Deborah Bloomfield

If you’ve ever heard that Earth’s tilt influences the number of daylight hours we receive throughout the year, but never really understood how, then this beautifully made animation is for you.  It was created by Simon Proud, an Earth-observation scientist at the UK’s National Center for Earth Observation, in celebration of the summer solstice in […]

An ancient Maya city has been found by researchers, deep inside the Balamkú ecological reserve in Campeche, Mexico. The site, which contains “pyramidal structures” up to 15 meters (49 feet) high, was first spotted using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR), and then investigated by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Ivan Ṡprajc.  Advertisement “The biggest […]

The blob is coming for Colorado, only it isn’t one organism but instead colonies of individual living things. Known as slime mold, the curious goo is famous for its “intelligence”, capable of storing memories, problem-solving, and making decisions. Slime mold is the informal name given to a group of eukaryotic organisms that exist as free-living […]

The current and former CEOs of two major social media companies – Meta and Twitter respectively – have agreed to fight each other in a cage.  Yesterday, Elon Musk responded to rumors that Facebook is creating a Twitter-like platform. Advertisement ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites. A Twitter user warned Musk […]

Hot yoga also known as Bikram yoga (more on that later) has gained significant popularity in recent years as a fairly ferocious form of exercise. It combines yoga poses and breathing exercises and is practised in a heated studio – with room temperatures close to 40°C. This style of yoga is designed to replicate the […]

Whether you’re a photosynthesizing triffid seeking out the rays or just a vampire, you may have wondered at some point: Where on Earth gets the most and least sunlight? Well, the team at timeanddate.com have an answer for you, and it comes with a few surprises. For instance, it turns out that Bodø in Norway […]

The gradual loss of the Y chromosome as men age may give cancer the opportunity to grow, according to new research. The findings identify a new, but still unknown, role of the male sex chromosome in helping the immune system fend off cancer, and show that its loss spelled disaster for some cells.  During development, […]

While cancer can develop in nearly every organ in the body, it’s rare to ever hear about the disease impacting the heart. That’s pretty surprising when you think how fundamental the heart is to the body. Despite this lack of conversation, it is possible for people to develop primary cancer of the heart – although, […]

If we had powerful enough telescopes in the 1820s, looking toward the center of the galaxy, we would have seen a bright flare. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way, launched its last known flare about 200 years ago, and we know that happened because an x-ray […]

The seismic-in-more-ways-than-one eruption that shook Tonga in January 2022 triggered an electrifying lightning marathon that saw over 192,000 flashes illuminate an ash cloud. The electrical storm lasted over 11 hours and not only produced the most intense lightning storm ever seen but also the largest lightning rings ever observed. On January 15, 2022, the Hunga […]

A gallery of 57,000-year-old fingerprint cave art found in France is the oldest known engravings made by humans, according to a new study. However, Homo sapiens were not the human species behind the art – it was our close cousins, Neanderthals. The intriguing engravings were found in La Roche-Cotard of the Centre-Val de Loire in […]

The world’s first at-home pregnancy test that uses saliva rather than the more traditional urine has been developed and is now on sale to the public. It represents the first big shakeup in pregnancy testing since at-home tests became available in the 1970s. The kit, called Salistick™, was developed by Israeli startup Salignostics, and is […]

Not all stellar flares are the same. They are usually a brief brightening of a star – but for FU Orionis (FU Ori), located 1,200 light-years from Earth, the brightening has turned into an 85-year-long emission that is a trillion times more powerful than the largest Solar flares ever detected, and there is no sign […]

For seasonal allergy sufferers, many mornings start with a squirt up the snoot with a nasal spray. Despite years of expertise in this activity, however, there’s a chance you’re doing it wrong.  If a nasal spray user simply stands upright and pumps the spray in a vertical position, then chances are it’s just hitting the […]

Wildlife filmmaking is arguably one of the most exciting fields of television, as explorer Dan O’Neill recently found out when filming for Curiosity’s new series GIANTS. In it, he heads into the wild to find the biggest beasts alive today and compare them to behemoths of the past: from sharks, to elephants, lions, saltwater crocodiles […]

The BepiColombo mission has completed its third flyby of Mercury, with three more waiting to happen in the next couple of years. This one was the closest flyby yet, with the spacecraft flying just 236 kilometers (147 miles) from the surface of the smallest planet in the Solar System. The mission is a collaboration between […]

On April 15, 1912, an iceberg sank an “unsinkable” ship. The Titanic was the largest ocean liner in the world when it set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York, USA. However, its short career would come to a devastating end four days into crossing the Atlantic, claiming the lives of […]

Faced with the vast expanse of the sea and treacherous conditions, rescue missions for lost deepsea craft are notoriously difficult. Even though the recovery of Pisces III – the deepest underwater rescue ever achieved – was successful, its incredible story highlights just how intensely difficult underwater recovery operations can be.  In 1973, two men were […]

Medicine has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few centuries. However, the past has been littered with myths and misunderstandings surrounding the way our bodies and treatments work. Come along on a journey as we explore remarkable, unfounded theories of the past and present, why people may believe these intriguing myths, and the […]

There are few people who can claim the amazing feats that Tori Bowie had, a three-time Olympic medalist and a world champion sprinter in the women’s 100 and 4×100 meter relay, top in her field. She tragically passed away at her home last month due to complications in childbirth. In May, Bowie was found in […]