Long before black became the world’s most fashionable color, life on Earth was dressed in neon pink. Remnants of this distant rose-tinted era can still be seen in the fossilized remains of bacteria that lived in an ancient ocean 1.1 billion years ago, making them the oldest known biological pigments on the planet. The discovery […]
Anyone For A Mini Titanosaur? New Species Is One Of The Smallest Ever Found
A new species of titanosaur has been described from Argentina. Found in rocks dating back almost 70 million years, the mini job has been named Titanomachya gimenezi and was 10 times smaller than its largest titanosaur relatives, making it one of the smallest ever described. The fossils were retrieved from Chubut Province in Patagonian Argentina […]
Ol Doinyo Lengai Is The Weirdest Volcano On Earth, Maybe In The Solar System
Ol Doinyo Lengai is one of the weirdest volcanoes on planet Earth, perhaps even in the whole Solar System. While it appears typical enough from afar, take a peek into its northern crater and you’ll see it oozes with a unique form of black lava that’s relatively cool and flows like runny motor oil. Located […]
Evidence For A Subatomic Particle Predicted By Fermi
Chinese particle physicists have announced evidence for a new subatomic particle found when the (J/psi) meson decays to a positive and negative pion pair. Although new subatomic particles are found relatively often, and reports of tentative discoveries are more common still, this one stands out because it was predicted more than 70 years ago by […]
Why The Philosophy Of Science Matters
In recent years, there has been a shift in the public perception of science. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a modest but noticeable increase in mistrust of scientists and science as an institution, especially in the US. According to a new editorial, the issue may relate to the public understanding of the philosophy of […]
New Species Of Super-Cute Tiger Cat Discovered With An Uncertain Future
A new – and indescribably cute – species of tiger cat has been identified by scientists in Brazil. Unfortunately, just like its other tiger cat cousins, the species is under threat from rampant deforestation and habitat destruction. Also known as the oncilla, tiger cats are small spotted cats that quietly stalk Central and South America, […]
Victus Haze: The US Space Force To Conduct Its First Ever Military Simulation In Space
The world may soon see what could be the first ever military exercise in Earth’s orbit, with the US Space Force finally living up to its name and using military force in space. The Space Force, which has been mocked for adopting the Star Trek logo as its own logo, having its own horse, and […]
How Do You Age An Octopus? Count Their “Rings” Like Trees
The question of how to tell how old an octopus is has been at the forefront of researchers’ minds as they seek effective strategies to help age these animals, and thereby work to combat issues associated with overfishing and the growing demand for commercially harvesting octopuses for consumption. Octopuses typically have pretty short lifespans, depending […]
NASA To Make Announcement Today About Project Searching For Life On Mars
NASA is set to make an announcement today on the future of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) project, which aims, as the name very much suggests, to return samples of rocks and soil to Earth. Rovers placed on the Red Planet have been tasked with collecting samples of it. During their time on an alien […]
Spooky “Ghostly” Ant Named After Voldemort Is New-To-Science Species
A strange, ghost-like ant discovered deep underground has been declared a new species, with a shiny new Harry Potter-themed name to boot. Leptanilla voldemort, as the novel species has been called, is pale, slender, and prefers life on the dark side, much like its namesake. Just two specimens of the mysterious ant were discovered in […]
Is There A Limit To Human Life?
This article first appeared in Issue 18 of our digital magazine CURIOUS. In 2011, a UK survey asked the public a simple question: would you like to live forever? More than five out of every six people said no. Advertisement Turn it around, though, and the opposite is equally off-putting: do you want to die? […]
Dali Hit Key Bridge With The Force Of 66 Heavy Trucks At Highway Speed
CC BY-ND The cargo ship Dali knocked down three main truss spans, constructed with connected steel elements forming triangles, on the Francis Scott Key Bridge just seconds after crashing into one of the bridge piers early on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024. The bridge collapse happened so fast that it left little time for the […]
In 1816, The World Saw A Year Without Summer
Summer normally sees the trees full of green, blue skies (ok, maybe not here in England), and deliciously warm, long days – but for people living in the Northern Hemisphere in 1816, those days never came. What was “The Year Without Summer”? The Year Without Summer was pretty much what it says on the tin; […]
Conspiracy Theorists Seem To Favour An Intuitive Thinking Style – Here’s Why That’s Important
I have been researching the psychology of conspiracy beliefs for seven years now and people often ask me why people believe in them. This is not a simple question. There are many reasons people might endorse conspiracy theories. Something that stands out to me, though, is how our thinking styles can influence the way we […]
If Life Exists On Jupiter’s Moon Europa, Scientists Might Soon Be Able To Detect It
Europa is one of the largest of more than 90 moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. It is also one of the best places to look for alien life. Often termed an “ocean world” by scientists, observations to date strongly suggest that beneath Europa’s icy crust, there could be a liquid saltwater ocean containing […]
What Do AM And PM Actually Mean?
Most of us will have been made aware from a young age that “am” and “pm” refer to the first half and the second half of the day, or morning and afternoon/evening – but what do those letters actually stand for? Take a look at Latin Some people might think Latin is a dead language, […]
Three Mariners Rescued After “HELP” Sign Spotted On Tiny Remote Island In Pacific Ocean
After getting stranded on a tiny island in Micronesia for over a week, three mariners who made a “HELP” sign out of palm leaves were successfully rescued in a joint mission between the US Coast Guard and Navy. On April 6, the Coast Guard’s Joint Rescue Sub-Center (JRSC) in Guam received a call from a […]
Are Sea Buckthorn Berries The Newest “Superfood”?
Sometimes it seems as though there’s a constant stream of new so-called “superfoods”, supposedly nutrient-dense nosh that comes with a bunch of health benefits. Thanks to a new study, the latest that’s been added to the pile is the sea buckthorn berry – but is this small, bright orange ball really capable of tackling diabetes […]
Why Antarctica Is A Desert
Despite its freezing temperatures, Antarctica is a desert because it receives very little rain or snow. Deserts are defined as landscapes where little precipitation occurs. While there are no strict criteria for what makes a desert, it typically refers to a region that receives less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain or snow per […]
Blue Whales Caught Performing The Largest Mating Dance On Earth In Rare Photos, We Know What Caused The Brightest Explosion Ever Seen In Space, And Much More This Week
This week, the world’s oldest preserved fossil polyene pigments were found in 12-million-year-old snail shells, long before dogs, foxes may have been humans’ best friend, and we say goodbye to Polaris as we prepare to get a new north star. Finally, we ask what on Earth is a henge? Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for […]
