Jellyfish-like spurts of electricity recently lit up the sky over Puerto Rico in a rare natural event scarcely ever caught on camera. Known as “gigantic jets” or “giant sprites”, the electrical discharges are similar to so-called “red sprites” – although they are even more intense and rise upwards into the atmosphere, rather than zapping down […]
How Big Can Solar Flares Get And How Far Do They Travel?
As the Sun spits out more and bigger storms, videos of flares emerging from its surface help us see its power. Watching these, it usually looks like they peter out a few solar diameters away, but the truth is very different. Although the particles that accompany smaller flares can fall back as the powerful solar […]
Can This Tool Really Work Out Your Biological Age?
Interest in cosmetics, supplements, and diet plans that seek to stay the inevitable hand of time has arguably never been greater – but if you’re planning to try and slow down the aging process, it’s useful to know what baseline you’re starting from. There’s a tool that promises to help you do just that, providing […]
Earth Sausage, Pompeii Panic, And The Disco Planet
This week on Break It Down: two new victims discovered at the site of Pompeii tell a vivid story, Stonehenge’s altar stone reveals a surprising point of origin, plans to terraform Mars with “glitter”, ancient environments exposed in a kilometer-long Earth sausage, we may know where the dinosaur-killing asteroid came from, and a brief history […]
A “Giant Mercury Bomb” Threatens To Go Off In North America’s Arctic
A “giant mercury bomb” is ticking in the Arctic. As the world warms with climate change, mercury that’s been stored in the permafrost for thousands of years threatens to be set free into the environment, potentially wreaking havoc on wildlife and human life. Advertisement In a new study, scientists measured how much mercury could potentially […]
Mpox Detected In Sweden, The First European Case In The Latest Outbreak
Sweden has confirmed its first case of the clade I strain of mpox, the first case to be diagnosed outside of Africa. The news comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that the situation has been deemed a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Advertisement According to a statement from the […]
There’s A Beetle That Can Live To Be 50 Years Old
Ever think of a bug getting old? No? Us neither – but it turns out that when it comes to invertebrates, there are some surprisingly long lifespans on the records. When perusing the insect collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, there was one that really caught our eye: a beetle that can […]
Massive Solar Storm Opens Rare 2-Hour Magnetic Highway Between Sun And Earth
A colossal solar storm that erupted in April last year completely obliterated part of the Earth’s magnetic field, morphing the planet’s magnetosphere and causing it to grow “wings”. As a result of this spectacular rare event, a two-way highway between the Sun and Earth temporarily opened up, sending charged particles in both directions and sparking […]
Greenland Megatsunami Made a Fjord’s Waters Slosh For A Week
What if there was a megatsunami and nobody noticed? It almost happened last year, when a rockslide occurred halfway up Greenland’s east coast. The wave produced was initially 200 meters (650 feet) high, yet they got very little coverage – we must confess, IFLScience missed it as well. In our defense, no one was hurt […]
An Anti-Universe Running Backward In Time Could Explain Several Mysteries, Physicist Suggests
A physicist has suggested a pretty “out there” idea, attempting to explain a double mystery of where all the antimatter went, and why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. Advertisement Antimatter is made up of antiparticles, and every particle is thought to have an antimatter companion with the opposite charge. For example, an electron has a […]
NASA’s Planetary Defense Telescope Sends Back Final Image Before Shutting Down
NASA’s planetary defense telescope Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) has sent back its final image, ending 10 years of searching for and monitoring potential threats to Earth. Advertisement NEOWISE began its mission as plain old WISE in December 2009, when it was launched to scan the entire sky in infrared. It completed this […]
Port Jackson Shark Slumber Party On The Seafloor Is A No Boys Allowed Event
Some species in the animal world are known for their sleeping habits. From sloths snoozing in the trees to octopuses dreaming, what these animals get up to at bedtime is a source of fascination. Sharks, however, probably don’t feature very highly on the list of interesting sleepers – but they have just made a pretty […]
JWST Confirms More Bright Galaxies Found In The Early Universe Than Expected
Astronomers have announced new evidence on a bit of a controversial topic in the field: the number of bright galaxies that existed in the early universe, specifically within the first 600 million years following the Big Bang. Hubble had shown that the number was higher than expected but ground observations disagreed with this assessment. Now, […]
Scientists Drill 1,268 Metres Deep Under The Atlantic Ocean, Scooping Out Huge Piece Of Earth’s Mantle
Humans have drilled a record-breaking 1,268 meters (4,160 feet) into Earth’s mantle, gifting scientists with an extraordinary glimpse into the planet’s deep geology – and possibly the origins of life. The drill hole was made in a volcanically active region of the mid-Atlantic ridge located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Advertisement The mantle […]
This Tiny Piece Of Resin Just Rewrote The History Of The Pacific Islands
From the edges of the Arctic to the hottest deserts, humans have eked out survival – flourished, even – in pretty much every corner of the globe. Mapping out exactly how that happened, however, is an ambition that has long evaded researchers – particularly those studying the history of human dispersals across the Pacific Ocean. […]
Dinosaur-Killing Impactor Was Probably A Rare Asteroid From Beyond Jupiter
The minerals left behind when the Chicxulub Crater was created, ending the Cretaceous Era and the dinosaurs’ reign, indicate it was an asteroid, not a comet. However, the same analysis indicates it came from the outer Solar System, rather than the main asteroid belt, knowledge that is useful, if disheartening, in trying to prevent the […]
Cutting-Edge Brain Implant Gives Patient With ALS His Real Voice Back – With A Little Help From AI
A patient with ALS has been given his voice back thanks to a revolutionary brain-computer interface (BCI) that can decode his intended speech with about 97 percent accuracy – and with its inbuilt AI technology, it reads that speech aloud in his actual voice. Advertisement Casey Harrell, a 45-year-old man with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, […]
Up To A Quarter Of Unresponsive Patients May Still Be Conscious
New research suggests that around one in four patients who become unresponsive following a brain injury may in fact remain conscious, with the ability to understand and remember what is being said around them. While this phenomenon – known as cognitive motor dissociation – has been documented in the past, the latest study indicates that […]
Superflares Are Released By Sunlike Stars – Can The Sun Create These Events?
Solar flares are dramatic releases of energy from the Sun. They are associated with sunspots and their magnetic fields, and when the Sun is at its most active during its 11-year-long cycle, we get a lot of them at high energy. The emission of powerful solar flares can create radio blackouts and damage satellites and […]
The USA Has Lowest Life Expectancy Of Its Rich English-Speaking Peers
The US has the lowest life expectancy of high-income English-speaking nations, while Australia continues to lead the pack with the highest. Poverty and poor health are big influences on the differing outcomes, but a major factor is also the number of young Americans dying from drug abuse, car accidents, and guns, researchers say. Advertisement Researchers […]
