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 […]
Y Chromosome Loss Could Drive Cancer Growth In Males
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, […]
Why Do We Almost Never Hear About Heart Cancer?
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, […]
Listen To The Echo Of Our Supermassive Black Hole’s Most Recent Flare
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 […]
A Lightning Marathon Lasting 11 Hours Was Triggered By The Tonga Eruption
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 […]
World’s Oldest Cave Engravings Found, But Homo Sapiens Were Not The Artist
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 […]
You No Longer Have To Pee On A Stick To See If You’re Pregnant, You Can Just Spit
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 […]
Mystery Of Flare A Trillion Times More Powerful Than The Largest Solar Flares Solved
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 […]
People Are Only Just Learning How To Use Nasal Sprays Properly
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 […]
IFLScience Meets: Wildlife Filmmaker And Field Biologist Dan O’Neill On Filming GIANTS
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 […]
BepiColombo Snaps New Images Of Mercury In Closest Flyby Yet
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 […]
Many People Are Only Just Finding Out Where The Titanic Actually Sank
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 […]
Pisces III: Deepest Underwater Rescue Ever Showed How Difficult These Missions Can Be
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 […]
Common Medical Myths And Misunderstandings
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 […]
Tori Bowie Died From Eclampsia: What Is This Serious Pregnancy Complication?
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 […]
Missing Titanic Sub: What Are Submersibles, How Do They Communicate, And What May Have Gone Wrong?
An extensive search and rescue operation is underway to locate a commercial submersible that went missing during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck. According to the US Coast Guard, contact with the submersible was lost about one hour and 45 minutes into the dive, with five people onboard. The vessel was reported overdue at 9.13pm […]
Just One Protein Is All That’s Needed To Spark Huntington’s Disease
We are one step closer to understanding one of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience, as scientists have figured out the structure of the protein that triggers Huntington’s disease. The discovery brings hope for a treatment that could stop the disease in its tracks, but that’s not all. Because similar proteins have been implicated in other […]
Raven Vs Crow: Do You Know The Difference?
Prepare to enter the fascinating world of corvids, this beady-eyed and extremely clever family of birds are common across the world, but can you tell a raven from a crow, and are you savvy enough to know the difference? A note before we begin: these are American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and common ravens (Corvus corax), […]
What Came First: The Chicken, The Egg, Or Reptile Live Birth?
The discovery of the embryo of a choristodere, a type of crocodile-like reptile, has overturned what biologists thought about the development of egg laying. The discovery has big implications for how mammals and birds, as well as reptiles, developed their approach to having young. The fossil has traces of egg around it, but this was […]
People Are Just Now Learning What The End Of Bread Is Called
People are just now learning what the end of bread is called. Or rather, people are just now learning that the end of bread isn’t called the same thing by everybody. A tweet from the account “No Context Brits”, dedicated to serving up posts about and photos of British life without any additional information, started […]
