Deborah Bloomfield

Scientists were puzzled as to why it was that the electric rays of Guadalupe Island, Mexico, were so confident in the face of pretty sizable sharks. Turns out, they can zap these would-be predators – and the message is very effective, as demonstrated in footage of the behavior. “I believe this highlights the incredible defensive […]

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) affect a staggering number of people, with the World Health Organization estimating that more than 1 million curable STIs are acquired in people aged 15 to 49 across the globe each day. While many of these infections won’t show any symptoms, they can still spread, and may have devastating effects on […]

Though our telescopes have become pretty darn good over the last century, there’s nothing quite like seeing a planet from the point of view of an approaching spaceship.  In 1979, 1980, and 1981, humanity got our first brief glimpses of Jupiter from close up, as Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2 flew […]

Why wasn’t this ever mentioned in The Very Hungry Caterpillar? It turns out, some caterpillars aren’t content with eating through apples, salami, and a piece of cherry pie – they’re insatiable gluttons of plastic bags too. The caterpillars of the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella), known as waxworms, are one of the few animals that […]

The Earth is predicted to increase its rotation speed in July and August, once again bucking the trend of a slower rotation over time. Tomorrow on July 9, the first of three especially short days, it is expected to be 1.30 milliseconds shorter than usual. Though there are clear reasons for the increased rotational speed […]

It may be Paris Haute Couture Week, but the French capital isn’t the only place that fashionistas are making waves: In Zambia, a group of avant-garde chimpanzees have been sporting blades of grass protruding from their ears… and rears… It’s called fashion, look it up. The cutting-edge chimps appear to be doing this for no […]

Europeans first discovered Antarctica in the early 19th century. An old Māori legend potentially suggests they were beaten by Polynesian explorers sailing over 1,000 years before them. Other than at a research station or occasional expedition, humans have never settled in Antarctica. While the evidence suggests the continent was once home to rainforests, swamps, and […]

Astronomers at the Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) are appealing for help, after an image taken by NASA’s Mario Rana appears to show an object slamming into Saturn. Saturn, like Jupiter, is a gas giant. With their impressive masses, you would expect these giants to attract their share of asteroid impacts. Unlike terrestrial planets, […]

Science can’t resist a long, hard-to-get-it-out-in-one go name. Case in point: prosopometamorphopsia (which we will now call PMO to save me from wearing out the “p” on this keyboard).  “Prosopometamorphopsia is this exceedingly rarely diagnosed condition,” said neuroscientist Dr Austin Lim to IFLScience. “It essentially causes a person to see other people’s faces progressively transform […]

The universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion, but the rate of that expansion has been a very controversial topic over the last few years. Different methods suggest slightly different numbers. It is possible that our model of the universe is wrong, or that one or both of the main methods are underestimating their uncertainty. A […]

Over 100 endangered woylies have been set free from a fenced-off area of Mt Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary, marking an energetic leap in their return to life in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region. Never mind kangaroos or koalas, woylies have to be up there with the most audaciously Aussie of all animals. Picture a mouse crossed with […]

A single deposit has produced a wealth of fossils revealing the late Triassic ecosystem, where giant amphibians cohabited with newcomers, including turtles and pterosaurs. The 12 million years leading up to the end-Triassic extinction have been relatively poorly represented in the fossil record, making this find particularly precious. Almost 209 million years ago, Arizona was […]

The way to find the darkness could be to look for the light. It might be a Zen, but the statement is also the latest proposal to find the nature of dark matter. The authors think that objects powered by dark matter could be small but detectable sources of light near the center of the […]

An enormous column of ash estimated to be 18 kilometers (11 miles) high is currently looming over Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki on the Indonesian island of Flores, after the volcano explosively erupted on Monday (July 7) morning. According to a report from the head of Indonesia’s geological agency, Dr Muhammad Wafid, observations of the volcano […]

Researchers investigating a strange “goo” discovered when maintaining a ship in Cleveland have discovered an entirely new lifeform. Last September, the research vessel Blue Heron – the largest US academic research fleet vessel on the Great Lakes – was brought out of Lake Erie and into the Great Lakes Shipyard to fix a noisy propeller […]

Between May and August, thousands of humpback whales migrate north along Australia’s East coast to warmer waters. They travel from the chilly Antarctic waters to tropical regions such as the Great Barrier Reef to breed, and sometimes babies are born along the way. One such humpback calf is making waves for being a rare white […]

A 2,000-year-old burial cave in Israel is continuing to stir debate. Who exactly was buried here? Was it one of Jesus’ female disciples, a woman said to have assisted at the birth of Christ, or an ancient Jewish princess related to one of the biggest bad guys of the Bible? The Cave of Salome is […]

A new analysis has found that over 100 health datasets from US government agencies were “substantially altered” in the two months after the beginning of the new administration earlier this year, in many cases switching the word “gender” to “sex”. Only a small number of the changes were logged, something the authors behind the analysis […]

Famous for its colossal stone heads – or moai – Easter Island is the scene of one of the great archaeological mysteries, as a unique monolithic ritual culture emerged and then vanished here – all for reasons unknown. Until now, it was widely believed that this rise and fall occurred in isolation from the outside […]

The discovery that birds are dinosaurs shook up how we structure the tree of life, and led to a lot of jokes about chicken nuggets. However, it has made some people wonder why they’re all so diminished in size compared to the giants of the past. There were plenty of small dinosaurs pre-asteroid, but the […]