Fuel cells that react liquid sodium metal with air could be the power source required to give electric airplanes much longer ranges, a new paper has proposed. The idea has yet to leave the laboratory bench, but the authors have demonstrated energy-to-weight ratios other technologies can only dream about. In a world hungry for low-pollution […]
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Strangely Marked Crater Is A Smorgasbord Of Fundamental Martian Geology
Mars is a frigid desert all over, but no two places on the Red Planet are exactly the same. There are craters, fluvial valleys, volcanoes, deep canyons, and fields of dunes. But you can also find places that have a little bit of everything, such as Deuteronilus Cavus, a peculiar crater that formed on Mars […]
Watch Plasma Raindrops Falling Back On The Sun In Incredible New Video
The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is an exceptional site, and its Goode Solar Telescope (GST) is a great instrument. Thanks to a new upgrade that pushes it to its theoretical limit, that special instrument has just become even better. The telescope has now delivered the clearest views of fine structures within the solar corona, […]
Critically Endangered Upemba Lechwe Officially Photographed For The First Time
For the first time ever, researchers have published a photograph of a living Upemba lechwe (Kobus anselli), a rarely spotted species of antelope that a new survey suggests is on the brink of extinction. The photo was captured during an aerial survey of the Kamalondo Depression, a large region of sunken land in the south […]
Exceptional 3-Fanged Death Adder Could Be The Most Dangerous Of Its Species Ever Seen
The common death adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) already has quite a fearsome reputation as one of the most venomous land snakes found in Australia. And what is more dangerous than a death adder with two fangs ready to strike? Well, a death adder with three of course! Keepers at the Australian Reptile Park made the unusual […]
These Teeny Flexible Robots Can Literally Walk Out Of The Printer That Created Them
In the wild, baby animals like giraffes or horses will be up and walking within hours of birth – and maybe once, we would have found that impressive. Now, though? Nature can suck it. We’ve got it beat – with 3D-printed robots that can walk straight out of the machine that created them. “Soft robotics […]
The Aftermath Of Supernovae Might Hide The Universe’s Most Powerful Particle Accelerators
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet, can provide a tremendous amount of energy to particles and ions, making them go up to 99.9999991 percent the speed of light. This energy is incredible but tiny compared to occasional high-energy cosmic rays, which make the LHC protons look like snails. […]
You’re Born With Nearly 100 More Bones Than You Have Now – Where’d They All Go?
It’s a well-known fact that human babies are, well, a bit rubbish at lots of things. Unlike many baby mammals, which are up and walking within hours of popping out, human babies rely on adults for literally everything for several years. But there’s one area where babies are killing it compared to older humans, and that’s […]
How Do You Move Antimatter If It Violently Reacts With Regular Matter?
Stars, planets, humans, and corgis are all made of matter, but in the universe exists its opposite, which is known as antimatter. Matter and antimatter have opposite electric charges, but their other properties are the same. Or are they? There must be a reason why the universe is almost exclusively matter; the answer might be […]
A Neanderthal Left A Fingerprint On This Rock, Possibly While Painting A Face On It
The most complete Neanderthal fingerprint ever discovered may have been left behind by a prehistoric artist while painting a face on a pebble using red ocher. Found at the San Lázaro rock shelter in central Spain, the rouge dactylogram provides new evidence for the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, implying that they shared our tendency to […]
Close Binary Stars Can Have “Supersaturated” Magnetic Fields, But We Don’t Know How This Works
Stars have magnetic fields that initially get stronger as the speed of the star’s rotation increases. There are still aspects of this astronomers don’t understand, but the mystery turns out to be much greater when the stars orbit each other every few days or less. The implications of this are not entirely clear, but the […]
Grass Is Relatively New On Planet Earth, And That Has Some Wild Implications
Grass is a relatively new addition to planet Earth. For most of the “Age of the Dinosaurs”, sprawling green pastures simply didn’t exist. The likes of Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, and their other dinosaur buddies from the Triassic and Jurassic probably never had the pleasure of setting foot on grass. However, pinning down the exact origin of […]
Fancy Crab Becomes The First Known Animal To Wear “Nature’s Headlamps” On Its Face
In the mangroves of Singapore lives a very fancy crab. The face-banded crab, Parasesarma eumolpe, is a lot to take in with colors galore, but now scientists have made an incredible discovery about how some of this coloration helps them to communicate. You see, they’ve been firing off light signals with what are, essentially, fancy […]
Tunguska-Like Event May Not Have Inspired Biblical Tale Of Sodom and Gomorrah After All
A scientific paper that attracted vast media attention with claims of an airburst destroying the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam, and inspiring biblical stories, has been withdrawn over serious concerns. It’s now been republished in a much less prestigious location. The withdrawal casts further doubt on several related papers, which have similarly attracted major attention, […]
“It Can Suck Down Earthworms Like Spaghetti”: The Mission To Save A Really Big Snail
It’s hard not to feel jealous of New Zealand, home to some of the planet’s most spectacular organisms. They’ve got blue mushrooms and the world’s rarest and most eccentric birds (that aren’t easy to get sperm from, FYI). The most recent specimen to catch our eye? A snail whose worm slurping skills makes that spaghetti […]
Why Human Remains Are Rarely Found Inside The Pyramids Of Ancient Egypt
What on Earth were the pyramids up to? The current scholarly consensus is that they served as monumental royal tombs. Of course, that has not stopped people from proposing more… creative theories about their purpose, ranging from interdimensional energy conduits to ancient grain silos built by Joseph (and no, they were not built by aliens). […]
The Ordovician Mass Extinction Killed 85 Percent Of Life On Earth In A Totally Unique Way
When you think about a prehistoric mass extinction event, chances are your mind goes to the K-Pg boundary, and the day that fateful asteroid smashed into Earth with enough force to wipe out some three-fourths of all plant and animal life, putting an end to the age of dinosaur supremacy forever. It’s the best known […]
IFLScience We Have Questions: Why Don’t Animals Have To Brush Their Teeth?
Wake up? Brush your teeth. Going to bed? Brush your teeth. The dental routine of being a human can be a bit monotonous, but it’s an important step towards maintaining a happy mouth. It can be slightly baffling, then, to spot a photo of a bonobo with a seemingly perfect grin. How are wild animals […]
The First American To Fly Into Space Had To Pee In His Space Suit
The year 1961 was the beginning of human exploration of space. On April 12, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and the first one to orbit the Earth. Weeks later, on May 5, Alan Shepard will become the first American in space. NASA was playing catch-up to the USSR, geopolitics and […]
The Biggest Chemical Cover-Up In History Was Kept Hidden For Years
Up to 99 percent of people have “forever chemicals” in their bodies, where they linger indefinitely and potentially cause a host of health conditions. Disturbingly, the manufacturers of these chemicals were aware of the risks and deliberately concealed them, following a playbook strikingly similar to that of Big Tobacco. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl […]
