In 2026, the most exclusive meal from a Michelin-starred chef will not be eaten anywhere on Earth. Instead, it will be consumed on board the International Space Station (ISS), when European astronaut Sophie Adenot brings on her epsilon mission the work of Anne-Sophie Pic, the world’s most Michelin-starred female chef. As a species, we have […]
In 2032, Earth May Witness A Once-In-5,000-Year Event On The Moon
An asteroid discovered last year and briefly thought to be a threat to Earth has a one-in-23 chance of hitting the Moon, according to NASA estimates based on JWST data. A new paper outlines how this could be a spectacular one-in-5,000-year event, potentially ejecting material towards Earth. Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered on December […]
Brand New Microscope Designed For Underwater Reveals Stunning Details Of Corals
Studying life in the ocean is never without its challenges, while some species can be studied via drone, or by opportunistic citizen scientists, studying microscopic life presents even more problems. To really see coral and the symbiotic microalgae that live within them, scientists have developed a new microscope. Called the Benthic Underwater Microscope Imaging PAM, […]
The Atlantic’s Major Circulation Current Is Showing Worrying Signs, But Is Collapse Near?
Something’s stirring in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – and a strange “hole” of cold water in the North Atlantic may provide new clues about what’s up. But is the system on the brink of full-blown collapse, or will it keep churning on despite mounting pressure? The AMOC is “the conveyor belt of the […]
“The Rings Held The Answer”: How We Finally Figured Out Saturn’s Day Length In 2019
Figuring out the day length of Earth is more complicated than you might imagine. While on average a day is 24 hours long, throughout the year the planet’s rotation can speed up and slow down, with one of the biggest factors being the drag caused by the Moon as it gets closer and further away […]
Mystery Of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” Solved By A Dentist And A Protractor
A longstanding mystery surrounding the Vitruvian man – yes, that Vitruvian man – has a new solution. The weird part? It comes from inside your mouth. The Renaissance man You know the Vitruvian Man. He’s perhaps second only to the Mona Lisa in terms of iconic imagery in Western history: a notebook sketch of a […]
Asteroid Ryugu’s Latest Mineral Is As Weird As Finding “A Tropical Seed In The Arctic”
Scientists had high hopes for the sample of asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe. The actual findings have surpassed those expectations, and the latest one adds to the extraordinary body of knowledge: researchers have found a mineral on Ryugu that shouldn’t be there. The mineral is called djerfisherite, and it has been found […]
IFLScience The Big Questions: Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction?
While climate change, species extinctions, and increasing carbon dioxide levels might feel like media buzzwords at this point, they all remain very real threats to biodiversity across the globe, and by extension, the future of our planet. Some have even argued that these are warning signs that we are living through a sixth mass extinction. […]
Alien Abduction Or A Trick Of The Mind? A Down To Earth Explanation Of Close Encounters
For years, Steven Kilburn had felt uneasy when driving a particular stretch of road between Pikesville, Baltimore, and Frederick, Maryland. It was an uncanny feeling, not based in any solid memory; just an overwhelming sense of wrongness, like he was being watched. According to Steven, the feeling first started one night while driving home from […]
Six Months Into Trump’s Presidency, Americans Report Record Low Pride In Being American
“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.” So sang Lee Greenwood in 1984, and it’s fair to say it was a sentiment shared by almost everyone in the nation. Not so anymore, however – as data from a new Gallup poll has shown a record low of only 58 […]
TikToker Unknowingly Handles Extremely Venomous Cone Snail And Lives To Tell The Tale
If you go down to the beach for a spot of rock pooling this summer, just be mindful of exactly which species you might come across. One person in Japan had a very lucky escape when she picked up a cone snail, not realizing that the creature inside the pretty shell had the power to […]
Scientists Sequence Oldest Egyptian DNA To Date, From A Whopping 4,800 Years Ago
Using the oldest DNA sample from Egypt to date, researchers have extracted and sequenced the entire genome of an adult male who lived in the region between 4,500 to 4,800 years ago, and in doing so have revealed insights into the possible movements of his ancestors. This is not the first time such an effort […]
“Uncharted Waters”: Large Hadron Collider Begins Colliding Oxygen For The First Time
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun its first-ever collisions of oxygen ions, in the latest attempt to understand the early universe. The LHC is largely famous for its proton-proton collisions, which ultimately led to the discovery of the Higgs boson and the Higgs field responsible for giving mass to elementary particles such as electrons, […]
125,000-Year-Old Neanderthal “Fat Factory” Shows They Gorged On Bone Grease
Grease is the word – at least, it was for Neanderthals living in what is now Germany some 125,000 years ago. New research shows that our extinct cousins collected huge quantities of animal bones at a dedicated “fat factory”, where they intensively processed them to extract bone grease, adding vital nutrients to their diet. It […]
On July 3, Earth Will Reach Its Farthest Point From The Sun – 152 Million Kilometers Away
On July 3, 2025, at 3:54 pm ET, the Earth will officially reach its furthest point from the Sun for this year. This is called aphelion. Our planet’s orbit is very close to a circle, but it is not a circle. It’s an ellipse, so the Earth gets closer and farther from the Sun as […]
NASA’s Perseverance Rover May Have Recorded Evidence Of Electrified Dust Devils On Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover may have recorded evidence of a triboelectric discharge caused by a dust devil on Mars, according to a team who presented those findings at the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). If correct, the strength of the discharge is enough to suggest that lightning could be created within Martian dust devils. […]
“Hymn to Babylon”: Missing Mesopotamian Text Dating Back Nearly 3,000 Years Discovered
Archaeologists have found a hymn dating from nearly 3,000 years ago that describes the city of Babylon in glowing terms, praises its people, location, and river. It seems the words struck such a chord with the inhabitants of what was, for a time, the world’s largest city, that they were widely copied so that it […]
Multiple New Species Of Cute Spotty And Stripy Geckos Discovered In Remote Cambodia
Hidden away among the unexplored limestone hills of Cambodia are a series of karst formations. These uncharted caves, sinkholes, and towers have long been home to rare and elusive wildlife, but we’re only just discovering them. Most recently, four new populations of Kamping Poi bent-toed geckos have been discovered and are suspected of being four […]
ChatGPT May Be Surprisingly Good At Piloting Spacecraft, Taking 2nd Place In Spaceflight Competition
OpenAI’s large language model (LLM) ChatGPT is surprisingly good at piloting spacecraft, according to a team that trained it to participate in a simulated spaceflight competition, coming in second place. In 2015, Mexican games studio Squad created the surprise hit video game Kerbal Space Program. In the space flight simulation game, you play a group […]
Incredible Supernova Finding Shows That “Double-Detonation Mechanism” Happens In Nature
Astronomers have finally found evidence for a proposed mechanism for a special kind of supernova, known as a Type Ia supernova. It was proposed that at least some of them experience a double detonation, and now they have found evidence that this is indeed the case. The Sun will never go supernova; it’s not massive […]