After receiving the thumbs up from regulators, California is set to build its first carbon capture plant with a project that aims to suck up CO2 and inject it deep underground where it can’t meddle with Earth’s climate. Last week, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a permit for the California Resources Corp (CRC) […]
What’s The Difference Between A Mineral, A Crystal, And A Gemstone?
We humans are a bit magpie-ish when it comes to the environment, our eyes growing big and greedy when we spot shiny things sticking out of rocks. Take a walk down the mineralogy collection of any good natural history museum and your face will be aglow with the sparkle of minerals, crystals, and gemstones – […]
Britain’s Most Haunted Castle: IFLScience Takes On The Supernatural
Welcome to IFLScience’s first-ever Halloween podcast special, bringing you a feature-length episode of The Big Questions as we take on the UK’s most haunted castle. We journeyed to Northumberland up by the Anglo-Scottish border to spend the night in Chillingham Castle, a place that allegedly boasts an above-average number of ghosts. We wanted to explore […]
What Is The Wave-Particle Duality?
Ideas from quantum physics have seeped into popular culture over recent decades in a way they failed to for the first half century after its development. Nevertheless, while memes about Schrödinger’s Cat or Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle abound on social media, the physics on which they are built is less widely known. The wave-particle duality is […]
Cosmic Drama: First Picture Of Our Supermassive Black Hole Is Not Accurate, New Study Claims
Newly published research suggests that the first-ever image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is not an accurate representation of the cosmic object. The image was revealed in 2022 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration that took the first-ever image of a black hole back in […]
Formerly Lost Zombie Star Supernova Is A Dandelion Glory In This 3D Reconstruction
Astronomers in China and Japan observed the appearance of a “guest star” in 1181 CE. It was a supernova and for the following 840 years it was lost. In 2021, a peculiar nebula was spotted by citizen scientist Dana Patchick and it was linked back to the witnessed event. Called Pa 30, it became a […]
Over 30 Percent Of World’s Tree Species At Risk Of Extinction
In the first assessment of its kind, nearly all of the world’s tree species have been added to the IUCN Red List, which acts as an inventory of species’ conservation status. In doing so, however, it’s been discovered that 38 percent of the tree species identified are currently at risk of extinction. The Global Tree […]
I Went To The UK’s Most Haunted Castle And Had My Heartrate Monitored… For Science
Sitting on a heavy wooden bench with torchlight illuminating the cold and breezy dungeon wasn’t what I thought I would be doing on a Tuesday night. Yet, there I was, next to my scared colleague, with a heart monitor on the end of my finger, in supposedly the UK’s most haunted castle, to figure out […]
The Millennium Prizes, And The Reclusive Math Genius Who Turned Down A Million Dollars
On August 8, 1900, at the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, David Hilbert presented 10 of 23 as-yet unsolved problems that he believed would be the “goals […] toward which the leading mathematical spirits of coming generations will strive.” He was right – though the fact that he was one of the most […]
Why Are Toilets White?
Okay, we know that not all toilets are white – who remembers those avocado and salmon pink bathrooms suites of the UK 1970s? But the vast majority of today’s toilets are white, and this seems to be the case across the world: in private homes, offices, and public bathrooms, apart from those terrifying stainless steel […]
New Zealand’s Pet Cloud Has Returned To Its Favourite Spot In Otago’s Mountains
New Zealand’s “pet cloud” has recently been spotted from high above Earth after returning to its favorite spot where it’s been seen time and time again for decades. Known locally as the “Taieri Pet,” the sausage-shaped cloud has continually formed over this part of Otago’s mountains on the South Island. Advertisement One of the first […]
Bat Beauty Contest Lets You Decide The Cutest Bat Of Them All
Forget pumpkin carving and trick or treating – the most important event of spooky season has just arrived, and it’s chock full of big wings, big ears, and some absolutely glorious puns. It’s time for the 2024 Bat Beauty Contest. If you’re unfamiliar, the Bat Beauty Contest is an annual online competition run by the […]
Why Do We Kiss? Its Evolutionary Roots May Lie In The “Groomer’s Final Kiss Hypothesis”
We’ve all been there: You’re on a date with someone, it’s maybe the second or third time you’ve met up, and everything’s going well. Then, as it’s time to part ways, the tension starts to mount. Furtive looks are shared, maybe some blushing, and eventually one of you takes the plunge – you stick your […]
Ice Melting Could Slow Vital Ocean Current – Which Could Slightly Slow Melting
Complementary studies by separate teams have explored the interactions between melting ice in the North Atlantic and the flow of a crucial ocean current. One intensifies the alarm many oceanographers have already expressed: that more rapid melting will cause a crucial part of the Gulf Stream system to slow or even stop, with disastrous consequences. […]
Women In STEM Get Paid 88 Percent Of Men’s Salaries At Most, New Report Finds
Women continue to be massively underrepresented across fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A damning new report from UNESCO and the G20 confirms this reality, showing that even with increased awareness of the disparity and drives for change, the situation has only improved very slightly since 2005, when 19 percent of STEM jobs […]
There’s A New “Most Canadian” Animal – And It’s Probably Not What You Expect
Beaver, moose, maybe a polar bear – all distinctly Canadian, right? They’re certainly icons of the North American nation, but when it comes to evolutionary distinctiveness, these animals are by no means the “most Canadian”. It turns out, by this metric, the spiny softshell turtle is in fact Canada’s most unique terrestrial animal. In a […]
The Portal Has Opened In A New US City, As If We Didn’t Learn From Last Time
The Portal – the interactive art installation that connected New York City to Dublin earlier this year and was briefly shut down due to “inappropriate behavior” and other shenanigans (we’re looking at you, Dublin) – has been relocated from NYC to Philadelphia’s Love Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza. The Portal, which stands […]
What Do Americans Fear In 2024? New Survey Shows Political Worries Are Sky High
The latest edition of the “fear study” shows that the US has become increasingly afraid and nervous over the past decade – especially when it comes to political concerns. As part of the Chapman University Survey of American Fears, political scientists and sociologists have been tracking the greatest fears of the American population for 10 […]
Teenagers Publish Trigonometric Proof Of Pythagoras’ Theorem Once Considered Impossible
High school students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson did something in 2023 that most mathematicians had thought impossible: They discovered a way to prove Pythagoras’ theorem using trigonometry that did not depend on circular reasoning. Now, they have published their work in a peer-reviewed academic paper, while also providing another four such proofs. Pythagoras’ theorem […]
Halloween Traditionally Doubles Up As A Cross-Quarter Day – But What Exactly Is That?
Spooky season is always a good excuse for a celebration, but did you know Halloween also occurs around the same time as an annual astronomical event? That’s right – it’s traditionally considered a cross-quarter day (although that timing is a little off from the “true” day – we’ll get into that later). Cross-quarter days are […]
