Deborah Bloomfield

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 […]

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published data this week showing a significant increase in the number of measles cases in the UK. There have been 49 cases in the European country between January 1 and April, a significant increase compared to last year. In 2022, there were 54 cases in total. Of […]

A plant that is totally unrelated to cannabis has been found to produce large numbers of cannabinoids, the compounds responsible for the various pharmacological effects of weed. Known as the woolly umbrella (sometimes spelled “wooly”), the plant makes several of the same molecules present in cannabis as well as dozens of previously unknown cannabinoids, some […]

Himalayan pink salt, not so long ago solely the preserve of rather bougie establishments – at least, in the West – has exploded in popularity, being touted as everything from a tastier or healthier version of regular salt to an honest-to-goodness miracle panacea. The truth, as ever, is far more complex.  Aside from its pretty […]

“I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.” If that sentence is forever seared into your brain through sheer repetition, you may have played Skyrim a little too often. Games can only contain so much recorded dialogue and so many dialogue options, so even in huge games […]

Martian meteorites found on Earth provide crucial insight into the Red Planet. Until the Mars Sample Return missions come back next decade, they are the best way to study Martian materials. They are believed to have been sent flying into the solar system and eventually to Earth by asteroid impacts. Now, new research reveals that […]

The connection between electricity and life has been known since Luigi Galvani made frogs’ legs twitch. Cells harnessing electricity to communicate is one of the things that makes complex life possible – cells’ insides, however, were thought to be predominantly electricity-free zones. New research challenges that, and suggests electrical activity may be the basis for […]

In one of the most cunningly brutal ambushes of all time, an entire Roman military column was once slaughtered by enemy soldiers who poisoned the legionaries with a type of hallucinogenic honey that is produced by bees living along the Black Sea coast. Known as “mad honey“, the intoxicating treat causes severe yet temporary discombobulation […]

As the biological bomb that was King Casimir’s tomb taught us, structures built to house the dead can be home to more than just human remains. Certain pathogens have been found in tombs aged from a few years, to a few centuries, to even a few thousand years old, though whether they still carry a […]