There are all sorts of creatures lurking in the oceans, seas, and even rivers of planet Earth. From funky, purple sea slugs to backward-traveling isopods, the saltwater environment contains creatures that seem to be straight out of a fantasy film. One such creature is the tasselled wobbegong, and while it has a name to match its […]
Mysterious Moaning Along The Mariana Trench Finally Has A Source
An artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s being compared to “Shazam for whales” has cracked an ongoing mystery at the Mariana Trench. A bizarre sound, source unknown, had been ringing out in this stretch of the Pacific, puzzling scientists. At last, we know it’s a Bryde’s whale. Advertisement The moaning was first detected back in 2014 […]
Experiment Could Allow Physicists To “See” Gravity For The First Time
A team of researchers has proposed an experiment to finally catch a glimpse of the elusive “graviton”, if it does actually exist. Advertisement We can see the effects of gravity pretty easily, just by looking at the movements of the stars and the planets through a telescope. Or if you can’t be bothered to set […]
Two Railcars Were Dumped Off The US Atlantic Coast – And Marine Life Is Thriving
A pair of old railcars from Atlanta were left off the east coast of the US last year in a fascinating experiment. After a few months of settling, researchers have witnessed how the sunken carriages are starting to develop into complex reef habitats that host a variety of marine wildlife. Advertisement After being cleared of […]
Intact Skin, Hair, and Tissues Found On 32,400-Year-Old Juvenile Woolly Rhino Mummy
Russian scientists have recently studied a 32,400-year-old woolly rhinoceros that’s been preserved in permafrost like a prehistoric popsicle, revealing a bunch of new insights into the extinct species. Advertisement The frozen carcass of the woolly rhino was unearthed in the summer of 2020 near the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in Russia’s far eastern Sakha […]
Most Americans Underestimate How Rich The Very Rich Really Are
Most US citizens underestimate the scale of inequality in their country, or at least their county, by greatly underestimating the income of the richest 1 percent. The result is consistent across four studies that challenged participants to estimate incomes at particular points in the social spread. The authors speculate that people simply don’t want to […]
America’s Oldest Tombstone Was Imported From Thousands Of Miles Away
An Englishman named Sir George Yeardley was likely the first person in the USA to be memorialized with a tombstone, say the authors of a new study. In addition to identifying the long-dead owner of the ancient grave marker, the researchers also reveal that the monument was quarried and cut in Europe before being shipped […]
IFLScience The Big Questions: Are The Drugs Of The Future Coming From The Deep Ocean?
Antibiotic resistance is a major health concern. We now have several harmful microbes that have evolved into versions unaffected by common treatments. To find new antibiotics scientists are looking further afield, including in the ocean. Host Dr Alfredo Carpineti speaks to Dr Sam Afoullouss, a marine scientist at the University of South Florida, about the […]
Tiny Changes In Mars’ Orbit Could Hint A Primordial Black Hole Flew Through The Solar System
Astronomers have proposed a bold new detector for dark matter: the planet Mars. We know the position of the Red Planet with exquisite precision and if there was a certain type of dark matter passing through the Solar System, the planet’s orbit would change by a tiny amount. The orbit of Mars stretches to almost […]
The Standard Story Of The Moon’s Origins Is Facing Another Challenge
A new paper disputes the widely accepted hypothesis that the Moon is the product of material thrown up when an object known as Theia smashed into the proto-Earth. Once just one explanation among many for why Earth is blessed with such a relatively large companion, the Theia hypothesis is now so dominant many planetary scientists […]
Africa’s First Ever Dugong Tagging Project Hopes To Save Population From Extinction
Once mistaken for mermaids, dugongs – also known as sea cows – are gentle marine giants. However, while some populations are surviving worldwide, a critically endangered sub-population of dugongs found along the coast of Mozambique is unfortunately not one of those. Luckily, scientists and the local community have come up with a plan to help […]
Gorilla Dicks Are Absolutely Tiny. The Reason Why Is Fascinating
Gorillas talk a big game, what with all their chest thumping and basically continuous farting. But there’s one very specific, very human metric by which they come up humiliatingly short – literally. That’s right: it’s dick time again. Advertisement Your basic silverback gorilla, whether Eastern or Western, will be up to 1.8 meters tall and […]
Scientists Solve 50-Year-Old Mystery, And Discover An Entirely New Blood Group
Researchers looking into a 50-year-old mystery surrounding a rare missing antigen have discovered a new blood group system called MAL. Advertisement Your blood type is determined by the presence or absence of specific antigens, with the main types people know being A, B, O, and AB (positives and negatives). However, blood groups are slightly different. […]
Truly Supermassive Black Hole Has Jets Spanning 23 Million Light-Years, The Biggest Ever Seen
The jets shooting out from an enormous black hole are larger than was thought theoretically possible, and may change ideas about how galaxies developed. This pair are the longest, and therefore most powerful, jets we have yet found, with a combined length of 23 million light-years, more than 10 times the distance between the Milky […]
New Species Of Incredibly Tiny Chameleon Discovered In Madagascar
Rejoice! There’s a new tiny chameleon on the block. Hailing from Madagascar, it joins other miniature chameleons in the Brookesia genus, subgenus Evoluticauda. At little bigger than the end of your forefinger, it was a remarkable spot in what’s presently a highly threatened habitat in Madagascar. The new-to-science species has been named Brookesia nofy after the forest […]
We Finally Know How Much Radiation The Next Artemis Astronauts Will Experience Around The Moon
Space is full of radiation. Charged particles swarming interplanetary space mostly originate from the Sun with the occasional interloper from the rest of the Universe. On Earth, we are protected by it thanks to the planet’s magnetic field and the atmosphere – astronauts are not. Two mannequins were sent on board the Artemis I mission […]
African Rock Art May Show Extinct Animal That Lived Millions Of Years Before Humans
In the Karoo Basin of South Africa, an unusual tusked beast is painted on a rock wall. Archaeologists have previously pondered whether the artwork depicts a mythical creature from the realm of fantasy, but new research makes the bold claim it was inspired by a dicynodont, an extinct species that lived long before humans. Advertisement […]
Brand New Volcano Spotted On Jupiter’s Io – And It’s A Big One
Io is one of the largest moons of Jupiter and the closest of the four Galilean moons. It’s also the most volcanically active place in the Solar System, and it continues to confirm this record by revealing that it’s formed a brand new volcano in less than three decades. The moon was last observed up […]
Jabba The Hutt Wasp Among 22 New Species Of Parasitic Gall Raiders
A taxonomist’s work is never done, as the title of a recent study that identified 22 new species of tiny parasitic wasps would suggest. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy: Integrative taxonomic characterization of 22 new Ceroptres species” dives into the curious world of gall-raiding wasps, discovering a host of new-to-science species that have been given […]
World’s First 50 Face Transplants Have Shown “Encouraging” Survival And Success
Face transplants are still a cutting-edge procedure. From 2005 to 2021, only 50 of these surgeries were carried out on 48 people, across 11 countries. As we’re approaching 20 years of these groundbreaking operations, scientists have conducted the first study to assess how the patients fared after their transplants, and the results are encouraging. Advertisement […]
