Deborah Bloomfield

It’s pretty clear when we humans are aging; gray hair, wrinkles, mysterious creaking noises when getting out of bed in the morning. Those signs make it a lot easier to guess roughly how old we are, but when it comes to wild birds, they lack such obvious clues. So how long do wild birds actually […]

From June through to November each year, the Atlantic witnesses its hurricane season, when powerful tropical storms are most likely to occur in the basin. This year’s season, however, is set to be an “extremely active” one according to new predictions from Colorado State University (CSU) forecasters. The team has predicted a total of 23 […]

Being able to see underwater can prove to be tricky, so for creatures such as the blue whale, using sound to get about and communicate is far handier. But just how far can these marine giants hear? Blue whales are generally pretty solitary creatures. However, they need to chinwag with others eventually, particularly when it […]

Some time between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago, a Neanderthal living in a cave in Poland etched a series of markings into a bear bone. Despite consisting of just 17 lines, the engravings converted the bone into one of the oldest known symbolic items in Europe and one of the earliest to be associated with […]

Despite being one of the largest predatory fish in the ocean and having a range that spans throughout the Pacific, little is known about the Pacific sleeper shark. In an effort to tackle the most pressing gaps in our knowledge – and thus how the species can be conserved – a team of scientists has […]

For every atom in the universe that makes up stars, planets, or gas, there is about more than five times as much so-called dark matter. Physicists are very confident it’s there, but cannot find it, or even work out what makes it up. We won’t know the exact reasons why it’s so hard to see […]

Every so often, a molecule called acrylamide works its way back into the public sphere of attention, usually with warnings in tow about its presence in food and the apparent dangers it poses to our health. But how much of this is true, and should we be worried about it? What is acrylamide? Acrylamide is […]

Who’s the ruler of the Andes? You might be thinking the seven countries they run through, or perhaps the mighty Andean condor. Both are wrong: it’s an absolutely massive, rare-blooming, and long-lived plant called Puya raimondii. What is Puya raimondii? The so-called “Queen of the Andes” belongs to the bromeliads, a family of plants that […]

This week, a physicist studying the SARS-CoV-2 virus believes he’s found evidence that we’re living in a simulation, a newly discovered species of titanosaur is one of the smallest ever found, Stonehenge may be aligned to a rare lunar event, and a donor heart successfully makes it nearly 7,000 kilometers across the Atlantic for the […]

A lava tube in Saudi Arabia sheltered ancient humans for at least 7,000 years, new research has hinted. A treasure trove of archaeological finds – including artifacts, rock art, and skeletal remains – suggests for the first time that the extensive cave system was used by human pastoralists and their livestock for several millennia. The […]

Here at IFLScience, it’s safe to say we have a soft spot for unusually colored animals, from bright lobsters to pink elephants, we can’t resist the color combinations that nature sometimes comes up with. The latest addition is no exception. Meet Blanquita, the first reported case of incomplete albinism in the Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo […]

The largest continuous dinosaur trackway in the world has been bought by the US Forest Service, putting this magnificent monument into the hands of the public and protecting the site from mining.  Located in Ouray County, Colorado, the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track site features 134 consecutive dinosaur footprints that extend for nearly 97 meters […]

When it comes to the legendary “runner’s high”, people often fall into one of two camps: the true believers, and the staunch deniers. While it’s true that not everyone feels fabulous after a long run, runner’s high is a real phenomenon. But what causes it? And if you’ve never felt it yet, is there still […]

The unfortunate case of a man in The Netherlands who was infected with COVID-19 for more than a year and half is documented in a new report. At 613 days, it’s the longest COVID infection we know about so far. So long, in fact, that the virus had time to evolve into a new variant […]

Plants don’t generally have a reputation for being badass. Then again, not many have people heard of Puya chilensis and the rumors of its “sheep-eating” exploits.  P. chilensis is native to central Chile, typically found on the arid hillsides of the Andes at an altitude of 300 to 1,000 meters (980 to 3,280 feet). It’s a […]

How life first began on Earth remains a huge question – scientists have ideas of how it kicked off, perhaps near a hydrothermal vent providing the energy needed for the chemical reaction to take place that eventually led to the first living organisms. It’s sometimes spoken about like an unlikely event, where the right mix […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has voiced concerns about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which is increasingly infecting non-avian species and thus upping the risk of transmission to humans, for whom the mortality rate is “extraordinarily high”. “This remains, I think, an enormous concern,” the health agency’s chief scientist Jeremy Farrar told reporters in […]

A marathon is 42.195 kilometers (26 miles 385 yards), an oddly precise number that doesn’t appear to line up with any modern measurement. To understand how and why it became this specific distance, you must take a short jog through the history of ancient Greece, the first modern Olympics, and the British Royal Family.   […]

After three long years without the appearance of her mate, Wisdom, the world’s oldest known wild bird, appears to have hung up her metaphorical mourning outfit and put her best dancing shoes back on, after being spotted bopping about with potential new mates. Believed to have hatched in 1951, Wisdom the Layson albatross is believed […]

A new vaccine platform could see us waving goodbye to boosters for some diseases, as one shot could cover every possible future strain of a virus. So far, it’s only been tested out in mice, but the scientists behind it are optimistic. “This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for,” said […]