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The Solar System is not stuck in place. It moves around the Milky Way. Occasionally, it will cross regions of denser interstellar medium. The impact of these clouds of hydrogen and other materials on the Solar System and our planet is unclear, but it is possible that these encounters led to an ice age. Advertisement […]

The universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, however, the nature of this expansion – why it’s expanding and why it’s doing so at such an accelerated rate – is uncertain. One culprit has been dubbed “dark energy“, a hypothetical form of energy that could be seen as anti-gravity.  While what dark energy is precisely […]

An apparent weakening of one of the world’s most important ocean currents is probably a measurement error caused by a shift in the geomagnetic field, a new study proposes. If correct, it would mean we face less danger from one of the most alarming, but also most uncertain, consequences of global heating. Advertisement The Atlantic […]

One of the brave sailors who was lost in Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition of 1845 has been identified using a DNA sample. His name was Captain James Fitzjames, a senior officer onboard HMS Erebus born on July 27, 1813. In a grim twist, the latest study of his remains highlights another dark facet of the […]

The winner of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 16 has been announced. Once again, we are in awe of both the beauty of the universe and the incredible talent of the astrophotographers involved. The competition is the world’s biggest space photography competition and this year saw 3,500 entries from 58 countries.  […]

Move over Mr. Nuts, push off Paul the Octopus, and sayonara Staten Island Chuck. There’s a new oracular animal in town – and they’re ready to call the presidency. Kind of. No, we know what you’re thinking – but this isn’t your average “random animal seems to predict the future until a horde of angry […]

On December 8, 1990, the NASA Galileo spacecraft experienced what has been dubbed a “flyby anomaly” as it flew past the Earth on its way to Jupiter and its moons. The anomaly, seen in several other spacecraft since then, remains an unexplained mystery to this day. Advertisement In missions to visit objects in the faraway […]

When you picture a computer hack, you probably think of a guy in a balaclava hunched over a computer screen displaying the code from the movie The Matrix. Or at least you do if you’re a stock photographer. Advertisement In truth, most hacks rely on an amount of social engineering, or tricking people in some […]

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have observed an incredibly rare event, which could possibly hint at new physics beyond the Standard Model. Advertisement There’s nothing particle physicists like more than crashing particles together and seeing what comes out of the mess. Such experiments can help us find evidence of particles and […]

A curious show and tell is going down on Reddit right now. Over in the 13-million-strong subreddit r/interestingasfuck, people are sharing scans of their brains in which it appears part of their brains are missing. How can this be possible? It all comes down to plasticity. Advertisement For example, back in 2016, a woman known […]

Many species across the world’s habitats share the same time and space as others in the same region. These species can coexist peacefully, or sometimes run into conflicts outside of direct predator-prey relationships. Some interactions can even be accidental – such as the case of a harbor seal who ended up inside the mouth of […]

Getting shanked by an orca is the last thing you’d expect in the Peruvian desert, yet for some unknown reason, the ancient Nazca who once inhabited the area decided to decorate the landscape with an enormous geoglyph depicting a knife-wielding killer whale. Spotted using an artificial intelligence (AI) system, the armed marine mammal is one […]

While it’s always an exciting day in the IFLScience team when we stumble across the latest baby animal taking the internet by storm, it seemed as though nothing could match our obsession with Moo Deng – then came along Pesto, the most delightfully chonky baby penguin we’ve ever seen. Advertisement If you’re not already familiar, […]

People who have been hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection can exhibit brain changes that cause the equivalent of 20 years’ worth of aging, significantly impacting their cognition. The findings of a new study, the largest of its kind in the UK to date, show how neurological complications can persist in these patients long after their […]

“Imagine dipping a toad in some brightly coloured paint, telling it a sad story, and forcing it to wear gloves two sizes too big.” That’s a description of the world’s rarest fish that appears on the Handfish Conservation Project’s website, and they really hit the nail on the head. Arguably the only thing more ridiculous […]

Around the first millennium CE, an enigmatic group of people living in southern Madagascar carved large chambers and hollows into the rock of a cliff face. For decades, the terraces and architecture at this site puzzled archaeologists as it is like nothing else found in Madagascar or elsewhere along the nearby East African coast. Who […]

Evidence has been revealed of a city existing 5,400-4,900 years ago in what is now Morocco, that its discoverers claim was the era’s largest in Africa outside of the Nile Basin. There are signs the region had extensive trading links with settlements across the Strait of Gibraltar in Iberia, and its influence may well have […]

From mysterious purple-coated rocks to formations that look a bit like a doorway, our trusty Martian robot pals have made some cool and sometimes strange findings over the years.  Advertisement Every now and then, they capture an image of a rock that looks completely out of place in the Martian landscape. This happened on September […]

Morning Glory Pool, a hot spring that quietly bubbles in Yellowstone National Park, is famous for its dazzling display of colors, starting with blue and green in its center, before bleeding into yellows and reddish oranges at its edge. As beautiful as it might look, its rainbow-like appearance is largely due to contamination from human […]

Researchers have resurrected a strange seed that was discovered in a cave in the Judean desert during the 1980s. According to radiocarbon dating, the seed was over 1,000 years old when it was found, and its DNA links it to a genus of tree that, although lost today, was mentioned in the Bible. Advertisement Named […]