Ancient history is full of people doing weird stuff, which is good news for archaeologists on the hunt for interesting artifacts or the leftovers of strange archaic rituals. Every now and then, though, researchers dig something up that leaves them utterly bamboozled, as appears to be the case for a team of scientists in England. […]
Why Is Nature Full Of Patterns? Find Out In Issue 7 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
The latest issue of IFLScience’s free digital magazine CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Join us as we put curious questions to top experts, share excerpts from the […]
Karahan Tepe: The Stunning “Sister” Of Göbekli Tepe Is Just As Mysterious
The 12,000-year-old prehistoric site of Göbekli Tepe has become showered with attention in recent years – and rightly so – but it’s lesser known that southern Turkey is also home to a very similar “sister site” known as Karahan Tepe. Located just over 45 kilometers (27 miles) east of Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe was first […]
Four Possible Consequences Of El Niño Returning In 2023
Every two to seven years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean gets up to 3°C warmer (what we know as an El Niño event) or colder (La Niña) than usual, triggering a cascade of effects felt around the world. This cycle is called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) because every El Niño is naturally followed by […]
Could Ecosystem Services Outperform Carbon Credits In The Climate Fight?
Finance can be a tool in the climate crisis, but how and where we spend the money will decide how powerful it is. Carbon credits and earth technologies that have existed for billions of years could see historically undervalued parts of the planet make well-deserved money while simultaneously securing a future for humans across the […]
Say Goodbye To Uncomfortable Power Dynamics — Charge Up to 6 Devices At One Time
It all started with a smartphone, then earbuds, and finally, a smartwatch. Your electronic life has become complicated. Don’t get us wrong, we know that you need ALL of your devices. Where would you be without them? But, how do you charge all of your devices at the same time to ensure you are ready […]
These Five Spectacular Impact Craters On Earth Highlight Our Planet’s Wild History
I think all craters are cool, I’m just going to start with that. I am very biased. Impact craters occur on every planetary body in our Solar System, no matter the size. By studying impact craters and the meteorites that cause them, we can learn about the processes and the geology that shape our entire […]
TWIS: Metal Robot Liquifies And Re-Forms To Escape Prison Cell, Bizarre Handprint Found In Ancient Moat Wall, And Much More This Week
This week, a scene from Terminator 2 becomes reality when a tiny person-shaped robot manages to liquefy and re-solidify, researchers claim AI could reach the singularity within seven short years, and we investigate Earth’s only known sample of the rarest crystal on the planet. Advertisement Shape-Shifting Robot Escapes Miniature Prison Cell By Liquifying Before Re-solidifying […]
E. coli, The Archetypal Single-Celled Organism, Has A Secret Multicellular Lifestyle
Escherichia coli bacteria sometimes organize themselves into sets of four known as rosettes, a trait usually associated with multicellular organisms like ourselves, as a step towards becoming biofilms. The finding blurs what is considered perhaps the most important division among living things, and also raises questions about how we missed something so important in such […]
Why Are Scientists Dying The Ocean Pink In California?
Picture the scene: a beautiful bright clear California day, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the ocean is pink. Wait, what? Well, thanks to scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Washington that’s exactly what you’ll get if you go down to San Diego beach in January […]
Lost Radioactive Capsule Leads To Urgent Public Health Warning In Australia
Authorities in Western Australia have warned the general population that a radioactive capsule used as a gauge in a mining operation has been lost on a stretch of road that is about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) long. The risk to the population is considered minimal, but people need to be warned of what to do […]
2,500-Year-Old Love Letter Revealed In Ancient General’s Sarcophagus
The town of İznik, in northwest Turkey, may not be as well-known as nearby Istanbul, but it has a history just as long and storied. Once ruled over by followers of Alexander the Great, it eventually became one of the most important urban centers in the Roman Empire, where, renamed Nicaea, it found its major […]
Ancient Near-Primates Oldest Ever Found Above Arctic Circle
When you think of primates in their natural habitat, your first instinct probably isn’t to imagine them hanging out in the Arctic. But the new discovery of two previously unknown species of prehistoric near-primates, dating back a whopping 52 million years, has shown the unexpected existence of almost precisely that: the oldest evidence of primatomorphans […]
Why Are Most Planes Painted White?
A lot of planes, especially airliners, are painted white. There are a lot of reasons why that is the case, which have to do with comfort, efficiency, and safety. But online, there are also rumors that the white paint is not only lighter in color but also lighter in weight, making the adoption of such […]
Gamma-Ray Eclipses Have Been Spotted For The First Time
Astronomers have known of “spider” star systems for a while. In these systems, a star is being slowly eroded by its companion: a pulsar. Pulsars are the extremely dense and quickly spinning remains of stars after going supernova; they release a lot of radiation, and it is that radiation that kills the partner. Some of […]
Denisovans Were Better At Smelling Dessert Than Humans, Study Finds
Humans are nothing if not an arrogant species. It’s understandable: out of all the various hominid species, we’re the only ones that managed to make it – we fought, foraged, fluked, flu-ed, and fornicated everybody else straight out of the gene pool. But just because we won the war, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some […]
What Is Bloodstone Crystal?
The mineral heliotrope, popularly known as bloodstone, is a type of quartz that has attracted a particularly rich vein of stories and legends that date back at least as far as Roman times. Perhaps the most interesting thing about these is that at least one is easy to test, yet people keep on believing it […]
If You Climb Everest You May Be Met With A Pallas’s Cat’s Scowl
Pallas’s cats have been reported on Mount Everest in eastern Nepal for the first time in scientific record after scat samples were tested for genetic material. The pivotal poop samples were also made up of Pallas’s cats preferred meals in the region, pika, and one unfortunate mountain weasel, demonstrating that everyone’s favorite grumpy feline’s known […]
Scientists Were Studying Life On A New Island, Then It Disappeared
When an underwater volcano erupted in 2015 it created a new island as the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai island emerged from the ocean. It would live fast and die young with just a seven-year lifespan from emergence to submergence, but in those short few years, a team of scientists had time to scan the novel […]
Rare Discovery Of Roman Dodecahedron Fragment Adds To Archaeological Mystery
A chance find by an amateur metal detectorist has added to a long-running mystery of archaeology, as a fragment of an Ancient Roman dodecahedron has been found in the small town of Kortessem, in Belgium. The piece, originally part of a dodecahedron measuring 5-6 centimeters (2–2.36 inches) in size, shows signs of having been repaired […]
