For the first time ever, doctors have treated a rare genetic disease known as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in the womb – and the now 2-year-old child is showing no signs of the disease. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE SMA is a progressive condition that affects motor neurons, the specialized cells that control voluntary muscle movement. […]
News
US Space Force Releases Photo From Its Mysterious Orbiting X-37B Space Plane
The US Space Force has released an image taken from its mysterious X-37B space plane in orbit around the Earth. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Since 2010, when the first X-37B spacecraft was launched, the Earth has been orbited by the top secret craft for over 4,000 days, spread across seven missions. The latest mission launched […]
New Ocean Mapping Methods Could Finally Help Chart The Entire Seafloor
Seventy-one percent of the planet is covered by ocean. If we were to make an elevation average of the Earth’s surface, we’d be 3,000 meters (almost 10,000 feet) below the sea. This vast expanse is poorly known and understood, but the global initiative Seabed 2030, from the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO, has set out to remedy this. […]
Elon Musk Wants To Crash The International Space Station Into The Earth 3 Years Early
SpaceX CEO and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk has said he wants to deorbit the International Space Station “as soon as possible”, pushing it towards the Earth years ahead of schedule. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Humans have been living continuously in space for nearly 25 years, with astronauts and cosmonauts […]
Microplastic Alert In Great Lakes: Scientists Call For Canada And US To Act On Pollution
Scientists are sounding the alarm bell on microplastic pollution within the Great Lakes of North America, raising concerns that the tiny pieces of human-made trash may be impacting the fish and other wildlife of the natural environment. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Microplastics are everywhere – from deep sea creatures and Antarctic ice to human testicles […]
Indian Street Dogs May Have A Favorite Color
Street dogs in India appear to have a preference for the color yellow, disproportionately choosing bowls in a sunny hue over those that are blue or gray, even when the other bowls contain a snack. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Color preference is a widespread phenomenon and has been found in many animal species, with implications […]
Asteroid 2024 YR4 Downgraded To Torino Impact Level Zero After New Observations
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has been downgraded to Level 0 on the Torino impact scale after further observations showed it has only a very small chance of hitting Earth. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered on December 27, 2024. Astronomers have been keeping a close eye on it ever since, as initial […]
US Measles Outbreaks: Nearly 100 People Infected Across Two States
Outbreaks of measles have been declared in both Texas and New Mexico, as health officials report that nearly 100 cases have been identified across the two states. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has reported that as of February 21, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the […]
IFLScience We Have Questions: Why Do Humans Play Games?
Stick two humans in an enclosed space with nothing to do, and before long, someone is likely to suggest a game of I Spy. Kids are so hot for smartphone games that it inspired its own meme format, and while certain generations might like to tell you this compulsion is a new thing – the […]
Global Population Growth Is Rapidly Declining – Here’s Why
Until recently, the world’s population growth showed no signs of slowing, yet over the last few years it has quite spectacularly ground to a halt. In fact, populations are now thought to have peaked in many countries, and are set to decline between now and the end of the century. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE In […]
A Volcanic Disaster Could Hit The Pacific Northwest Without Warning
Communities in the Pacific Northwest are no strangers to volcanoes, with many of the region’s towns and cities overshadowed by seismically active peaks. Yet while eruptions usually give locals time to evacuate, another type of volcanic catastrophe has the potential to devastate nearby populations without warning – and could occur at any time. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
What Was Life Like In Harappan, Home Of The Indus Valley Script?
Some 5,700 years ago, the legendary Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) emerged in what is now northern India and Pakistan. Famous for its indecipherable writing system and large walled cities, the enigmatic culture eventually vanished as mysteriously as it appeared, and researchers are only now gaining their first clues as to what life was like in […]
Vikings Were Riddled With Facial Diseases
Being a Viking wasn’t all raiding and marauding. According to new research, a large part of the ancient Norse lifestyle also involved being struck down by oral and maxillofacial diseases, many of which would likely have caused immense pain and suffering. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The study authors used computed tomography (CT) to scan the […]
Rare Red Sea Brine Pools Are One Of The Most Extreme Environments On Earth
A handsome fictional mathematician once said that life, uh, finds a way – and he’s not wrong. Earth is teeming with organisms that manage to survive in the most extreme environments, including in some rare deep-sea brine pools in the Red Sea, which very nearly went undiscovered. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The brine pools in […]
Can Bird Flu Spread Through The Air?
With bird flu having devastated farms across the US, scientists have been searching for the reasons why it’s been able to spread so far and wide. One potential answer has come from across the Atlantic, where researchers studying a bird flu outbreak in the Czech Republic concluded that windborne transmission may have been to blame. […]
Why Are Blue Whale Calf Sightings So Mysteriously Rare?
Blue whales might be some of the most iconic creatures on the planet, but for all their impressive features, there’s still plenty we don’t know about them. One particularly confounding mystery is why their calves are so rarely seen – but a new study has come up with an interesting proposal as to why. ADVERTISEMENT […]
New Coronavirus HKU5-CoV-2 In Bats Can Infect Human Cells Just Like COVID-19
Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have detected a new coronavirus in bats that is capable of entering human cells using the exact same mechanism as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. However, while this finding implies the obvious possibility of a spillover to human populations, the study authors point out that the new […]
What’s The Deadliest Animal? Ask The Crespo Scale, The Moon Is About To Get A 4G Cellular Network, And Much More This Week
This week, for the first time in 100 years, an ancient Egyptian royal tomb has been discovered, a former Paralympian has become the first astronaut with a disability to be cleared for an ISS mission, and the face of the Earth is being shaped by more than 600 “animal architect” species. Finally, we ask how […]
New Zealand’s Bug Of The Year Is A “Living Fossil” That Turns Prey To Soup
New Zealand is well known for its Bird of the Year competition, which has seen winners ranging from a delightfully round, drunk pigeon to a rogue bat. But did you know it awards a “Bug of the Year” too? And this year’s champion is an ancient and surprisingly savage killer. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The […]
Most Dangerous Animal, Tomb Discovery, And How To Break Habits
This week on Break It Down: the first ancient Egyptian royal tomb has been discovered since Tutankhamun over 100 years ago, a brand new “dangerous animal” scale reveals the realistic threat of different creatures, architects are operating on land and at the deepest parts of the ocean (they just don’t look how you imagine), a […]
