The nearby dwarf galaxy Segue 1 is exceptionally faint for its mass, which has puzzled astronomers almost since its discovery. A new paper proposes this could be because it hosts a ridiculously oversized supermassive black hole, relative to Segue 1’s population of stars. They have calculated that a black hole about 450,000 times the mass […]
Newly Spotted Vaquita Babies Offer Glimmer Of Hope For World’s Rarest Marine Mammal
It’s good news for the smallest and most endangered cetacean of them all, as a recent survey confirmed sightings of between 7 and 10 vaquitas – and the birth of new calves. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. It was only two […]
Do Bees Really “Explode” When They Mate? Yes, Yes They Do
Biosecurity isn’t typically very funny, but please, I beg of you, commit a few moments to watching this discussion at the Australian Senate about honeybee breeding. The year is 2016, and a lot of people at the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee are about to learn that bees explode when they […]
How Do We Brush A Hippo’s Teeth?
Hippo teeth are not to be underestimated. I mean, have you seen them? They chomp through entire pumpkins like it’s no big deal. So how on Earth do you go about it when those sharp ol’ chompers need a bit of extra help to stay clean? Calgary Zoo has some answers for us. Its resident […]
Searching For Nessie: IFLScience Takes On Cryptozoology
Although it’s been nearly 100 years since Nessie was first brought to international attention, no one has provided any unambiguous proof of its existence, and yet every year, thousands of people flock to Scotland in hopes of seeing it. To find out what’s going on, we dispatched our IFLScience Investigates team – a motley bunch […]
Your Halloween Pumpkin Could Be Concealing Toxic Chemicals – And Now We Know Why
That perfectly carved pumpkin sitting pretty on your porch could be hiding a dark secret. You see, pumpkins, squash, and other gourds can harbor toxic pollutants, posing a potential health risk if ingested. Now, new research has revealed the biology underpinning this phenomenon, and the findings could help to clean up pumpkin’s pernicious act. The […]
The Aztec Origins Of The Day Of The Dead (And The Celtic Roots Of Halloween)
The Aztecs and the Celts were separated by an entire ocean and several millennia, which means they never met and had absolutely nothing to do with other. Despite this, their respective beliefs around death and the afterlife have now become fused to create both Halloween and the Day of the Dead (or Día de los […]
Large, Bright, And Gold: Get Ready For The Biggest Supermoon Of The Year
While the night sky might be set aglow with fireworks and bonfires in the UK next Wednesday, there’s another dazzling sight that evening that you’ll be able to see across the globe: the biggest supermoon of the year. If you’re unfamiliar, a supermoon is the name for when a full Moon happens at the same […]
For Just Two Days A Year, These Male Toads Turn A Jazzy Bright Yellow. Now We Know Why
If you’re trying to find a date, you want to look your best, right? Snazzy outfit, slick hair, makeup on point – whatever it takes to get the best choice of partner in the Grand Annual Orgy. Sound familiar? Well, it would if you were a toad. “Asian Common Toads (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) [are] an explosive […]
Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Back From Behind The Sun – Still Not An Alien Spacecraft, Though
Our interstellar visitor is visible again after reaching its closest approach to the Sun yesterday. The PUNCH mission, a group of small satellites studying the Sun, spotted comet 3I/ATLAS as it came out of the Sun’s glare. The interstellar comet, the third known object formed in another star system to be tracked through our Solar […]
Bowhead Whales Can Live For 200 Years – This May Explain Their Extraordinary Longevity
The bowhead whale is the world’s longest-living mammal, sometimes making it to a staggering 200 years old. How does it do it? A new study sheds some light on the secrets of this curious cetacean’s extreme longevity – and it could have ramifications for how we tackle aging in our own species too. As well […]
Trump Orders First Nuclear Weapons Test In The US Since 1992 – Here’s What You Need To Know
US President Donald Trump has revealed on social media that he has instructed the Pentagon (now known as the Department of War) to resume nuclear weapons testing in the United States for the first time in 33 years. According to Trump, the decision to conduct the highly controversial tests stems from a need to keep […]
Tiny Triceratops-Tackling Tyrannosaur Was Its Own Species, Not A Baby T. Rex
Two paleontologists think they have settled a long-standing debate as to whether certain fossils from the very end of the Cretaceous represent a distinct species of small tyrannosaur, or juvenile T. rex, as many had assumed. Their evidence relies on one of the pair of “Dueling Dinosaurs”, fossils that show a Triceratops fighting for its life […]
What Makes Ammolite Gemstones, A Rare Kind Of Fossilized Ammonite, So Vibrant? It’s All In The Nacre
At IFLScience, we often like to talk about the Mantelpiece Of Dreams, a line-up of rare geological trinkets we’d like to shine down on us as we sit on the sofa (were it not for, you know, ethics). London Natural History Museum’s Professor Paul Barrett said he’d like a triceratops skull (nice), our own Eleanor […]
Something Melted This Tesla’s Windscreen. Could It Have Been A World-First Meteorite Collision?
On October 19, South Australian vet Dr Andrew Melville-Smith’s newly collected car was struck by something, leaving damage unlike anything repairers have seen before. The South Australian Museum has requested access to the car to collect samples, and suspects this may be the first recorded case of a meteorite striking a car while it was […]
Carnivorous “Death-Ball” Sponge Among 30 New Deep-Sea Weirdos Discovered In The Southern Ocean
There’s always a lot going on in the deep ocean, but anyone who had “carnivorous ‘death-ball’ sponge” on their bingo card for 2025 deserves to win the prize. It’s one of 30 new species discovered by researchers exploring the deep dark depths of the Southern Ocean, some of them pretty peculiar – even for the […]
Chimps Can Revise Beliefs When Confronted With Conflicting Evidence. Can You?
Chimpanzees at Uganda’s Ngamba Island Sanctuary can do what was once considered an exclusively human trait: form expectations on the basis of evidence, but revise them on learning new facts. Responding to evidence is an essential skill for the survival of any animal, but given how often humans neglect our supposed superpower, seeing another species […]
Explosive Airbursts, Like Tunguska, Might Be Hiding Among “Halloween Fireballs” Meteor Shower
Meteor showers are the product of comets or asteroids dropping debris on their orbit. Once these debris streams cross the Earth, they burn up in the atmosphere, creating the shooting stars that we know and love. Many famous comets are responsible for famous showers, but the most prolific seems to be Comet Encke. It might […]
One Of The World’s Rarest Penguins Is Actually Three Subspecies In A Trench Coat
Genetic analysis of the hoiho, also known as the yellow-eyed penguin, has revealed that this species is in fact made up of three distinct subspecies – knowledge that could be crucial in preventing these rare and notoriously shy birds from going extinct. Found solely on the New Zealand mainland and Enderby and Campbell Islands, the […]
“I Am The Allergen”: The Super-Rare Condition That Makes Everyone Else Allergic To You
Being allergic to other people is one thing (and it sounds terrible, honestly). But imagine if the opposite were true – and everybody else were allergic to you. It sounds like the monkey’s paw interpretation of an asthmatic’s lament, but it’s an oh-so-real phenomenon. It’s called “People Allergic To Me” – often shortened to PATM […]
