A new discovery about the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology behind some of the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines has led scientists to look again at the vaccines’ design. By making a small tweak, the study team hopes to improve future mRNA therapeutics – but the announcement has left some feeling concerned about the reports of […]
Woman Injured By Concealed Gun During MRI Scan, Fossil Plant Turns Out To Be A Tiny Baby Turtle, And Much More This Week
This week naturally occurring magnetic monopoles were measured for the first time, a study of identical twins reveals the health benefits of a vegan diet, and we may know less about El Niño than previously thought. Finally, we investigate the theories surrounding the inception of the QWERTY keyboard. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all […]
Hangxiety: Why Might You Feel Anxious After Drinking Alcohol?
Do you ever wake up after a night on the booze, heart pounding, with the feeling that the world is ending and everyone hates you? If you’re someone who experiences hangover-related anxiety (often nicknamed hangxiety or beer fear), you’re probably keen to know why this happens. So, let’s break down the science. How alcohol affects […]
If Humans Disappeared, What Would Happen To Our Dogs?
For many of us, dogs are our best friends. But have you wondered what would happen to your dog if we suddenly disappeared? Can domestic dogs make do without people? At least 80 percent of the world’s one billion or so dogs actually live independent, free-ranging lives – and they offer some clues. Who would […]
Should You Be Eating Peach Fuzz?
The unusual texture of peach skin is quite a complex defense mechanism that protects the fruit from burrowing insects and prevents mold from growing on the fruit’s surface. While peach hair, technically called trichomes, might benefit the plant, eating it is not always peaches and cream for everyone. While the idea that peach skin is […]
Giant Sea Snails Experience Intergenerational Trauma Too, Getting Stressed By Ocean Acidification
Going through stressful events at a young age can sometimes have a lasting impact on our own lives and the generations that come after us. But that’s not a uniquely human phenomenon – researchers have discovered a similar pattern in red abalone, with a legacy of stress created after exposure to ocean acidification. “For red […]
Why Dimming The Sun Would Be An Effective Tool In The Fight Against Climate Change
It’s becoming increasingly clear that we will fail to meet our climate goals. We were already at 1.26°C of warming in 2022 and are on track to blow through 1.5°C in the mid-2030s. Research even suggests that current climate policy will lead to more than 2.5°C of warming by the end of this century. Warming […]
Minor Planet Chiron Doesn’t Have Rings After All – It’s Something Weirder
What astronomers in 2011 took for rings around the minor planet Chiron is actually something much stranger, new research reveals. The true nature of the material orbiting the icy world remains unknown, but it appears to be an ever-shifting disk of dust and gas. The initial discovery of Chiron, an object around 210 kilometers (126 […]
Digital Devices Are Changing Kids’ Brains – Do We Need To Worry?
Use of digital devices from an early age leaves its mark on children’s brains. Before you roll your eyes, we’re not in the business of prophesying a technological doomsday – this finding is based on a review of evidence gathered over 23 years of scientific studies. But what does it actually mean for our kids? […]
Billionaires’ Vision For New Californian City Mired By Ongoing Trouble
The billionaire-backed effort, California Forever, is having a hard time delivering its utopian dream. The vision, to create a new city in northern California, is being met with harsh opposition from the local communities who are just not buying it. What is this dream? California Forever is owned by parent company Flannery Associates, which has […]
What Are Cave Pearls And Which Caves Can You Find Them In?
Cave pearls the size of tennis balls feature in the Planet Earth III episode “Extremes”, which dives into Hang Son Doong Cave, a sprawling limestone cave located in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Vietnam. As one of the largest caves on Earth, it’s a portal to a world of oddities including animals living in […]
Say Hello To The Sea Pig, A Peculiar Blob That Lives 6,000 Meters Below The Sea
The sea pigs of the Scotoplanes genus are very strange holothuroideans that can be found at the bottom of the ocean. They are firm friends of juvenile king crabs, which have been seen “surfing” sea pigs swimming through the water column. Sea pigs hanging out with king crabs was an observation first made by Monterey […]
Why Do Keyboards Follow The QWERTY Layout?
Any English-speaker who’s attempted to use an alphabetical keyboard will know just how accustomed we have become to the seemingly nonsensical QWERTY keyboard layout. But there’s still some debate as to why this design came into existence, and why, roughly 150 years after its inception, we have not adopted a more efficient alternative. The QWERTY […]
Fossil Plant Turns Out To Be Over 100-Million-Year-Old Baby Turtle
Even science is prone to the occasional case of mistaken identity, particularly when it comes to figuring out what’s in a fossil. When Colombian priest Padre Gustavo Huertas found two small, round rocks with leaf-like patterns sometime between the 1950s and 70s, he classified them as fossilized plants. But on more recent examination, it was […]
See For Yourself How Fingers And Toes Grow In First-Of-Its-Kind Footage
Our hands and feet are pretty important. They help us to walk, to grip things, to make sense of our environment – and yet we know surprisingly little about how they develop. Or we didn’t until a new study came along, uncovering some of the mysteries of the earliest stages of human limb development for […]
Christmas Dinner Can Actually Be Good For You If You Make It Right
The season of overindulgence is upon us. Christmas is just around the corner, a time when many of us will enjoy the finer and fattier things in life: roasted this, roasted that, meats wrapped in other meats stuffed into other forms of meat, etc. It can often be a bit much. However, you might be […]
What Do The Markings You Sometimes See On Trees Mean?
When you’re strolling through the forest, you may have occasionally come across a tree or groups of trees with strange markings on them. They can be anything from orange lines on top of each other, to ominous red crosses and enigmatic Roman numerals. These aren’t the work of woodland creatures, but are used for a […]
Stone Age Cave Dwelling Found Exactly As It Was Left 17,000 Years Ago
Archaeologists in northern Spain have uncovered what they describe as one of the “best conserved Paleolithic dwellings in the world”. Dated to 16,800 years ago, the living space in the La Garma cave in Cantabria appears almost as it did when its ancient inhabitants abandoned the site, with tools and other artifacts strewn across the […]
We Could Witness A New Meteor Shower’s Birth From An Alcoholic Comet Next Week
When the unusually alcoholic comet 46P/Wirtanen approached the Sun in 1974, it left a trail of dust behind. Five astronomers have calculated the path of this debris and predict the Earth should hit it on December 12 this year, and possibly on the same date in future years, creating a new regular meteor shower. At […]
Satellite Images Shows Japan’s Newest Volcanic Island Is Growing
Japan has a lot of islands. So many, in fact, that when it last did a recount in February this year, it found that it has approximately 14,125 islands, rather than the 6,852 they previously thought. That’s a lot of islands – but they still keep coming, thanks of course to volcanic activity. On October […]
