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 […]
Over 50 Unknown Species Found In “Pristine” Marine Ecosystems Near Rapa Nui
Dozens of new species have been discovered along the Salas y Gómez Ridge off the coast of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, the remote Pacific island famous for its giant stone moai human statues. Among the never-before-seen critters found here were squid, fish, corals, mollusks, sea stars, glass sponges, sea urchins, crabs, and […]
Who Were The Maya Snake Kings?
The ancient Maya civilization is often erroneously described as an empire, when in reality it was made up of numerous disjointed polities, united by a shared culture but divided by allegiances to multiple rulers and vast swathes of impenetrable jungle. However, for a brief, glorious period in the sixth and seventh centuries CE, a group […]
White Holes: Are They Black Holes’ Destiny?
This article first appeared in Issue 18 of our digital magazine CURIOUS. At the cutting edge of theoretical physics research, physicists are trying to reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity – two of the most successful scientific theories ever put forward. They can describe so much of our universe, but they do not work well together. This becomes […]
Long COVID Leaves A Trace In Blood That Could Be Targeted With Drugs
The largest study of hospitalized COVID patients carried out in the UK to date has revealed people with long COVID may have patterns of inflammation that can be picked up in a blood sample. The patterns seem to mirror the collection of symptoms that each individual experiences, and could help doctors devise more effective treatments. […]
Bonobos: The “Hippies” Of The Primate World? Not So Much, Says New Study
Bonobos have a bit of a reputation for being the chillest of all the great apes, with an attitude of peace and love rather than the violent ways of their chimpanzee cousins. But new research is set to turn that assumption on its head, with male bonobos found to be frequently more aggressive than male […]
Volcano Snail: The Armored Snail From The Bottom Of The Ocean
The volcano snail may sound (and look) like something from a fantasy novel, but it is a real creature that has adapted to live in the inhospitable would at the bottom of the ocean. What is the volcano snail? Volcano snail is one of the common names for Chrysomallon squamiferum, a species of deep-sea gastropod […]
First Visualization Of A Quantum Electron Crystal Finally Proves They Exist
For the first time, an exotic material known as a Wigner crystal formed solely from electrons has been visualized. These impossible-sounding crystals had been claimed before, but never confirmed directly. As well as proving its existence, the images revealed unexpected aspects of the strange crystal’s nature. Materials are composed of protons and electrons, as well […]
