This week, Dr Makenzie Lystrup made history as the first female director of NASA’s Goddard Flight Center. Not content with just one first, Lystrup also made history as the first person to take their oath of office on a Carl Sagan book. From one stargazer to another, Dr Lystrup was sworn in as the new […]
Al Jassasiya: The Enigmatic Rock Carvings That Crawl Across Qatar’s Desert
It’s hard to find a human culture that doesn’t enjoy scrawling and carving into the environment around them – and the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula are no different. Found along Qatar’s northeastern coast, Al Jassasiya is a dozen different rock-carving sites that feature hundreds upon hundreds of carvings. Al Jassasiya was first formally discovered […]
Lightning Struck A Tree And We Got A Brand New Phosphorus Mineral
When lightning blasted a tree in New Port Richey, Florida, in 2012, the owners of the property decided to make lemonade from the lemons. They sold the 500-gram (1.1-pound) piece of fused rock and soil that formed nearby. Although they saw the commercial value, they didn’t expect to be dealing with a scientific goldmine. Fortunately, […]
IFLScience Meets: Ella Al-Shamahi Motorbikes Crocs In Baskets For “Our Changing Planet”
Our Changing Planet has returned for a second year as presenters Liz Bonnin, Chris Packham, Steve Backshall, Gordon Buchanan, Ade Adepitan, and Ella Al-Shamahi venture across the globe to uncover the ecological issues threatening the planet. The BBC documentary series aims to track the rewards of efforts made by scientists, local conservationists, and people fighting […]
What Happens If A Black Widow Bites You?
Black widow bites are among the most feared of arachnid interactions, and with good reason. At 15 times the potency of rattlesnake venom, it’s nasty stuff, but most black widows will keep hold of their precious unless they feel threatened. That said, a human hand probing inside a dark hole in which a spider is […]
Woman Performed A C-Section On Herself, Both She And The Child Survived
Every pregnant person hopes for a smooth and successful birth. The expectation is not that you would have to perform a cesarean section (C-section) on yourself, which is what happened to one mother. Back in 2003, one extraordinary story emerged from a case report. A 40-year-old mother called Inés Ramírez Pérez (who had eight previous […]
We’re Going To Jupiter! How To Watch ESA’s JUICE Mission Launch Tomorrow
Tomorrow, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch the first-ever European mission to Jupiter. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, also known as JUICE, has a big mission ahead of it, providing new insights into the Jovian system with a focus on the three icy moons of Jupiter: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The mission will travel […]
The Icy Fingers Of Death That Creep Beneath The Frozen Antarctic
In the secret world below the Antarctic sea ice, salty frozen fingers slowly descend towards the ocean floor. They’re called brinicles, and while they may look similar to the stalactites we find in caves on the surface, they may actually have more in common with hydrothermal vents. But creatures of the deep, beware: anything caught […]
Scientists Gave A Man An Acute Dose Of THC In The Lab. This Is What Happened
Cannabis is regularly found by studies to be the least risky recreational drug, and has not yet caused an overdose death that we know of. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at a time that researchers deliberately gave subjects a high dose of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to study its effects. “Cannabis has been […]
Ancient Maya Ball Game Scoreboard From Match Played In 894 CE Discovered
A stone disk depicting an ancient Maya ball game has been unearthed at the iconic site of Chichén Itzá in southern Mexico. Known simply as ‘pelota’ (‘ball’), the sport is believed to have played a significant role in the social and political life of the Maya Empire, and archaeologists think the artifact may commemorate a […]
How Different Types Of Prayer Interact With Daily Life And Sense Of Wellbeing
Despite the fact that daily or frequent prayer is a staple part of many people’s lives, our understanding of its relationship to everyday life and overall psychological wellbeing is surprisingly poor. But new research has addressed this gap and its findings are fascinating – not only do the results show that the substance of people’s […]
These Giant Caves Were Not Made By Geological Processes Or Humans
Around the turn of the century, a number of huge tunnels were discovered in South America. After investigation, the scientists who discovered them found that they are not made by any humans, nor geological process. Professor of geology, Heinrich Frank, spotted a strange hole embedded in a hill at a construction site as he passed […]
What Happens When You Hit Your Funny Bone?
We all know the feeling: you’re swanning about, not a care in the world, when you carelessly smack your elbow against a door handle or countertop, that almost insignificant-seeming bump sending a disproportionately painful twinge and tingling sensation down your arm. That’s right, we’re talking about the funny bone. While you’re almost certainly familiar with the […]
This Is What Happened When One Man Overdosed On Milk
Heroin, cocaine, licorice, milk. Apart from being terrible consumables to offer a guest, they all have one thing in common: you can overdose on all of them. In a case report from 2012, doctors describe how one 54-year-old man found himself in a hospital unit, after chugging an excess of cow’s milk over the course […]
What Is The Oldest And Youngest Planet In The Solar System?
About 5 billion years ago, our Sun began to turn hydrogen into helium at its core to become a fully-fledged star. This baby Sun was surrounded by a disk of material – mostly hydrogen from the nebula it formed, but also more complex molecules. Interactions in this disk produced icy and dusty grains that grew […]
Newly Discovered Frog’s Camouflage Makes It Look Like Bird Poop
Do you like frogs? Good news: Five new tree frog species have been identified on the island of New Guinea, and some have a clever (and gross) way to disguise themselves by looking rather fecal. The species are all in the Litoria genus, and “hail from hill and lower montane forest along the southern versant […]
Genetically Engineered Probiotic Saves Drunk Mice From Hangovers
Drunk mice have been spared the prolonged pain of a hangover thanks to a genetically engineered probiotic that expresses an enzyme capable of breaking down alcohol. While simply drinking less is another way to swerve the knock-on health effects of alcohol, it’s hoped the treatment could one day be used in humans to reduce the […]
Are We In A Sixth Mass Extinction Right Now?
The Earth is losing species much faster than normal, or than new ones are evolving. The rate of loss may be the fastest since the aftermath of the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. This has led some scientists to claim we are in a mass extinction; others have […]
Biden Administration Sells Off Vast Patch Of Gulf Of Mexico For Fossil Fuel Drilling
The US has auctioned off an enormous patch of the Gulf of Mexico for fossil fuel drilling in spite of the Biden administration’s promises to address the deepening climate crisis and wean the country off fossil fuels. On March 29, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a lease sale for oil and […]
Penguins Poop Iron Into The Ocean But This Vital Resource Is Under Threat
Iron is the all-important element that makes our blood red and keeps our immune systems in tip-top shape. Now, new research into iron within the Southern Ocean has revealed a dramatic drop due to a lack of penguin poop. The Southern Ocean contains high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll areas where the growth of phytoplankton is controlled by the availability […]
