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We love birds here at IFLScience and frankly, the weirder the better. So, when we came across the delightfully odd creature that is the oilbird (Steatornis caripensis), we simply had to find out more – and well, what we discovered was too bonkers not to share. Oilbird origins ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE If you thought […]

A new ally is emerging in the increasingly urgent battle against superbugs – and you might have encountered it before at the dinner table. New research reveals that proteins in Sydney rock oyster hemolymph (their equivalent of blood) can kill infectious bacteria and also boost the effectiveness of antibiotics. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE These mollusks […]

Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world, with approximately 840 languages still spoken today – that’s over 10 percent of the world’s total. Even more remarkable is that this linguistic richness exists within a population of just 10 million people. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Officially speaking, Papua New Guinea has […]

The first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, became FDA-approved back in 2006. Since then, HPV vaccines have become a part of the national immunization schedule of at least 145 countries, with the goal of reducing or even eliminating the occurrence of some cancers. One of those targets is cervical cancer; now, nearly 20 years later, […]

NASA has issued a statement on asteroid 2024 YR4, a newly discovered asteroid with an over 1 percent chance of hitting Earth within the next decade. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile in late December last year. In what could be […]

A team of scientists believe they’ve hit on a new quick and easy tool that could help diagnose children with autism. Using a 1-minute video game, their study found it was possible to correctly distinguish autistic 7-13-year-olds from neurotypical children with an 80 percent success rate. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE “In my opinion, our current […]

Hold onto your hats folks, it’s super pod time! Off the coast of California, in Carmel Bay, Risso’s dolphins have been seen traveling, leaping, and swimming south in a super pod more than 1,500 strong. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Risso’s dolphins might not be the most elegant or beautiful of the dolphin groups; they have […]

In 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth 121 grams of material from asteroid Bennu. This is the largest sample ever collected and brought back from a world beyond the Moon. Early analysis last year suggested that this asteroid originated in a water-rich world. Newly released findings expand that further, suggesting that the conditions for […]

The Stevns Klint (Cliffs of Stevns) in Denmark are perhaps best known for providing evidence of the dinosaur-ending Chicxulub impact, but now, this geological site has thrown up a much grosser find – a 66-million-year-old fossilized pile of animal vomit. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The regurgitated blob was discovered by Peter Bennicke, a local amateur […]

A new study has found evidence that the Moon may be a lot more alive in recent times than we realized, geologically speaking. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE On the Moon, there are vast basins known as “mares”, which were formed billions of years ago when the Moon was geologically active. Scientists long believed that these […]

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Temperatures are achingly cold in the stratosphere over the Arctic, which can only mean one thing: it’s perfect conditions for psychedelic skies filled with rainbow-colored clouds.  ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are known as one of the most beautiful cloud types in Earth’s repertoire, appearing above the Arctic and Antarctic […]

Over 7,000 years ago, a prehistoric chemist concocted a poisonous potion, carefully applied it to the tip of an arrow, and placed it into a quiver made of a femur bone. Fast forward to 2025 and the physical remains of this moment in time are still intact, representing the oldest clear evidence of “multi-component arrow […]

Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech world with the release of their new model, positioning itself as a formidable competitor to American tech titans like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. But what exactly is driving all the excitement (and anxiety)? What is DeepSeek’s new model, R1? ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE DeepSeek develops […]

The image of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of massive elliptical galaxy M87, changed the world. It was the first-ever direct image of a black hole, showing the gargantuan object’s shadow and the light present at the edge of it. The observations were taken in 2017 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) […]

For the first time, scientists have created a bi-paternal mouse – that is, a mouse with two male parents – which survived until adulthood. The breakthrough represents a huge step forward in the field and has the potential to impact many areas of science, from regenerative medicine to conservation, while furthering our understanding of mammalian […]

Ever asked someone a question with the sole intention that they ask you the same question back? Turns out there’s a name for that: “boomerasking”. A new study has explored exactly what this often-irritating conversational habit is, as well as why people do it and the consequences that it has. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The […]

Long-term heavy cannabis use could have a detrimental effect on an aspect of cognition called working memory, according to the results of a massive new brain imaging study. Even when not stoned, heavy users displayed reduced activity in key brain regions when performing a series of cognitive tasks, resulting in poorer test scores. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]

Nature is capable of some pretty incredible phenomena and even a few mysteries. That’s become all the more apparent recently at Shreveport Aquarium in Louisiana, where the team is celebrating the hatching of an egg that seems to have only one parent. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Last year, a swell shark egg was discovered by […]

A first-of-its-kind study has found that in US communities where drinking water is contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), there’s also an increased incidence of some cancers, with the so-called “forever chemicals” potentially contributing to over 6,800 cancer cases in the country each year. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE PFAS appear to be everywhere: in […]