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The quest to find “missing matter” in the universe has been unsuccessful so many times that some exotic suggestions get taken more seriously than they once might. As Sherlock Holmes famously said, “When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however, improbable, must be the truth.” In this case, there are many improbable ideas being […]

This week, 51,200-year-old narrative rock art is the oldest of its kind, paleolithic humans may have invented underwear 40,000 years ago, and scientists built LEGO bricks out of ancient celestial material to test Moon construction possibilities. Finally, we explore the surprising animals that can mimic human speech. Advertisement Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all […]

One of the world’s greatest examples of sexual selection is the elaborate performances put on by birds-of-paradise, and it’s possible the female’s choosiness may be a way of avoiding mating with males of the wrong species. However, new research has revealed that this isn’t always enough to prevent mating between species, as it has identified […]

A spectacular display could be seen lighting up the night sky on Thursday near Mount Etna, as a fountain of lava burst out from a crater of Italy’s largest active volcano. Advertisement It’s not unusual for the volcano, which is on the Mediterranean island of Sicily, to erupt, but activity at some of its craters […]

A new study has taken a look at the weird “lunar swirls” seen on the Moon, and identified a possible cause beneath the lunar surface. Advertisement When humanity first developed telescopes and began examining the Moon in closer detail, we noticed some odd features. Using early telescopes in the 1600s, astronomers were able to see […]

An effort to explore the temperatures to which people warm or cool their houses started by finding something obvious, but then moved into more intriguing territory. With 11 percent of energy in the United States devoted to household temperature control, understanding the drivers of people’s choices could be much more important than it seems. Advertisement […]

Math is a language written primarily using equations – little sentences of letters and numbers that entirely govern our understanding of the universe.  Advertisement They can have a scary reputation, but really an equation is just a statement: it’s a math-y way of saying “These two things are equal to each other.” And each has […]

Juneau Icefield is one of North America’s largest, home to swathes of glaciers – but, according to new research, those glaciers are melting at a dramatically increased rate and the loss seen could reach an “irreversible” tipping point far earlier than previously thought. Advertisement An international team of researchers analyzed records of the 3,885-square kilometer […]

The quest for human longevity seems to be working – people are now living longer than ever before. So what’s the secret? Living in the right place? Mythical elixirs? Nicking blood from your son? According to a new study, the answer may be rather more simple. Advertisement In that paper, a team from Harvard University […]

This week on Break It Down, why dinosaurs had to die so that we could have wine, the world’s oldest narrative art, the flying skills of hippos, evidence for pants in the Palaeolithic, turning meteorites into space LEGO, and a bunch of animals talking like humans that really shouldn’t be talking like humans. Available on […]

Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms may be worth a shot when it comes to treating development stuttering, according to the authors of a new study. Analyzing all the available evidence supporting the use of hallucinogens as potential therapies for stammering, the researchers conclude that some mind-altering compounds may help to restore the […]

In 1901, RRS Discovery helped launch the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration” when it took exploration luminaries like Robert Falcon Scott (who led the expedition) and Ernest Shackleton on their first trip into the ice-packed waters of the distant south. Now, 123 years later, researchers have created a “digital twin” of the pioneering vessel that […]

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has revealed their final plan to kill nearly half a million owls. The motive behind the mass cull? The survival of another species of owl. Advertisement In a Final Environmental Impact Statement published this week, the agency proposed the culling of around 450,000 invasive barred owls over a period […]

Above our heads, almost at the edge of space, there is a fair bit of plasma extending way past the orbit where the International Space Station flies. This is the ionosphere. Ultraviolet light from the Sun frees electrons from the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere creating this layer. It influences radio communications and it’s […]

Have you heard of trypophobia, the fear characterized by an aversion to clusters of small holes? Awareness of the phobia has become more widespread in recent years, creating a source of fascination for the public and the scientific community alike. But is it just another human quirk, or does trypophobia have an evolutionary root? New […]

JR West is set to start fixing its railway system in a very Japanese fashion: using advanced humanoid robots. Advertisement Starting this month, giant Mecha-style robots will be used to perform a bunch of maintenance tasks on the company’s railway infrastructure, such as painting overhead support structures and removing tree branches that obstruct the tracks. […]

If you go down to the ancient swamp today you’ll be sure of a big surprise. Which is exactly what happened to researchers in Namibia who have discovered a giant salamander-like ancient beastie with huge fanged teeth and a head that was over half a meter long. Advertisement Found in the Gai-as Formation in the […]

By the end of the decade, there will be another station in orbit: the Gateway. But it won’t be in low-Earth orbit like the International Space Station (ISS) or Tiangong. It will be in orbit around the Moon, making it the first outpost for humanity in deep space.  Advertisement NASA has provided a gorgeous visualization […]

Ronaldo the boa was believed to be a male who had happily spent the past nine years alone at a school in the UK. So, you can imagine the surprise when students came to class one day and found the 13-year-old snake had given birth to 14 babies. Advertisement “One of the students discovered them […]

Underwater footage of a mother blue whale nursing its calf has been caught on camera for the first time, providing a rare glimpse into the private life of Earth’s largest animal. Advertisement The video was recently filmed off the coast of Timor-Leste in Southeast Asia by a research and citizen science program led by the […]