Deborah Bloomfield

The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It’s tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities. Yet we can probably all think of examples of people who seem to have “lost” their regional […]

It seems that Hubble not only tracks light near and far, but it can also track shadows. Planets forming in the system of the star TW Hydrae are shifting the material in the protoplanetary disk where they are formed. These rings are becoming misaligned with the much larger outer disk – and as the planets […]

This week, a new Alzheimer’s drug has managed to halt progression in almost half of trial patients, a surgery was successfully carried out on the brain of a 34-week-old fetus still inside the womb, and we learn about the risks of charging your phone overnight. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science […]

Microplastics are everywhere, causing disruption to hormones, crossing the blood-brain barrier in mice, and even being found inside the stomachs of the largest creatures on Earth. There’s estimated to be 171 trillion bits of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Even in remote locations microplastics persist in these extreme environments, and new research has learnt […]

Russian soldiers setting up offensive positions in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have fallen ill from radiation sickness, according to multiple media outlets.  After entering the heavily irradiated areas of the EZ early in the invasion, it was suspected that truckloads of soldiers leaving the area developed sickness, and it appears diplomats have since confirmed it […]

A new study that used machine learning algorithms on medical data from intensive care patients has found evidence that the main driver in COVID-19 deaths is not cytokine storms, as previously thought. The team from Northwestern University looked at the medical records of 585 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital […]

There are still many medical unknowns in the world, and one curious example is a little-understood condition that has baffled doctors and researchers for decades. Known as “Nodding syndrome”, it has affected people – almost exclusively children – in parts of East Africa since it was first identified in the 1960s, but no one yet […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared today that, after over three years, COVID-19 is no longer a health emergency. This doesn’t mean that COVID-19 has magically vanished, but the WHO has considered reducing the level of alarm connected to the disease.  Thanks to immunization via vaccines and infections, the pandemic has been on a […]

Cold spells often bring climate change deniers out in force on social media, with hashtags like #ClimateHoax and #ClimateScam. Former President Donald Trump often chimes in, repeatedly claiming that each cold snap disproves the existence of global warming. From a scientific standpoint, these claims of disproof are absurd. Fluctuations in the weather don’t refute clear […]

Food waste is a terrible thing, but while it’s good to use everything we buy, there’s a line you don’t want to cross when it comes to the risk of food poisoning. Some chicken that’s on the brink of its expiry date is a pickle if you’re out of freezer space and are going away […]

A new study looking at the dental plaque of 12 Neanderthals and 52 anatomically modern humans from the past 100,000 years has uncovered a new class of compound that may have once played an important role in the group’s ecology. Over the past decade, scientific advances in analyzing ancient DNA have allowed researchers to study […]

About the size of your hand with a lot of legs and a huge set of mandibles, it’s unsurprising that camel spiders aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms by everybody. They aren’t actually spiders at all but a closely related group of arachnids that sits between them and scorpions. However, their tendency to chase people […]

Hi, we’re IFLScience. You may remember us from such articles as Why You Shouldn’t Charge Your Phone Overnight, and Please Don’t Stick Frozen Potatoes Up Your Butt To Treat Medical Conditions. We’re back with another tip on avoiding getting caught up during the everyday and mundane to tell you why it’s a good idea to […]

A small-scale trial of rainforest restoration has met with success when performed using Amazonian dark earth (ADE), also known as terra preta, but failed using ordinary soil. A 1:4 mix of ADE and other soils saw some, but not all, species establish themselves. Bringing back devastated forests is likely to be one of the key […]

When marijuana is legalized, it becomes easier to buy it and more people begin using it, right? Maybe not, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study that suggests teens in high school are continually using marijuana less frequently even as states are making it legal to buy from vendors.  It’s […]

Anyone who has baked fish, roasted vegetables, or tried to keep meat juicy in the oven has likely used aluminum foil in their efforts. This household convenience has been used in many homes across the world for decades, but there has been some hype on the internet about it being harmful to our health. So, […]

Human exploration of the Moon brought some important instruments to the surface of our natural satellite: seismographs. Thanks to these, scientists discovered moonquakes, and those quakes have revealed much about what’s inside the Moon. Over the last two decades, it’s become clear that the Moon has a fluid core, but new modeling shows that there’s […]

The COVID pandemic has impacted many lives, but has had a significantly negative effect on historically marginalized groups, especially those from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups. These same groups have been among those most likely to express hesitancy and skepticism towards vaccinations against COVID-19. Now researchers have found that parents who have unvaccinated children can […]

Moons and dwarf planets with buried oceans are fascinating worlds – the presence of an ocean implies internal activity, and there could be a chance that they are habitable. There is a lot we don’t know about their formation and evolution. New studies suggest that they could be a lot more common, including around the […]

You’ve heard the scaremongering tales about the perils of excessive masturbation, and the warnings about the “addictive” power of smartphones and the internet. Put them together and what do you get? Drum roll please: watching too much porn can actually shrink your brain! You may dismiss this as just another moral panic, but there’s more […]