If you hear the word “tetanus”, there’s a good chance you’ll have a cringe-inducing vision of stepping on a rusty nail, followed by a swift trip to the hospital. However, this is a bit of a misconception: tetanus doesn’t actually have much to do with rust. Tetanus is a serious, life-threatening condition caused by the […]
Water Is Leaking Into The Earth’s Core, A 3D-Printed Robot Hand Has Ligaments And “Bones”, And Much More This Week
This week Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has shrunk to the smallest we’ve ever seen it, a 71-million-year-old snoozing dinosaur suggests they slept like birds, and one of nature’s “most intimidating spectacles” may become a lot more common. Finally, we investigate how the natural world made ancient warfare pretty weird. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for […]
How Is Decaf Coffee Made? And Is It Really Caffeine-Free?
Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and its high levels of caffeine are among the main reasons why. It’s a natural stimulant that provides an energy buzz, and we just can’t get enough. However, some people prefer to limit their caffeine intake for health or other reasons. Decaffeinated or “decaf” […]
Are Our Observed Black Holes Concealing Wormholes?
The known universe is full of exciting things like black holes, hypernovas, and merging neutron stars. All of those, however, look tame compared to items physicists think might exist but have yet to find. Perhaps chief among these are wormholes, which theoretically join parts of space and time, allowing those who enter them a shortcut […]
Leading Alzheimer’s Theory Called Into Question As Another Drug Fails Trials
Two phase 3 trials of an Alzheimer’s drug have failed to demonstrate significant improvements in cognitive function, throwing doubt on one of the leading theories as to the cause of the neurodegenerative disease. The so-called “amyloid hypothesis” proposes that build-up of a protein called amyloid-beta is responsible for the neuronal death and degeneration that is […]
Men Report Pain As Less Strong When It’s Being Inflicted By A Woman
Gender has a curious effect on pain perception, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden. In one study, it was discovered that male participants needed stronger pain stimulation to reach a required threshold when the scientist inflicting the pain was female. In another, male patients recovering from surgery tended to report less pain […]
Genghis Khan Killed Enough People To Cool The Planet
Few people have shaped the global population to the same extent as Genghis Khan – a man whose armies killed as many people as his genitals later replaced. In amongst all the slaughtering and siring, however, the legendary warrior-ruler may also have inadvertently sequestered huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, possibly even cooling […]
The Fastest Plants On Earth: Speedy Growers, Exploding Mosses, And Underwater Carnivores
A fast-moving plant might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the reality is that our planet’s greenery is far from static. Come with us to discover rapid growers, spore-spreading explosions, and snappy aquatic predators – it’s time to meet the fastest plants on Earth. Growth Traditionally, bamboo has been thought of as the […]
Magicians Challenge Common Belief About Creativity And Mental Health
We have all probably heard stories about creative individuals who are brilliant in their field but otherwise haunted by deep inner torment. The late comedian Robin Williams and the iconic painter Vincent Van Gogh are probably among the more recognizable examples. But Is creativity always associated with higher levels of psychopathology? Well, new research has […]
Next Month An Asteroid Will Hide Betelgeuse And Might Reveal Its Secrets
If you live in a long but narrow part of the world, you have an opportunity next month to contribute to a global project exploring one of the most famous and enigmatic stars. That’s because on December 12, on a path running almost half the way around the planet, the asteroid 319 Leona will pass […]
The Doomsday Clock Warns The World About Catastrophe – Here’s Why It Stands At 90 Seconds To Midnight
The Doomsday Clock, with its hands hovering close to midnight (“doomsday”), is a symbolic device that is designed to warn the world how close it is to catastrophe. Midnight is said to represent the point at which the Earth becomes uninhabitable by humanity. The clock dates back to the early days of the cold war. […]
Did This Chemical Reaction Create The Building Blocks Of Life On Earth?
How did life begin? How did chemical reactions on the early Earth create complex, self-replicating structures that developed into living things as we know them? According to one school of thought, before the current era of DNA-based life, there was a kind of molecule called RNA (or ribonucleic acid). RNA – which is still a […]
3,000-Year-Old Funerary Stone Suggests Prehistoric Social Gender Roles Were More Fluid Than Thought
A team of archaeologists working in southwest Spain have discovered a Bronze/Iron Age funerary stone with intricate carvings that challenges a long-standing interpretation of gender representation and social roles in prehistoric ages. The discovery has the team pretty excited, and the results are likely going to shake things up quite a bit. The excavation is […]
The Closest Planet To Neptune Turns Out To Be Mercury
If you’re anything like us you’ve probably had the order of the planets in the Solar System memorized since school, with the older amongst you cursed to put Pluto in there despite it being downgraded a whole 17 years ago. So, which is the closest planet to Earth? Well if you said Venus – according to […]
Unveiling History: What’s The Oldest Surviving City In The World?
There are dozens of cities across the world that have been lived in by humans for thousands upon thousands of years. However, when it comes to pinpointing the oldest continuously inhabited city, there is no straightforward answer. The conundrum is a bit like the Ship of Theseus thought experiment: if a city is knocked down, […]
Listen To The Angry Grumbling Of Iceland’s Intense Seismic Activity
Iceland’s geology is particularly moody at the moment. As Fagradalsfjall volcano gears up for its impending eruption, hundreds of earthquakes are rocking the island’s Reykjanes Peninsula each day. Thanks to Northwestern University’s Earthtunes app, it’s possible to hear the creaking and clattering of deep seismic forces currently working beneath the island. The latest collection of […]
Bumblebees Are Unable To Taste Pesticides, Even At Lethal Levels
Bumblebees play one of the most important roles on the planet, pollinating many of our agricultural crops. Plus, they can be very cute. Sadly though, our favorite flying fluffballs are also under threat whilst they work; a new study has discovered that bumblebees are unable to detect even lethal concentrations of pesticides in nectar, putting […]
Nobody Does Warfare Quite Like A Mongoose
The term “warfare” is scary at the best of times and whether it’s applied to humans or animals it’s usually implied that nothing good is going to happen as a result. However, there is one species that actually depends on the acts of warfare for its very survival. Meet the mongoose. More specifically two species […]
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Is The Smallest We’ve Ever Seen It
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, the Solar System’s most infamous storm, is the smallest it has been in observational history. The reasons behind its shrinking fortunes are not fully understood, but it’s been suggested this gargantuan pool of storm clouds isn’t going anywhere soon. The Great Red Spot is a giant swirling storm in Jupiter’s southern […]
SpaceX’s Starship Cleared For Epic Launch Tomorrow – Here’s How To Watch
SpaceX has officially got its license to attempt a second launch for its megarocket Starship tomorrow. Starship, the transport system that will take Artemis astronauts to the Moon, launched for the first time back in April but suffered several problems shortly after liftoff, resulting in SpaceX intentionally blowing the rocket up. If it fails again, […]
