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This spooky season, IFLScience is taking you on a journey between science and superstition, to a dimension of imagination akin to The Twilight Zone. For the next several hundred words, we are going to ask you to believe in ghosts. We will build a case for how ghosts can work within the natural laws of […]

From the Roman wonder-drug of, uh, cabbage, to the turn-of-the-century fad of Fletcherism, to today’s preoccupation with mostly-pointless vitamin pills, what we eat and how we eat it has long been an obsession for human societies.  And few things get people worrying about what they’re putting in their bodies more than (gasp) artificial foods. Whether […]

Many across the world have witnessed the spectacle of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Some of us, due to constant clouds, were not so lucky. There was, however, hope for a second bright comet this year: Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1). It was expected to get as bright as Venus by Halloween, but the Sun is a cruel mistress, […]

States in quantum superposition are notoriously fragile but researchers in China have reported creating such a state that lasted for a whopping 23 minutes and 20 seconds. This record-breaking result is exciting in itself but the team believes that it could open new ways to high-precision measurements and even information processing for quantum computers – […]

There are so many questions surrounding death: What happens? Where do we go? Burial vs cremation? What’s the greenest way to go? But today we’d like to tackle the perplexing issue of graveyard vs cemetery? Is there a difference? You may have heard that it all comes down to placement, with graveyards being specific to […]

Some “extremely rare” fossils that date back 450 million years have revealed a new-to-science species. They were retrieved from a famous fossil site in New York State, USA – and best of all? They’re preserved in glittering fool’s gold. The new species has been named Lomankus edgecombei, in honor of arthropod expert Greg Edgecombe of […]

Science Corporation, a rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink in the development of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, has just unveiled promising early clinical trial results for an eye implant that it claims can restore vision in some patients with sight loss. The PRIMA device is designed to be implanted just beneath the retina and works in […]

The nights are drawing in, the weather’s turning chilly, and spooky season is upon us – the Northern Hemisphere is fully in the grip of fall. But as well as all the cozy vibes and holiday fun, this time of year unfortunately brings with it a wave of respiratory viruses. The Centers for Disease Control […]

Often when people think “shark” the mind will immediately start playing the Jaws soundtrack. However the world’s oceans (and some lakes) are full of a wide variety of shark species, from the famous great white, to the hammerhead, the bull, and everything in between. Now it’s time to take a look at the world’s smallest […]

Every year, billions of capelins migrate to the Norwegian coast to spawn, and predators take advantage and feast. Scientists analyzing one migration witnessed the largest single act of predation humans have ever seen, as millions of cod attacked a giant capelin shoal over the course of four hours. In the process, they have gained insight […]

Cancer is not limited to us humans. Plenty of other species are also afflicted by it, but despite its pervasiveness, there’s still so much we don’t know. What animals are most likely to get it, for example – and why? This is the crux of Peto’s paradox. What is Peto’s paradox? Large-bodied, long-lived animals should […]

A huge new mine in southwestern Nevada has just been given the final thumbs up by the US government. While the mine could supply enough lithium to power 50 million electric vehicles, its construction threatens the existence of a rare wildflower, sparking debate about advancing clean energy and the protection of fragile ecosystems. On October […]

Does it feel like online spaces have gotten more toxic lately? Noticed an uptick in weird conspiracy theories surrounding “globalists” or immigrants? It’s not just you – according to a new study, the 2020 US election really did lead to a huge wave of hate content getting washed into the mainstream. “Based on the most […]

Sprinkling a little salt on some mango or grapefruit doesn’t seem like something that would make it taste nicer and yet people do it all the time – and claim that the fruit is all the sweeter for it. But how exactly does salt lead to more sweetness? Understanding how this works requires us to […]

Are you partial to a sliced onion over a diced one? Perhaps you’ve always thought that apples are more delicious chopped up than whole. It might seem doubtful that the way in which a food is cut would make it more or less flavorsome, but science suggests there might actually be something to it. In […]

On Saturday, November 2, humans will have continuously lived in space on the International Space Station (ISS) for 24 years. It has been a momentous quarter-century for sure, and the ISS is not getting any younger. The current plan is for the space station to continue working until 2030 and then be deorbited in 2031. […]

A see-through figure floating down a hallway. A creaking floorboard. A looming dark shape in the corner of a room. Stories of ghosts have been around for thousands of years, however, there has been no scientific proof of their existence. So, what causes people to see things that may go bump in the night? It […]

After receiving the thumbs up from regulators, California is set to build its first carbon capture plant with a project that aims to suck up CO2 and inject it deep underground where it can’t meddle with Earth’s climate. Last week, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a permit for the California Resources Corp (CRC) […]

We humans are a bit magpie-ish when it comes to the environment, our eyes growing big and greedy when we spot shiny things sticking out of rocks. Take a walk down the mineralogy collection of any good natural history museum and your face will be aglow with the sparkle of minerals, crystals, and gemstones – […]

Welcome to IFLScience’s first-ever Halloween podcast special, bringing you a feature-length episode of The Big Questions as we take on the UK’s most haunted castle.  We journeyed to Northumberland up by the Anglo-Scottish border to spend the night in Chillingham Castle, a place that allegedly boasts an above-average number of ghosts. We wanted to explore […]