Animals should have the right to vote, according to a recent paper. Check your calendars – we promise it’s not April Fool’s Day yet. “The idea that animals should have the right to vote sounds preposterous,” the paper begins, accurately summarizing most people’s thoughts upon reading that headline. But, author Ioan-Radu Motoarcă goes on to […]
Dolphins Are Deliberately Harassing Baby Manatees, But No One Knows Why
Dolphins have been observed interacting with manatee calves in unusual behavior, some of which has been aggressive and hostile. But while researchers are not sure why they are doing it, it is clearly deliberate. Over a 21-year period, researchers documented 10 interactions between bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) and Antillean manatee calves (Trichechus manatus manatus) in […]
How Do These “Impossible” Tensegrity Tables Actually Work?
Tables get dull pretty quickly. Sure they may have a nice pattern on them, or be made of some particularly fancy wood, but once you’ve seen one, you’ve basically seen them all. Just variation after variation of the “big flat thing on top of some legs” model which hasn’t really changed since we first started […]
Meet Ariel: 6-Legged “Mermaid” Dog Has Successful Surgery To Remove Extra Limbs
Here at IFLScience, we love some good animal news – and today, it comes in the form of Ariel the cocker spaniel. Born with multiple birth defects and abandoned at 11 weeks old, Ariel was then rescued and has now successfully received surgery that removed her two extra limbs, giving her a bright future ahead. […]
Ancient “Fire Mummies” Residing On Philippine Mountaintops Are At Risk Of Destruction
Dotted throughout the mountainous Kabayan municipality in the Philippines, dozens of secretly concealed “fire mummies” have lain undisturbed for hundreds of years. Known by locals as meking, these well-preserved corpses belong to the ancient ancestors of the Indigenous Ibaloi, yet environmental changes now threaten to destroy these revered remains. The popular term “fire mummy” derives […]
Forbidden Frozen Alligator Popsicles Seen In North Carolina And Texas – But Don’t Lick Them
Animals have a whole range of means to survive the cold, from thick fur and warm dens to simply sleeping through the cold winter months. Alligators might not be the first creatures that come to mind when thinking about survival tactics for cold weather, but videos reveal that freezing right along with the lake is […]
Watch Two Connected Solar Flares Explode Half-Way Across The Sun From Each Other
In a rare event, the Sun has simultaneously released two mighty solar flares separated by 500,000 kilometers (300,000 miles). The last 48 hours have seen remarkable behavior on the Sun, even by the standards of its last, highly active, year. Two sunspots, AR3559 and AR3561, have been filmed flaring simultaneously. The flares do not reach […]
Jeff Bezos Is Building A Giant Clock That’ll Keep Time For 10,000 Years
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and a clutch of like-minded folks are constructing a monumental clock that’s designed to last for 10,000 years. Its purpose, apparently, is to be an icon of “long-term thinking” and inspire people to dream far beyond the limited scope of a human lifetime. The project is the brainchild of computer scientist […]
JWST Spots New Star-Forming Nebula That Looks Like A Painting Of Heaven
The birthplaces of stars have never looked this good. Thanks to the keen infrared eye of JWST, which can see through some of the gas and dust that make up star-forming clouds, humans have gotten new insights into some incredible nebulae – and with beautiful pictures, too. The latest one is an image of N79 […]
Space Firm Tests Space Station Module By Blowing It Up
A firm hoping to place the first private space station into low-Earth orbit has taken its latest steps towards that goal, inflating and then blowing up a test module. Sierra Space, based in Colorado, designed an expandable module which is only inflated to its full capacity once it is in orbit. The Large Integrated Flexible […]
This Is The Most Accurate Flat Map Of Earth
Representing a 3D world on a 2D map is always going to end up with some issues and some compromises. No matter how accurate you try to make it, you will end up with stretched areas, squashed countries, or else parts of the map cut out altogether. The map you are likely familiar with is […]
2,000-Year-Old Bones In Brazil Shed Light On The Family Tree Of Syphilis
The emergence of treponemal diseases, the unpleasant gang of illnesses that includes syphilis and yaws, has been a long-standing mystery that’s been hotly debated for decades. Thanks to a new study, the bodies of four prehistoric people found in Brazil have recently added an intriguing piece to the puzzle. Scientists at the University of Zürich […]
First Experimental Evidence For The Most Terrifying Way The Universe Might End
Of the many alternative ways the universe might end, nothing is as scary as “false vacuum decay”. This scenario is based on the idea that a fundamental field in the universe is not at its lowest possible state. Under that “false” stable region, our own universe has grown. The field might spontaneously jump into a […]
Pets Snacked On Your Dead Body? Worry Not, Your Cause Of Death Can Still Be Determined
A dead body that’s been gnawed upon by cats and dogs might sound like a particularly grisly cold open to an episode of Bones, but pet-scavenged bodies aren’t just the stuff of police procedurals – your pets would probably eat you if you died. Thankfully, if that death happens to have occurred under criminal circumstances, […]
People Are Asking “If You Banged A Tuning Fork In Space, Would It Vibrate Forever?”
A reader has a question, which seems like it’ll be fun to discuss. “In space, an object in motion stays in motion right?” the IFLScience reader asked. “So if you banged a tuning fork in space would it produce the vibrations forever?” Without looking into it, you probably instinctively know that this shouldn’t be possible. […]
11-Year-Old Boy Hears For First Time Ever Thanks To Gene Therapy Breakthrough
An 11-year-old boy who was born with congenital hearing loss has become the first patient to receive a new gene therapy procedure, and it’s allowed him to hear sounds for the first time in his life. “Gene therapy for hearing loss is something that we physicians and scientists in the world of hearing loss have […]
NASA Is Exploring The First Fixed Wing Aircraft To Soar Over Mars
NASA has announced the winners of its 2024 funding for pioneering concepts in space exploration. Highlights include a fixed-wing plane to soar over Mars, a swarm of tiny probes to explore nearby star systems, and a set of telescopic dishes with a baseline the size of the Solar System. NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) grants […]
More Evidence That A Daily Multivitamin Could Help Slow Cognitive Decline In Old Age
Okay. We’re all grownups here. We can admit when we’ve made a mistake. Despite previous headlines, it turns out multivitamins may not be useless after all. “Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults,” said Chirag Vyas, an instructor in investigation at the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and […]
Chickpeas Grown In Replica Lunar Soil With Help From Worms And Fungus
Chickpeas have been grown on the Moon. Well, not on the Moon exactly – not even in the sense that one couple had sex “on the Moon” – but they have been grown using simulated lunar dust, replicating samples brought back by the Apollo missions. Assuming this work can be extended to other plant species, […]
Dramatic Images Show How Turkey’s Giant 2023 Earthquake Broke The Earth
On February 6, 2023, one of the worst earthquake sequences of the 21st century rocked Turkey and Syria, killing over 59,000 people and displacing many more. It can be hard to imagine the colossal geological forces that produce these disasters, but a new collection of photography from the wake of the disaster manages to illustrate […]
