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 […]
News
Tryophobia, The Fear Of Clustered Holes, May Have Evolutionary Roots
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 […]
Giant Humanoid Robots Start Working On Japan’s Railways To Ease Labor Shortages
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. […]
Giant Ancient Swamp Creature From Lost Supercontinent Of Gondwana Discovered
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 […]
NASA Reveals Sneak Peek Of Its Moon-Orbiting Space Station In New 3D Visualization
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 Solitary Brazilian Boa Has 14 Babies In Rare “Virgin Birth”
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 […]
First-Ever Footage Of Blue Whale Mother Nursing Its Calf On A 5,000-Kilometer Journey
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 […]
Mexico Races To Evacuate Turtle Eggs Ahead Of Hurricane Beryl
Mexico is racing to evacuate sea turtle eggs from the beaches south of Cancun ahead of the approach of Hurricane Beryl. Advertisement Hurricane Beryl became the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record, before weakening to a Category 4 on Tuesday. On Wednesday it weakened again, but it is still expected to be a significant […]
You Can Watch Live As The First “Martian” Crew Returns To The Outside World After A Year
Long-term exploration of the Solar System requires knowing what being there will be like. The best way to do that is by running experiments that inform us of the challenges. This is why NASA is running CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog), sending four simul-astronauts on a year-long mission where they will have to […]
Attack Of The Lichens: 5,000-Year-Old Rock Art Is Under Deadly Threat
One of the slowest art heists in history is currently going down in the Negev desert, where a host of hardy fungi and lichens are destroying ancient artworks before our very eyes. The petroglyphs carved by ancient humans have endured for 5,000 years, but they’re now at risk of being lost forever. Advertisement The desert […]
How To Watch The Historic First Launch Of Ariane 6
The European Space Agency (ESA) is going to launch its brand-new rocket Ariane 6 next week. The window for the inaugural launch opens at 2pm ET (6pm GMT) on July 9 and will last for three hours. There is trepidation across ESA and the European space industry – this has been a long time coming. […]
What’s Under Antarctica’s Ice? A Long-Lost Land Of Extreme Geography
Antarctica is caked in a layer of ice with an average thickness of 2.2 kilometers (1.4 miles). Unlike the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere, beneath this ice is a continental landmass featuring rocky mountains, volcanoes, and vast canyons that have been tombed for millions of years. Thanks to decades worth of satellite data and radar […]
Meteorite Billions Of Years Old Turned Into LEGO Bricks For Moon Habitat Test
One of the biggest goals for the future exploration of the Moon is to build a permanent base using material found there. Scientists have experimented with creating bricks using different materials, including blood and potatoes. European Space Agency (ESA) researchers have just tested a different method. They made 3D-printed LEGO bricks out of a billions […]
How Hornbills Joust In Midair At Car-Collision Speeds Without Getting Knocked Out
When helmeted hornbills go to battle, they wield their giant heads as weapons in an airborne jousting competition. Diagrams reveal the calamitous outcomes that send one contender spiraling toward the ground as the victor rises, but how do they smash into each other without falling unconscious? That’s just what scientists have been trying to find […]
Japanese Government Declares Victory In “War Against Floppy Disks”
Up until last month, Japan had 1,035 regulations that involved the use of floppy disks, storage devices that can only fit a couple of megabytes of data at best. The Japanese government has finally got rid of them – now there is only one regulation that uses them, concerning vehicle recycling. Advertisement Spearheading this initiative […]
NASA Discovers Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Has A Moonlet During Close Encounter
On June 27, asteroid 2011 UL21 made a relatively close encounter with Earth, flying by our planet at a distance of 6.6 million kilometers (4.1 million miles), or roughly 17 times the average distance from the Earth to the Moon. Advertisement While not close enough to worry about, the encounter gave astronomers an opportunity to […]
You May Have Watched The Big Bang On TV
IFLScience needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out ourPrivacy Policy Deborah BloomfieldSource Link: You May Have Watched […]
Mystery Of Ribbontail Ray’s Ludicrously Blue Spots Reveals A “Surprising And Fun Solution”
The mystery of how the bluespotted ribbontail ray got its blue spots has been solved by a team of scientists, yielding what they described as a “surprising and fun solution to the stingray colour puzzle.” Their investigations revealed that the electric blue comes not from pigment, but extremely small structures that influence the way light […]
The World’s Heaviest Flying Bird Weighs As Much As 300 Tennis Balls
Ahh the bird world, full of incredibly beautiful species that fly, swim, and even just walk (looking at you kiwis) across a vast array of Earth’s diverse habitats. While some species enter the record books for their amazing feats of endurance, soaring for days without touching the ground, we take a closer look at the […]
Paleolithic Humans May Have Invented Underwear 40,000 Years Ago
Whether you prefer briefs, a thong, or even a jockstrap, the garments with which you furnish your undercarriage may descend from an ancestral pair of undies that were first worn in a chilly Siberian cave 40,000 years ago. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new analysis of the world’s earliest eyed sewing needles, which […]
