In the Ancient Greek world, there were four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Not only did the model have the benefit of describing everything in the known universe, but it was also beautifully symmetrical: Air, being hot and wet, was the opposite of cold dry Earth, while Water, with its cold, wet properties, perfectly […]
Did A Parrot Really Save A Lost Language?
At the start of the 19th century, the German Geographer and Naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt stumbled on a curious language while exploring the Amazon basin. Not only had he never heard this strange language before, but the words were coming from an unlikely source – a parrot. According to Humboldt, the parrot was the last […]
What Happens If You Fry In Microgravity? ESA Has An Answer
What would it be like to fry in microgravity? Throwing potatoes into boiling oil while floating around in space sounds like a recipe for chaos and third degree burns. Scientists are not interested in that, luckily, but in how cooking with oil might need gravity to be effective. And it turns out that this is […]
No, That White Cockroach Doesn’t Have Albinism
White cockroaches are a sight to behold, so remarkably lacking in pigment that many people think they’re looking at a rare albino cockroach. The truth is what you’re looking at is a perfectly standard cockroach, you’ve just caught it at the right time to see its pale get-up. Cockroaches can live for several years and […]
Easy Blood Test That Can Detect Over 50 Cancers Shows “Exciting Results”
A simple blood test that can detect 50 types of cancer has produced some “exciting results” in a new trial, scientists have revealed. The recent trial involved taking a single blood sample from people who had visited the doctor with a suspicion of cancer due to symptoms like weight loss and unexpected pain. Advertisement Out […]
Baby Fusion Reactor Less Than A Meter Wide Tops 100 Million°C
Temperatures seven times hotter than the center of the Sun have been achieved in a nuclear reactor that’s less than a meter (3 feet) wide. Ions inside the spherical Tokamak ST40 soared to over 100 million degrees Celsius, breaking the record for this kind of reactor. One hundred million degrees Celsius (around 180 million degrees […]
“The Great Stink” Engulfed London In A Cloud Of Fetid Air Back In 1858
In 1858 a catastrophic pollution event descended upon London as its sewer-filled streets and waterways built up to create “The Great Stink”. The Thames was and remains a central feature of England’s capital, but back then it wasn’t filled with seals, seahorses, and eels, like it is today. Back then, it was basically a big […]
Your Name Alongside A Poem Could Soon Be On Its Way To Europa
In October 2024, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper missions, which will travel to Jupiter to study its second closest moon: Europa. The satellite harbors a deep-water ocean under a thick icy crust; it is a world that might have the right conditions for life. And if you’d like to make it more personal, your […]
TWIS: China’s 10,000-Meter Hole Aims To Reach The Cretaceous System, Monty Python-Esque Joke Appears In Medieval Stand-Up Comedy Routine, And Much More This Week
This week the first-ever X-ray of a single atom was achieved, a volcanic island is home to rocks that do not belong there, and we investigate the most spectacular end to the universe – vacuum decay. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday and […]
Air Force One Has Set Off More Times Than It’s Landed. Wait, What?
As the old saying goes: what goes up must come down. Unless, it seems, you happen to be Air Force One – because the aircraft of the President of the USA, it turns out, has somehow managed to take off more times than it has ever landed. How is that possible? No, you’re not forgetting […]
Glorious Video Shows Whale Sharks Feeding On The Bottom Of The Ocean For First Time
The world’s largest living fish – the whale shark – is a mysterious creature. Despite their size and popularity with ecotourism, little is known about the ecology and behavior of this majestic marine species. Now a new observation develops our understanding of the diet and feeding behavior of these impressive animals. According to the WWF, […]
A Daily Dose Of Gin And Tonic Was Thought To Keep The Malaria Away
Ahhhh, summer is approaching, and so with it come many bulbous-shaped glasses, filled to the brim with bright and zesty gin and tonic. This popular alcoholic beverage has more of a medicinal history than you might have once thought. In fact, Winston Churchill once promoted the drink as a life-saver: “Gin and tonic has […]
Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Boarding Their Planes
New Zealand is making a controversial move begin weighing passengers who are getting on a flight, in order to better understand how passenger weight can affect load and distribution on planes. Passengers who board an Air New Zealand plane from Auckland International Airport to JFK Airport, New York, from May 29 to July 2 will […]
Our Brains Can Recognize Powerful People At Lightning Speed
Humans, like many of our fellow primates, exist within complex social structures. It’s an essential part of who we are. Even very young children routinely use statistics to figure out the dynamics of their friendship groups. There are lots of reasons why it’s useful to figure out who within these social hierarchies holds the most […]
“Forever Chemicals” Makers Covered Up Health Risks For Decades, Secret Documents Reveal
The Chemical industry just like the tobacco and oil industries were aware of the dangers of the product they were making but willingly suppressed the knowledge as it would hurt their bottom line, documents have revealed. Previously secret industry papers show that DuPont and 3M, the largest manufacturers of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals”, have […]
Dingo-Proof Fence Could Be Driving Astonishingly Fast Kangaroo Evolution
Australia’s dingo-proof fence has created a sharp ecological boundary, with some animals flourishing on one side and struggling on the other. Eventually we might expect this to lead to species evolving on separate paths, but new evidence suggests that what was expected to be a slow process might be happening in a matter of decades. […]
What’s The Oldest Language Still Spoken Today?
Spoken words don’t leave a physical footstep on the world, so taking the origins of human language can be a tricky business. Language is also in a constant state of flux, with words and their meaning transforming and changing with every generation. As such, it would be missing the point to single out one language […]
Jewelry Fit For A Pharaoh Reveals Previously Unknown Ancient International Trade Routes
Sometimes in science, a breakthrough comes not with some new discovery, but with the re-examination of something we’ve had under our noses for decades. Take, for example, a new analysis of the jewelry collection of Hetepheres I, a queen of Egypt more than 4,500 years ago – research that has revealed a century-old museum display […]
Octopolis And Octlantis Were Created By Engineering Octopuses, But They’re Not “Cities”
Octopolis and Octlantis are the ingenious nicknames given to two sites off the coast of Australia where surprising discoveries were made. Here, researchers stumbled upon two sites where the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) was found living in burrows with neighbors. It might not sound all that unusual until you take into account the fact that […]
Is Art Created By AI Still Art?
This article first appeared in Issue 8 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. Since the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the technology has become unavoidable in our everyday lives. It powers predictive text, face ID, and digital voice assistants – it could even one day represent you in court. It’s wormed its way into so many facets of […]
