Deborah Bloomfield

By 2100, the US could be scattered with thousands of ghost towns. That’s according to new research by the University of Illinois that’s suggested almost half of the nearly 30,000 cities in the US will face depopulation by the end of this century.  These impacted cities are estimated to experience depopulation of 12 to 23 […]

Compare these two scenarios: meeting your significant other for a romantic dinner, or going for an after-work coffee with that guy you barely know from HR. We’ll bet one of these sounds a lot more appealing than the other, right? Scientists have just cracked the code for why we crave spending time with some people […]

Mach numbers compare the flow velocity of a fluid past a boundary to the speed of sound. Crucially, however, there is no universal speed of sound. Instead, sound travels at different rates depending on the medium the sound is travelling in and the temperature. Consequently, Mach 1 is equal to the local speed of sound, […]

A photo of Jupiter that has been claimed to be the “closest ever taken” of Jupiter is doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.  It’s not clear where the claim that it is the closest ever taken comes from. The image of the planet was taken by Junocam during perijove 26, according to the SETI […]

A new, noninvasive test to check the quality of embryos could make a huge difference to people undergoing fertility treatment. Right now, one of the big barriers to success in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is that it’s difficult to know the best embryos to choose, but this new test could make that much easier. “Unfortunately, IVF […]

Jungle-piercing lasers have revealed the ruins of even more ancient cities hiding in the Amazon. Located in the Upano Valley of Ecuador, this sprawling network of long-lost settlements shows how South America was rich in highly complex human culture long, long before Christopher Columbus arrived on their shores. The vast urban settlements were recently uncovered […]

Researchers have developed the first organoid model of the human conjunctiva, a 3D culture of cells mimicking the actual tissue, which is involved in tear production. And as if that wasn’t cool enough, it also helped them to discover a cell type never before described in this tissue. The conjunctiva is an important part of […]

One sneaky bird escaped from Colchester Zoo in the UK last week by hitching a ride on an unsuspecting visitor. The bird in question is a rainbow lorikeet, and is pretty much the least inconspicuous escapee possible as its brightly colored feathers don’t exactly fly under the radar. Despite this obvious disadvantage, it’s been on […]

Using a new technique that makes it easier to precisely measure the number of chromosomes in ancient DNA, researchers have identified the earliest known cases of two genetic disorders. Ancient DNA can provide us with useful insights into our ancestors, but unfortunately, samples can degrade or become contaminated over time, making it more difficult to […]

This week the fossilized skin of a reptile that existed 45 million years before the earliest known dinosaur has been discovered, Jupiter has been discovered to have magnetic jets, and giant 10-foot-tall apes once roamed China. Finally, we investigate why 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter […]

In 2022, an enormous star 16,000 light-years from Earth began mysteriously dimming. After follow-up observations in 2023, a team of astronomers believe they have an explanation. When they aren’t creating green monsters or mysteriously vanishing without a trace, stars are generally pretty reliable constants in the sky. With lifespans of billions of years, you can […]

A US district judge has given the green light for the first-ever execution by nitrogen gas asphyxiation to go ahead. The ruling means that Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith is currently scheduled to be put to death using the new method on January 25, although his attorney has launched an appeal against the decision. Smith’s […]

Many of us take our passports for granted, but not all are created equal – some will get you into more places than others. But in the first set of rankings for 2024, it turns out there’s not just one that sits atop the rest: there are six. Those with a passport from France, Germany, […]

Human and animal conflict is a touchy subject for many species, whether it is related to loss of habitat, or even the question of whether you should let a moose lick your car. One other aspect of human-animal conflict is the problem of boat strikes, which can injure and even kill many marine species each […]

If you’re driving through any Canadian national parks this winter, there is one thing you shouldn’t do, according to Parks Canada: don’t stop to let moose lick your car. This may sound like a strange instruction, but there is a good reason for it. As the highways through the parks continue to be gritted to […]

Since we found out about energy, right up until the point we found out it violated the laws of physics, people have dreamed of creating a perpetual motion machine. Perpetual motion machines are devices that, once started, could theoretically remain in motion forever without adding any additional energy to them.  Many people have strived to […]

Tyrannosaurus rex is arguably the most famous of all the dinosaur species, with starring roles in pretty much every dino movie ever made. However, scientists have identified a new subspecies of Tyrannosaur, Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, older and more primitive but still the same size as a double-decker bus. This new species also helps researchers understand where […]

Fossilized skin from a reptile that lived at least 45 million years before the first dinosaur has been found. Although we know nothing else about the animal it came from, along with seven skin casts of similar age, the record-smashing discovery helps reveal the early evolution of skin.  Skin doesn’t fossilize well, so on the […]

We all love a good joke, but what we find funny is individual to each of us. Or is it? Does our gender influence our sense of humor? According to one new study that identified some similarities (but also some differences) in what men and women find funny, it might not be as ridiculous a […]

Conspiracy theorists are exhausting the Internet once more, with a theory about why NASA is “really” postponing humanity’s return to the Moon. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed that their plan to put humans on the Moon has been delayed once more. Having originally been scheduled for 2024, the space agency pushed it back to 2025 in […]