diving […]
Don’t Get Too Excited By Images Of So-Called “Doorways” On Mars
It’s been a busy few weeks for certain people discussing purportedly strange features on Mars. First, there was the “square structure“, then there were the Phobos and Mars “monoliths”. Now, some are once again talking about so-called “doorways” on Mars – however, the image they cite is likely not what it seems. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]
Largest Structure In The Near Universe Discovered – 130,000 Times More Massive Than Our Galaxy
Mapping the distribution of matter in the universe is an important quest for cosmology and astrophysics. There is a battle going on between the universe’s accelerated expansion and gravity trying to keep things all together. Some absolutely enormous structures have been found in the distant universe, but even closer to us there are gargantuan ones. […]
We Explored A Crime Scene House – And This Is What We Found
As I approached the front door of this two-story house, I was struck by how ordinary it looked and how easily it blended into the surrounding houses on the street. There was an accessibility ramp that led inside and, entering the building, I was greeted by a post office counter. What was out of the […]
Humanity’s Best Chance of Sampling Extraterrestrial Life Could Be Thwarted By Physics
The ocean inside Enceladus is likely to be strongly layered in a way that may prevent evidence of life from rising from its hoped-for locations to where we could detect it, new modeling suggests. If so, our prospects for confirming that Earth is not the only world in the Solar System with biology would fall […]
Montana Considers Becoming First US State To Ban mRNA Vaccine Use
On Friday, February 7, a hearing took place in the Montana state legislature on a bill that would ban the use of mRNA vaccines in humans. The bill was sponsored by State Representative Greg Kmetz with the support of other Republicans, and if it were to pass into law this would mark a first in […]
New Way To Hunt Dark Matter: Precise Atomic Clocks And Lasers
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter believed to be everywhere, outnumbering regular matter (what we’re made of) 5-to-1. It doesn’t emit or interact with light, so it is invisible to our instruments – that’s why we call it dark. We know that it ought to be there because observations of the universe match […]
Humpback Whale Song Follows Zipf’s Law, A Fundamental Law Of Human Language
Whale song is something we humans listen to when relaxing – but new research has shown that, as a form of communication, it ain’t messing around. A new study has found that certain whale species’ vocalizations adhere to two linguistic laws of efficiency seen in human language: Menzerath’s law and Zipf’s law (with Zipf’s law […]
