News

Bridges come in all shapes and sizes: from the world’s longest suspension bridge that connects Europe and Asia, to India’s ingenious bridges made of living roots. However, the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China holds not one, but two titles for both the longest and second-longest bridge in the world. Forming part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed […]

In the early hours of January 21, asteroid 2024 BX1 flew through the atmosphere over Germany, burning up and breaking apart about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Berlin. It was only the eighth asteroid ever predicted to collide with Earth before it hit the planet, giving us a rare 95-minute warning. This led to […]

If you thought playing music to cheese or digging up 2,600-year-old halloumi was as wild as dairy-based research gets, boy have we got the study for you. Scientists at the University of Nottingham have – in their own words – broken “the mold” by discovering a way to make blue cheese in a whole new […]

Fugu is a Japanese delicacy made out of sliced pufferfish. As alluring as it be may for adventurous gastronauts, this dicey dish can prove deadly with just one wrong slip of the knife.  What is fugu? Fugu is made of chopped pufferfish served in a sashimi style. Chefs will often arrange the thinly sliced flesh […]

Welcome to the wonderful world of underwater creatures. From seals to sharks, and whales to whale sharks, we break down just what is swimming beneath the ocean waves and where they fit in with those animals that are much happier gallivanting about on land. Why are sharks not mammals? To start with, let’s address a […]

Despite happening to so many of us – around 1.8 billion every month – menstruation is blighted by myriad myths and misconceptions, from the long-standing, and incorrect, belief that periods can “sync up” to the equally improbable idea that menstruating people attract bears. It’s also been suggested that a person’s cognitive skills could be impacted […]

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has just broken the world record to become the person who has spent the most time in space ever. He has now been in space for over 879 days, beating the previous record of fellow cosmonaut Gennady Padalka’s 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 48 seconds in space. Both cosmonauts […]

Beefalo are a domesticated breed of cattle that was created with a little bit of encouragement from humans in the 1960s. Made up of part bovine, and part bison, the goal was to create a “superior” cattle that combined the milking ability and general ease of domestic cows, with the hardiness and meat quality of […]

This article first appeared in Issue 16 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  In the public imagination, IQ is often considered the gold standard for measuring intelligence – a cast-iron, bullet-proof measure of a person’s brain power. However, not everyone is wholly convinced of the promise it offers. Advertisement Some argue it runs the risk of […]

Just like with left and right, poison vs venom, and Ant and Dec, a lot of people get confused between the Arctic and Antarctica. But for that last one, there is a very simple way to remember which is which – and it has been hiding right there in the name all along.  Some people […]

It is safe to say that the development of radiocarbon dating has changed our understanding of the world. It has not only revolutionized our approach to archaeology and anthropology, offering new insights into the lives of ancient peoples and cultures, but has also offered new perspectives on the planet’s geological and atmospheric past. But have […]

Should you turn your computer off at night, or is it fine to just slap down the laptop screen once you’re done? Like all of life’s great questions, there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer, but there are good things to know to inform your choice. It’s estimated that just 37 percent of people shut down […]

This article first appeared in Issue 16 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  Dreaming is an almost ubiquitous human experience. When we drift off each night, imagery fills our sleeping minds – sometimes it’s vivid and realistic, other times nonsensical or nightmarish. Some dreams are consigned to memory, to be shared, laughed at, or perhaps even […]

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, recognized as the world’s longest suspension bridge, stretches across the Dardanelles Strait and represents a significant infrastructural achievement. It connects the European and Asian continents within Turkey, offering a swift passage that eliminates the need for a traditional ferry journey that normally lasts about an hour and a half. Standing at […]

More things than you would think fall out of the sky at seemingly random intervals. Pieces of meteorite in Germany and frozen igunanas have all hit the deck in the not-too-distant past. Now, however, 200 parrots have dropped from the skies, and scientists aren’t quite sure why. In northern New South Wales, Australia, around 200 […]

European hedgehogs might be a popular garden visitor, but having to share space with humans can sometimes put them at risk, including from the smart tech that keeps our lawns looking tidy. New research has highlighted how some robotic lawnmowers could cause harm to hedgehogs, but thankfully, it’s also come up with a creative safety […]

If Earth is so unremarkable in the grand scheme of things, where are all the aliens? A team of scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has tackled the question by looking at the Great Filter theory, humanity’s place in it, and our future as a species.  In the paper, they warn that the filter “has […]

It’s Groundhog Day today and in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a woodchuck named Phil is about to give his annual weather forecast. That’s probably not the most bizarre thing you’ve ever read about on IFLScience, but it’s also an event that doesn’t go down well with animal rights organization PETA, which has once again […]

Early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that the latest round of COVID-19 shots are 54 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease. The updated vaccines offer protection against the JN.1 variant that’s currently dominating worldwide, and yet uptake continues to be low. “Everything from this study is reassuring that the […]