The California-based startup Varda Space Industries made history earlier this week after it successfully returned samples of a drug it made in orbit. After months of setbacks where the company’s in-space manufacturing capsule was held in orbit due to re-entry denial, the re-entry capsule safely touched down in the Utah desert on Wednesday, February 21. […]
Is There Really A Link Between Math Skills And Musical Skills?
It’s an idea that’s become so widespread as to be repeated as gospel – people who are good at math also tend to be good at music. Most of us know someone who fits the stereotype. Maybe it was a kid at school who got top marks in math class and could rattle off a […]
Sharks Can Have Bellybuttons – And Other Facts About Their Incredible Diversity
The first thing that pops into most people’s minds when they think of sharks is of big dumb fish with pointy teeth that are to be greatly feared. But as someone who spends their days studying these creatures, I know just how wrong that image is. For one thing, the diversity of sharks is astounding. […]
New Giant Anaconda Species Discovered While Filming With Will Smith, Lab-Grown Testicles May Be Capable Of Producing Sperm, And Much More This Week
This week a tiny star only slightly bigger than Earth is the smallest ever discovered, a battery breakthrough could see electric cars travel 1,000 kilometers on one charge, and a 40,000-year-old glue suggests neanderthals were actually pretty smart. Finally, we question if math was discovered or invented. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the […]
Extreme Environments Are Coded Into The Genomes Of The Organisms That Live There
An organism’s genome is a set of DNA instructions needed for its development, function and reproduction. The genome of a present-day organism contains information from its journey on an evolutionary path that starts with the “first universal common ancestor” of all life on Earth and culminates with that organism. Encoded within itself, an organism’s genome […]
How Come Dinosaur Bones Can Survive For So Long?
When you learn about fossils, you start seeing dates thrown about like “265 million years old” and “dating back to the Jurassic” like it’s no big deal. Fossils can be incredibly, inconceivably old, but how do they survive so long while animal bones decay in just a few years? It all comes down to the […]
A Drug To Treat Frostbite Is Finally Available
Frostbite can occur at temperatures just below freezing (-0.55°C), though at such temperatures frostbite is typically mild and no permanent damage will result. But what happens if you live and work somewhere where it gets much colder? As a Canadian, I am used to seeing news reports during cold snaps warning people to avoid going […]
Patient CAL-1: The Most Radioactive Human Who Ever Lived
In May 1945, Californian house painter Albert Stevens started his incredible run of bad luck, getting misdiagnosed with stomach cancer and being told he had six months to live. While a terrible thing to happen, his luck was going to get much worse. Across at the Manhattan Project the previous year, scientists had been getting […]
What Are The Benefits Of Omega-3s? Here’s The Latest Science
The possible benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have been studied for several health conditions, ranging from those affecting the brain like ADHD and Alzheimer’s, to dry eye disease, to arthritis. Though some have touted omega-3s in their various forms as the answer to these conditions, much of that research has had conflicting results. What are […]
This Very Important Mathematical Point Is Way Older Than We Thought
Some inventions are so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget someone had to come up with them in the first place. Take the decimal point, for example. There was a time when, if we wanted to write a number between zero and one, pretty much our only option was to use a fraction. At some […]
3,700-Year-Old Red Lipstick Unearthed In Iran May Be Oldest Ever Found
What scientists believe to be a Bronze Age lipstick with a deep red color – and possibly a hint of shimmer – has been discovered in Iran, suggesting that ancient Iranians may have been rouging their lips since the second millennium BCE. The lip paint was contained in a small, ornately decorated chlorite vial, which […]
The Belt At The Edge Of The Solar System Is Larger Than We Thought
Beyond the orbits of the eight planets in our Solar System, several distant objects make up the Kuiper Belt. The extent of this region has been estimated based on the discovery of such objects – but new observations are implying that it goes further out than previously thought. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft visited the most […]
First-Ever Evidence Of Rare, Bizarre-Looking Giant Turtle Nesting And Breeding
If you’re familiar with the Twitter game “flat fuck Friday”, then oh boy, do we have a treat for you. We present to you one of the flattest fellas around: the Asian giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii). And, with the help of local community knowledge, researchers have just discovered both its first-ever nesting female and […]
People Are Just Now Discovering The Fat-Tailed Sheep
A post on X set the social platform ablaze recently as user @Kairo_Anatomika shared some fascinating insights into fat distribution among animals in desert environments. Beginning with the camel whose fat humps are famous, the second post in the thread delivered a sucker punch in the form of the round rear-ends of fat-tailed sheep. This […]
Sharks Are 450 Million Years Old, Meaning They Were Here Before Trees
Sharks evolved around 450 million years ago, which means they’ve hitched a lift on planet Earth around the galaxy twice. If that’s not yet given you a fact-induced headache, it may tip you over to hear that it also means sharks were on Earth before trees, at a time when Saturn didn’t have rings yet. […]
Germany Votes To Legalize Recreational Cannabis As Of April 1
Germany has just become the latest to join a select group of countries that have legalized cannabis use. Today, February 23, 2024, the Bundestag passed a law that is due to come into effect from April 1, permitting recreational use of the drug for over-18s in both public and private spaces, with some restrictions. News […]
Hidden On Voyager’s Golden Records Are The Ultimate Love Notes
The golden records carried by the Voyager missions have become famous as an effort for humanity to explain ourselves to any aliens who might find them. As well as being our introduction to the universe, they were also a sort of love letter to Earth, a reminder to humanity of what is precious about ourselves […]
New Details On The Life And Death Of Vittrup Man Uncovered After 5,000 Years
It is hard to know the details surrounding the lives of prehistoric people, especially when their remains are recovered in unusual places – and especially when they died under mysterious circumstances. One example is the so-called “Vittrup Man”, a partial skeleton recovered from a peat bog in northern Denmark during the early 20th century. For […]
CRISPR Pigs Immune To Blue-Ear Disease Could Soon Be On The Market
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has become a global issue, affecting pig farms since around the 1980s. A new type of gene editing hopes to tackle the fatal disease by creating CRISPR pigs that are immune – and it’s expected they could reach the market within two years. Also known as “blue-ear pig disease,” […]
Semi-Transparent Cells Could Turn Windows Into Solar Energy Collectors
Scientists in South Korea have announced a step forward in the development of semi-transparent perovskite solar cells that could someday allow windows to generate energy. In the latest tests, the semi-transparent perovskite solar cells achieved an efficiency of over 21 percent, which the researchers claim is a record for this type of technology. Furthermore, over […]
