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This article first appeared in Issue 19 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.  Advertisement Nobody on stage has ever been hypnotised in the history of the world. – The Amazing Kreskin, veteran mentalist and showman, 1994 Advertisement It was midnight, in the Palace of Westminster, UK in December 1994, and hypnotism was in trouble. “Stage hypnotism has been a […]

This week, two new searches have identified 60 potential “alien megastructures” in our galaxy, something strange is happening to the Y chromosome, and warm-blooded dinosaurs may have evolved 180 million years ago. Finally, we meet the explorers who travelled to the most remote place on Earth in an IFLScience exclusive interview. Advertisement Subscribe to the IFLScience […]

Every year, the US Social Security Administration releases its list of the most popular baby names from the previous year, providing an interesting insight into the naming trends that have captured parents – and maybe even what the most popular TV show is at the time (know a baby Khaleesi, anyone?). So what came top […]

If you’ve ever thought twice about wearing a dark shirt or jacket in case it ends up covered in a light dusting of flakes, you will know the annoyance that dandruff can cause. Lots of us will have to deal with this at some stage in our lives – and while it’s not dangerous, it […]

We’re now in the midst of blueberry season and that means a glut of delicious blue-but-not-really fruit heading toward our tables. If you end up with more blueberries than you can freeze, bake, or blend, one option might be to turn it into wine – though according to a new study, maximizing the plonk’s potential […]

If you feel the world is breaking down into chaos, you’re right. You may or may not be correct if that feeling is in regard to politics and the state of society, but on the timescale of the universe there is no doubt, order is breaking down. That is what it always does. But why? […]

The origin of life on Earth is still enigmatic, but we are slowly unravelling the steps involved and the necessary ingredients. Scientists believe life arose in a primordial soup of organic chemicals and biomolecules on the early Earth, eventually leading to actual organisms. It’s long been suspected that some of these ingredients may have been […]

This article first appeared in Issue 19 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.  Advertisement A photographic playground of a salt flat can be found sprawling across southwest Bolivia. Here, the remains of an ancient lake have created a salty crust that makes for great perspective games in the dry season – and turns into a massive mirror when wet.  Advertisement The world’s largest salt flat […]

Astronomers have discovered the most distant pair of interacting supermassive black holes. The duo was in the process of merging when the universe was just 740 million years old. The light of the system, dubbed ZS7, traveled over 13 billion years to reach us and the observations are providing insights into how supermassive black holes […]

In a world-first application for gene editing technology, Colossal Biosciences is attempting to use CRISPR to make the endangered northern quoll resistant to the neurotoxins of cane toads. Snacking on a cane toad can be a fatal error for a hungry quoll, but the world-first de-extinction company is striving towards introducing genetic resistance that could […]

As a wise and leonine monarch once said, “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance […] we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.” Advertisement But what if that circle was more of an… oval? What if, instead of each species being just […]

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been declining month-on-month for over a year and has now reached the lowest rate in five years, according to data from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) analyzed by Mongabay. Advertisement The INPE’s DETER system also indicates that deforestation between August 2023 and April 2024 had dropped by 51 […]

Wegovy, an injectable prescription weight loss drug, can produce effective results that help patients keep weight off for up to four years, a new study suggests. The drug may also offer heart protection benefits for overweight and obese patients who had heart disease before starting the treatment. Advertisement The drug, which is developed by Novo […]

The past decade has seen an explosion of new research into some of the most fascinating sounds in the sea: the vocalisations of whales and dolphins. Scientists have uncovered how humpback whales learn songs from neighbouring populations, so that these songs travel from western Australia to South America. They discovered bowhead whales singing 184 different […]

Seashells may seem like a harmless memento from your trip to the beach, but there are a few good reasons why you let it be and leave them on the shore. Advertisement Beachcombing, if done carelessly, has the potential to cause real upset for coastal ecosystems. A study in 2014 investigated the removal of seashells […]

History is filled with stories about island and their civilizations that disappear after some cataclysm (I bet I can guess which one you’re thinking of). But I doubt many people have heard the story of Teonimanu, the landmass that has now vanished from among the Solomon Islands. We only now know of its existence because […]

The daily shower is a more controversial thing than you might think. Are we showering too much? Too little? Is the water too hot, or too cold? What is that rat doing in here anyway? Advertisement But for some reason, the one that really gets people grimacing is the question of when to shower. If […]

A father and son explorer team have successfully reached the most remote place on Earth after embarking on a harrowing journey to Point Nemo, a place where – most of the time – the nearest humans are whizzing overhead on the International Space Station (ISS). That all changed in 2024 when Chris and Mika Brown […]

The unfolding climate crisis puts humanity in danger – and usually, the ones who have contributed the least to it face the harshest consequences. The health impacts of the crisis have become more and more evident, and it seems that conditions that affect the brain are likely to be affected by the changing climate as […]

In early March, during its close flyby of Jupiter, Juno snapped a beautiful view of the planet. And among the stunning cloud formations, there is a dark spot. In one photo, it is over a dark band. In another, it is starkly clear over the Great Red Spot. A fitting place, given that Amalthea is […]