News

We at IFLScience are lucky enough to explore the weird, the wacky, the downright out of this world – sometimes literally! – every single day. And yet sometimes, a study hits our desks that leaves us with little to say but… “Wow!” That was pretty much our reaction when we learned that scientists had used […]

Yesterday was not an easy day for the flight team of BepiColombo. The mission is a collaboration between the European and the Japanese space agencies and it will put two orbiters around Mercury in a few years. Unfortunately, back in April, the mission experienced thruster problems so for its fourth flyby, the team decided to […]

An abalone identity crisis has finally found a solution thanks to hardworking scientists in New Zealand. Found off the Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Islands, it had long been suspected the small abalone was unlike any other, but it took a deep dive into its DNA to finally settle the debate. These precious sea creatures are considered treasure […]

Astronaut Matthew Dominick has captured the moment a meteor collided with the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a huge flash of light. Advertisement Take a look out your window wherever you work and it most likely looks like a trash-filled alley behind a fast food restaurant in comparison to the view astronauts get aboard the International Space […]

It’s not every day you see a northern hairy-nosed wombat, so ecologists were blown away to capture footage of a young member of the critically endangered species stumbling around an Australian wildlife refuge. Advertisement The baby northern hairy-nosed wombat was recently spotted by researchers at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) while scrolling through 100 hours […]

Neon signs look cool as hell, there’s no denying. Ain’t nothing more retro than a glowing tube in the shape of a cocktail, but how do neon lights work? Advertisement Neon light first started being incorporated into signs back in 1912 when French engineer Georges Claude and associate Jacques Fonseque sold the world’s first neon […]

Homeopathy: an alternative approach to healing, or the prototypical pseudoscience, depending on who you ask. It’s been around for over two centuries, and still has many devotees across the world. But by all empirical standards, homeopathy is simply not scientifically sound. Let’s unpack what homeopathy is, what people believe about it, and why we can be […]

When we consider ancient mega-structures like Stonehenge or the pyramids, it’s easy to experience a sense of cognitive dissonance. Whoever created these places, we think, lived in a time before things like math and engineering; heck, they didn’t even have wheels, as far as we know. And yet, somehow, they were able to build these […]

New images from the wreck of the Titanic show the historic ship is rapidly deteriorating in the murky depths of the Atlantic. But it isn’t all bad news for the forlorn vessel; the recent expedition has taken photographs of a beautiful statue that many feared had been lost to the seas. RMS Titanic Inc., an […]

Where do baby dinosaurs come from? It’s a question that’s been burning in the collective brain of the IFLScience team for some time. In this episode, host Rachael Funnell speaks with science writer and palaeontologist Riley Black to find out what science has discovered so far about the sex lives of dinosaurs. You can listen […]

It’s a good day for palaeontology fans as a team of scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur. The fossils retrieved in Spain belonged to a titanosaur, the long-necked giants, and is between 70 to 75 million years old. The prehistoric giant’s partial skeleton was found at the Lo Hueco fossil […]

A man has stumbled across probable space debris whilst snorkeling on Cayos Cochinos, a remote island cluster off the coast of Honduras in Central America. Advertisement Mike Irmen and his family were visiting the islands when they spotted the debris, conspicuously lying there on the beach. The debris was clearly labeled with the word “Ariane”, […]

In the second attack in a month, at least two loggers have been killed in the Peruvian Amazon by a threatened uncontacted tribe using bows and arrows.  Advertisement The incident occurred near the Pariamanu River in Madre de Dios province on the morning of August 29, but the news has only now been confirmed by […]

Microplastics are everywhere, causing havoc in the environment. They’re in the oceans, in our food – even inside us. From lungs, to placentas, to penises, no part of the human body is seemingly safe from microplastic contamination, and that includes the brain. A new preprint, which is yet to undergo peer review, has sparked fears […]

Wade out into the waters of western and northern Australia and, if you’re lucky, you might just stumble across the biggest snail in the world. The Australian trumpet doesn’t live on land but has endured to become a voracious marine predator that hunts on the sea floor, comparable in size to a Border Collie. Recent […]

There aren’t many in the animal world that would like to go toe to toe with a lion. However, despite what Disney movies would have you believe, lions aren’t actually ruling the jungle and there are a few species willing to put up a fight. Especially this angry hippo, filmed in Zambia. Advertisement Shenton Safaris […]

Ultraprecise timekeeping has made major leaps in the last several years. There are clocks that are hundreds of times more accurate than the standard atomic clocks that are employed across the world. Those are known as optical atomic clocks and have set many records recently. But researchers think they can go even further. They can […]

Puffling season has returned to Iceland and with it comes a peculiar site: humans tossing the baby birds off of cliffs. It sounds like cruelty but it’s a long-held tradition that helps these birds head in the right direction when they get confused by city lights. Puffling tossing mostly happens in the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) […]

Without an immune system, we wouldn’t be here. It is the crucial way our bodies defend against microbes and parasites that aim to use our bodies for themselves. But there is still a lot we do not understand about it, and that includes possible sex differences in immune responses. New research suggests that these might […]

The world’s largest wind-powered cargo ship has embarked on a transatlantic voyage, loaded with a cargo hold full of fancy wine and jam. Advertisement Sailing Vessel (SV) “Anemos” launched its maiden voyage on August 16 from a port in Le Havre, northern France, headed towards New York, according to TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT), the company […]