News

It’s not been a great year for salad lovers; both the US and the UK have seen significant outbreaks of foodborne illness linked back to salad vegetables. But what is it about our favorite crisp and fresh ingredients that can make them a potential source of such unpleasantness? How often do these outbreaks happen? The […]

Researchers have announced that they have constructed the current best map of the background of gravitational waves across the universe. They did so using the incredible MeerKAT radio telescopes in South Africa. But this map has an unexpected feature: there is a possible anomaly in the gravitational waves washing across our galaxy, linked to the […]

A provocative study is claiming that biology textbooks are going to need some major revisions – although not everyone is convinced. The axons of a neuron – the arm-like structures that stretch out and exchange signals with other brain cells like wires – are often depicted as sausage-like cylindrical tubes, but new imaging suggests they […]

A study of thousands of twins has suggested what your grandmother preached all along: eating more fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms.  Scientists led by a team at UNSW Sydney looked at 3,483 twins (all aged over 45) from Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and the US to see how their […]

If you’re as addicted to TikTok as we are, then you may well have recently seen a video of a teeny tiny owl serving absolute face. “Hoo” is this diva? It’s none other than the elf owl, the smallest owl in the world. Little raptors When it comes to their size, elf owls live up […]

In 2003, scientists described a new family of frogs – the first time such a discovery had been made among the anurans in around 70 years. Their prize was a weird one, a purple frog described as the “coelacanth of frogs”. Why? Because it stemmed from an ancient lineage that was wriggling around in the […]

Humans have a weird relationship with cheese. It is extremely popular and even has entire festivals committed to it – such as ones where it is rolled down hillsides. Most people have their favorite type of cheese they like to pair with wine, crackers, or other delights. But accompanying the odd, almost mystique status cheese […]

Recording the goings-on inside the human brain is no simple task, largely because there’s a skull in the way. Over the years, we’ve developed ways of capturing brain activity using electrodes, but a team of scientists just made a big leap forward by inventing a biocompatible liquid ink that can be used to print temporary […]

In among the seething mass of carbon dioxide that is the Venusian atmosphere, there is not enough water vapor to make plausible the wet history that has been imagined, new research indicates. If verified, the work would suggest searching Venus for signs of lost oceans is a waste of time. It may also cause us […]

It has come to our attention that a few people out there are a little confused why helicopters and planes do not reach their destinations by simply flying straight up into the air and then allowing the Earth to rotate beneath them. “If I fly straight up in a helicopter and hover there, why doesn’t […]

The Nebra Sky Disc – considered the oldest surviving representation of the sky – required around ten hot forging cycles to make, a new study shows. Considering the technology of the day, its makers must have valued the product exceptionally highly to put in so much effort. The Sky Disc shows what is thought to […]

People on the Internet have found a strange new error with OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. For reasons as yet unclear, it refuses to say the name “David Mayer”, no matter how insistent, tricksy, or nice you are to it. Despite the hype, advanced AI chatbots have not yet revolutionized the world. While they’re […]

A food additive commonly found in meat, cheese, other dairy and dairy alternatives, has been linked to a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Carrageenan – also known as E407 – is a commonly used emulsifier and thickening agent, which has been in use in the US since the 1950s. While previous studies have […]

A new study has pointed to a strange correlation with a person’s drinking habits: the ratio of their fourth digit (sometimes called the ring finger) to the second digit. Specifically, scientists found a relationship between having a ring finger that is longer than the second digit and high alcohol consumption. The ratio of our finger […]

Issue 29 (December 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 29 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

Eating sticks of butter, doing a spot of face yoga, swilling coconut oil around your mouth – the wellness side of the internet abounds with all kinds of unusual trends with some questionable claims about how they can benefit our health. One that’s been doing the rounds for a while now is navel pulling, but […]

Pop quiz! How long is the average year? If you said “365 days”, then congratulations! You’re wrong. If you said “365.25 days”, then gratulationes – you’re also wrong, and probably a Roman. The average year is, in fact, 365.242 days long – just so long as you’re not talking about the sidereal year. So what’s […]

Evolution is generally considered to be quite a slow, clunky process. However, dogs living in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have undergone rapid evolution in the forty years since the disaster. In a study IFLScience reported on earlier this year, researchers analyzing blood samples from dogs roaming the power plant with those in surrounding areas […]

A new paper has confirmed and refined an inscription long thought impossible to pin down – and it seems to be a dedication to an ancient Mother goddess. For 2,600 years, a lonely statue has stood at the south edge of a small valley in the midwest of Turkey. Known as Arslan (or Aslan) Kaya, […]