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Trains in Switzerland are allowed to have up to 255 axles. They are also allowed to have 257+ axles. From this, you might infer that trains are allowed to have 256 axles, to which we say this; are you trying to get us all killed? ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE “Um das ungewollte Freimelden von Streckenabschnitten […]

Hybrid grouper fish, released into Hong Kong’s coastal waters as part of a religious ritual, could be wreaking havoc on local biodiversity. By exploiting unique ecological niches and asserting themselves as dominant predators, the hybrid giants have the potential to outcompete their native, non-hybrid counterparts and threaten the balance of marine ecosystems. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]

As Johnny Cash once sang: “Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring […] And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire; the ring of fire.” This isn’t wrong, apart from one little detail: the first word should have been not “love”, but “a 40,000-kilometer-long horseshoe-shaped tectonic belt running around the […]

Around this time last year, some US politicians were calling for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the marketing and safety of nicotine pouches after an uptick in sales and social media influencers touting them. Now, after reviewing the science, the agency has authorized the marketing of these pouches for the first time […]

An ultra-rare all-black penguin has been spotted on South Georgia Island, standing out among its more typical black-and-white buddies by bucking the tuxedo trend with an entirely black body. Remarkably, the rare animal was captured by a photographer who’s no stranger to unusual color morphs, having snapped a peculiar yellow-and-white penguin back in 2021. ADVERTISEMENT […]

“There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium…” starts Tom Lehrer’s song The Elements. Since he composed it, humanity has created several artificial elements on top of the 92 that are found in nature. There are now 118 elements and we periodically see people asking a simple but profound question: can you create a molecule that contains all […]

Booming interest in Ozempic and its sister drugs was a huge health story in 2024 – and it’s not going anywhere. Called GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), the drugs were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes, but really took off when their potential as weight loss aids was recognized. Now, with hints they might have […]

In chimpanzees, peeing is contagious. That’s the surprising conclusion reached by scientists at Kyoto University who described it as “an unexpected and fascinating result”. They conducted observational studies of chimpanzees at a sanctuary and saw that not only did they exhibit contagious urination, but that it was also more likely among individuals with lower dominance […]

At IFLScience, we love a dinosaur movie. If anything, too much (rumor has it Managing Editor Katy Evans even got excited about The VelociPastor). Safe to say, our opinion on the best dino flick can’t be trusted – which is precisely why we decided to scroll our scientist contact list to find out what the […]

Ask around today, and most people will tell you that the RMS Titanic in April 1912 sank due to an ill-placed iceberg, poor visibility, the material weaknesses of the not-so-unsinkable ship, and a healthy dose of human error. However, in the early 20th century, when supernatural séances and recent archaeological discoveries were lighting up people’s […]

When the Paleolithic Period dawned, at least one group from which humanity may have descended had a diet that would infuriate most people who think they’re “eating Paleo”. In fact, a group of australopithecines had an overwhelmingly vegetarian diet. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Members of the genus Australopithecus, made famous by the individual known as […]

A lot of things in space are so big that they make you scratch your head and go “Uh?” – chiefly among them are the Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs), and they have everything you might want in a monstrous celestial object. These galaxies have extremely active supermassive black holes spewing jets of plasma across millions […]

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE My name is Johannes Van Zijl, and I am the Managing and Editorial Director of IFLScience.  I’m here to discuss an exciting yet essential evolution at IFLScience: introducing our new membership model.  This change, grounded in our commitment to transparency and connection, marks a significant step forward in how we engage […]

If you’ve watched the science fiction show For All Mankind, which explores an alternative history where the Soviet Union beat the US to the Moon and further fueled the space race, there’s one particularly cool moment where a gigantic rocket is launched not from a traditional launchpad, but directly out of the ocean. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]

Math, though we promise you it really isn’t that daunting when you sit down and study it, has a reputation for being a tough subject. People can be put off by the basics, like multiplication, without even getting to the really difficult (and interesting) stuff like bunkbed conjectures and the Mandelbrot set. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]

A new register seeks to identify “champion trees” in the United States, recognized for their enormous size and big leafy crowns. The first-of-its-kind initiative is called the National Champion Tree Program (NCTP) and has been judging trees since 1941. Now, after moving from the American Forests to the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources, […]

The first image that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about prehistoric humans is that of a caveman, possibly draped in a Fred Flintstone-style saber tooth tiger hide. However, while we Homo sapiens and our extinct ancestors undoubtedly spent some of our early years hanging out in caves, the reality is that we probably […]

For the past few months, a dedicated team at IFLScience has been quietly working behind the scenes, plunging into the weird, wacky, and unusual sides of science. Now, we’re thrilled to step forward and share the fascinating discoveries we’ve uncovered with our readers. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE We have investigated the questions that have always […]

The size of the Antarctic ice sheet can be hard to comprehend. Two kilometres thick on average and covering nearly twice the area of Australia, the ice sheet holds enough freshwater to raise global sea levels by 58 metres. Ice loss from this sheet is projected to be the leading driver of sea level rise […]

This week, the bodies of 1,200-year-old mummies uncovered in Peru have been found to have ultrafine line tattoos, China reveals plans to build a giant solar power station in Earth’s orbit, and mid-gestation marsupial embryo development in an artificial uterus has been achieved in an effort to de-extinct the thylacine. Finally, in a guide to […]