When the proverbial shit hits the fan, we all have different ways of dealing with it, but a new study has identified a personality type that may fare better than others during tough times: playful. Yes, that thing we do constantly as kids but that can get squashed out of us as we grow, it […]
Plants Have Given Us Crucial Lifesaving Drugs – And Now We Risk Losing Them
“We often say that anybody who doesn’t believe that herbal medicines work has obviously never tried morphine,” Professor John Newton, consultant public health physician and Garden Fellow at The Royal College of Physicians’ garden of medicinal plants tells me. The college, a leading professional body for doctors in the UK, is also home to a […]
A Black Hole May Be Firing Fast Stars At Us From The Large Magellanic Cloud
Some fast-moving stars within the Milky Way have been traced back to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In a preprint paper that has not yet completed peer review, the astronomers who demonstrated these stars’ origin consider them evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole within the nearby galaxy, whose gravity is accelerating the […]
Some Cockatoos Love Condiments, Though Their Flavor Combos Are Questionable
Can you not bear to eat fries without smothering them in ketchup? Perhaps you like to dip yours in a Wendy’s Frosty. Well, it turns out this kind of behavior doesn’t seem to be exclusive to humans – a new study has found some Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) love a condiment too. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]
The Byford Dolphin Diving Incident
IFLScience needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out ourPrivacy Policy Deborah BloomfieldSource Link: The Byford Dolphin Diving […]
Don’t Get Too Excited By Images Of So-Called “Doorways” On Mars
It’s been a busy few weeks for certain people discussing purportedly strange features on Mars. First, there was the “square structure“, then there were the Phobos and Mars “monoliths”. Now, some are once again talking about so-called “doorways” on Mars – however, the image they cite is likely not what it seems. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]
Largest Structure In The Near Universe Discovered – 130,000 Times More Massive Than Our Galaxy
Mapping the distribution of matter in the universe is an important quest for cosmology and astrophysics. There is a battle going on between the universe’s accelerated expansion and gravity trying to keep things all together. Some absolutely enormous structures have been found in the distant universe, but even closer to us there are gargantuan ones. […]
We Explored A Crime Scene House – And This Is What We Found
As I approached the front door of this two-story house, I was struck by how ordinary it looked and how easily it blended into the surrounding houses on the street. There was an accessibility ramp that led inside and, entering the building, I was greeted by a post office counter. What was out of the […]
Humanity’s Best Chance of Sampling Extraterrestrial Life Could Be Thwarted By Physics
The ocean inside Enceladus is likely to be strongly layered in a way that may prevent evidence of life from rising from its hoped-for locations to where we could detect it, new modeling suggests. If so, our prospects for confirming that Earth is not the only world in the Solar System with biology would fall […]
Montana Considers Becoming First US State To Ban mRNA Vaccine Use
On Friday, February 7, a hearing took place in the Montana state legislature on a bill that would ban the use of mRNA vaccines in humans. The bill was sponsored by State Representative Greg Kmetz with the support of other Republicans, and if it were to pass into law this would mark a first in […]
New Way To Hunt Dark Matter: Precise Atomic Clocks And Lasers
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter believed to be everywhere, outnumbering regular matter (what we’re made of) 5-to-1. It doesn’t emit or interact with light, so it is invisible to our instruments – that’s why we call it dark. We know that it ought to be there because observations of the universe match […]
Humpback Whale Song Follows Zipf’s Law, A Fundamental Law Of Human Language
Whale song is something we humans listen to when relaxing – but new research has shown that, as a form of communication, it ain’t messing around. A new study has found that certain whale species’ vocalizations adhere to two linguistic laws of efficiency seen in human language: Menzerath’s law and Zipf’s law (with Zipf’s law […]
Giant Solar Storm Gave Earth A New Proton Belt, NASA’s CubeSat Mission Finds
2024’s gigantic solar storm gave the Earth two new temporary radiation belts, according to NASA’s CubeSat mission. One of these belts could stay in place for a “very long time”, according to NASA scientists. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Just beyond low-Earth orbit, the planet is surrounded by radiation belts sometimes called the Van Allen belts […]
Pucker Up – It’s Time To Meet The Red-Lipped Batfish Of The Galápagos
We all know the ocean is full of a whole host of weird-looking creatures, from flying buttocks and sea pigs to the plethora of strange species living in vents deep in the ocean. Now, we’re taking a close look at another ocean oddity – time to pucker up for the red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini). ADVERTISEMENT […]
What The Different Colors Of Mold In Your House Say About The Health Risks
ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE It can sometimes feel like you’re playing mold Whac-A-Mole when you’ve found yourself in a particularly damp property, something fungus needs to thrive. There’s a host of species that have evolved to flourish in the conditions our homes provide, and sometimes their coloration can be an indicator of what you’re dealing […]
Earth’s Inner Core Appears To Have Changed Shape In The Last Two Decades
A new study has found evidence that the Earth’s inner core may have changed shape. Far from taking place over geological timescales, the changes appear to have taken place within the last two decades. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE As much as we have explored and modeled our planet, there are a number of mysteries that […]
Prehistoric Engravings Suggest Symbolic Behavior In Ancient Humans
The emergence of artistic expression, abstract thought, and symbolic behavior may have occurred much earlier in human history than previously assumed. Presenting a collection of deliberate engravings found on Paleolithic cave rocks from various caves in key Levantine sites, researchers say they now have clear evidence for creative activities at a time when Neanderthals and […]
“Exceptionally Rare” 183-Million-Year-Old Plesiosaur Was Covered In Mosaic Of Skin And Scales
A 183-million-year-old fossil with exceptionally well-preserved soft tissues has revealed that some plesiosaurs were covered in both skin and scales, suiting them to a life stalking the seas for prey. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The iconic marine monsters went extinct with the dinosaurs and have been discovered all over the world, but to find fossilized […]
Incredible Einstein Ring Seen By Euclid Mission On Well-Known Galaxy
The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Euclid Mission has been working over the last 18 months to understand what dark matter and dark energy really are. These are components of the universe whose existence is justified by observations and models, but we do not know what they really are. This quest is performed by Euclid, with […]
What We Know About “The Face On Mars” First Seen In 1976
In 1976, the American Viking 1 Orbiter spotted something very peculiar on the surface of Mars. There among the many lumps and bumps of the Red Planet’s surface was a formation that “resembles a human head,” as ESA reports NASA said in a July 31, 1976 press release. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE In case your […]
