Does it feel like online spaces have gotten more toxic lately? Noticed an uptick in weird conspiracy theories surrounding “globalists” or immigrants? It’s not just you – according to a new study, the 2020 US election really did lead to a huge wave of hate content getting washed into the mainstream. “Based on the most […]
Why Does Adding Salt To Food Sometimes Make It Sweeter?
Sprinkling a little salt on some mango or grapefruit doesn’t seem like something that would make it taste nicer and yet people do it all the time – and claim that the fruit is all the sweeter for it. But how exactly does salt lead to more sweetness? Understanding how this works requires us to […]
Does The Way Food Is Cut Change Its Flavor?
Are you partial to a sliced onion over a diced one? Perhaps you’ve always thought that apples are more delicious chopped up than whole. It might seem doubtful that the way in which a food is cut would make it more or less flavorsome, but science suggests there might actually be something to it. In […]
Cracks, Air Leaks, And Hazardous Space Junk: NASA Identifies Top Threats To Aging ISS
On Saturday, November 2, humans will have continuously lived in space on the International Space Station (ISS) for 24 years. It has been a momentous quarter-century for sure, and the ISS is not getting any younger. The current plan is for the space station to continue working until 2030 and then be deorbited in 2031. […]
Think You’re Haunted By Ghosts? There Could Be A Medical Explanation
A see-through figure floating down a hallway. A creaking floorboard. A looming dark shape in the corner of a room. Stories of ghosts have been around for thousands of years, however, there has been no scientific proof of their existence. So, what causes people to see things that may go bump in the night? It […]
California’s First Carbon Capture Plant Gets Greenlit, Set To Absorb 46 Million Tonnes Of CO2
After receiving the thumbs up from regulators, California is set to build its first carbon capture plant with a project that aims to suck up CO2 and inject it deep underground where it can’t meddle with Earth’s climate. Last week, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a permit for the California Resources Corp (CRC) […]
What’s The Difference Between A Mineral, A Crystal, And A Gemstone?
We humans are a bit magpie-ish when it comes to the environment, our eyes growing big and greedy when we spot shiny things sticking out of rocks. Take a walk down the mineralogy collection of any good natural history museum and your face will be aglow with the sparkle of minerals, crystals, and gemstones – […]
Britain’s Most Haunted Castle: IFLScience Takes On The Supernatural
Welcome to IFLScience’s first-ever Halloween podcast special, bringing you a feature-length episode of The Big Questions as we take on the UK’s most haunted castle. We journeyed to Northumberland up by the Anglo-Scottish border to spend the night in Chillingham Castle, a place that allegedly boasts an above-average number of ghosts. We wanted to explore […]
What Is The Wave-Particle Duality?
Ideas from quantum physics have seeped into popular culture over recent decades in a way they failed to for the first half century after its development. Nevertheless, while memes about Schrödinger’s Cat or Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle abound on social media, the physics on which they are built is less widely known. The wave-particle duality is […]
Cosmic Drama: First Picture Of Our Supermassive Black Hole Is Not Accurate, New Study Claims
Newly published research suggests that the first-ever image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is not an accurate representation of the cosmic object. The image was revealed in 2022 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration that took the first-ever image of a black hole back in […]
Formerly Lost Zombie Star Supernova Is A Dandelion Glory In This 3D Reconstruction
Astronomers in China and Japan observed the appearance of a “guest star” in 1181 CE. It was a supernova and for the following 840 years it was lost. In 2021, a peculiar nebula was spotted by citizen scientist Dana Patchick and it was linked back to the witnessed event. Called Pa 30, it became a […]
Over 30 Percent Of World’s Tree Species At Risk Of Extinction
In the first assessment of its kind, nearly all of the world’s tree species have been added to the IUCN Red List, which acts as an inventory of species’ conservation status. In doing so, however, it’s been discovered that 38 percent of the tree species identified are currently at risk of extinction. The Global Tree […]
I Went To The UK’s Most Haunted Castle And Had My Heartrate Monitored… For Science
Sitting on a heavy wooden bench with torchlight illuminating the cold and breezy dungeon wasn’t what I thought I would be doing on a Tuesday night. Yet, there I was, next to my scared colleague, with a heart monitor on the end of my finger, in supposedly the UK’s most haunted castle, to figure out […]
The Millennium Prizes, And The Reclusive Math Genius Who Turned Down A Million Dollars
On August 8, 1900, at the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, David Hilbert presented 10 of 23 as-yet unsolved problems that he believed would be the “goals […] toward which the leading mathematical spirits of coming generations will strive.” He was right – though the fact that he was one of the most […]
Why Are Toilets White?
Okay, we know that not all toilets are white – who remembers those avocado and salmon pink bathrooms suites of the UK 1970s? But the vast majority of today’s toilets are white, and this seems to be the case across the world: in private homes, offices, and public bathrooms, apart from those terrifying stainless steel […]
New Zealand’s Pet Cloud Has Returned To Its Favourite Spot In Otago’s Mountains
New Zealand’s “pet cloud” has recently been spotted from high above Earth after returning to its favorite spot where it’s been seen time and time again for decades. Known locally as the “Taieri Pet,” the sausage-shaped cloud has continually formed over this part of Otago’s mountains on the South Island. Advertisement One of the first […]
Bat Beauty Contest Lets You Decide The Cutest Bat Of Them All
Forget pumpkin carving and trick or treating – the most important event of spooky season has just arrived, and it’s chock full of big wings, big ears, and some absolutely glorious puns. It’s time for the 2024 Bat Beauty Contest. If you’re unfamiliar, the Bat Beauty Contest is an annual online competition run by the […]
Why Do We Kiss? Its Evolutionary Roots May Lie In The “Groomer’s Final Kiss Hypothesis”
We’ve all been there: You’re on a date with someone, it’s maybe the second or third time you’ve met up, and everything’s going well. Then, as it’s time to part ways, the tension starts to mount. Furtive looks are shared, maybe some blushing, and eventually one of you takes the plunge – you stick your […]
Ice Melting Could Slow Vital Ocean Current – Which Could Slightly Slow Melting
Complementary studies by separate teams have explored the interactions between melting ice in the North Atlantic and the flow of a crucial ocean current. One intensifies the alarm many oceanographers have already expressed: that more rapid melting will cause a crucial part of the Gulf Stream system to slow or even stop, with disastrous consequences. […]
Women In STEM Get Paid 88 Percent Of Men’s Salaries At Most, New Report Finds
Women continue to be massively underrepresented across fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A damning new report from UNESCO and the G20 confirms this reality, showing that even with increased awareness of the disparity and drives for change, the situation has only improved very slightly since 2005, when 19 percent of STEM jobs […]
