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With “skin writing” you never get caught short without a pen, as this peculiar condition makes it possible to write messages on human skin with the touch of a finger. Known as dermatographic urticaria, it’s estimated to affect around 2 to 3 percent of the population. Dermatographism, as the condition is known, literally means “to […]

Here’s a fact that would make you sound unhinged if you shouted it in the street: The center of the Earth is two and a half years younger than the surface. About 4.6 billion years ago, a hot cloud of dust orbiting the Sun coalesced and cooled. As it did so, the heavier elements formed […]

Spend five minutes on any dating app and you’re bound to find someone who, among the laundry list of qualities they desire in a potential partner, has a very specific view about one particular aspect of human physiology: height. A study looked at people’s preferences for height in romantic partners and found some notable differences […]

Many banana lovers are quick to banish those strange stringy bits that emerge when peeling the fruit, but there are a few good reasons you should savor these strands. Known as phloem bundles, these stringy bits are perfectly edible and surprisingly nutritious.  They might be mildly radioactive, but bananas are packed full of goodness. As […]

This article first appeared in Issue 11 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS out now.  They say be careful what you wish for, but hot damn, don’t we all want to go to Jurassic Park? Before all of the chaos and carnage and people getting eaten on the toilet, John Hammond’s dream of a dinosaur […]

This week crocodiles have been documented for the first time reproducing via parthenogenesis, a patient whose life-improving brain implant had to be removed tells of her human-machine symbiosis, and we ask the question: do those with Rhesus-negative blood really descend from aliens? Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered straight […]

We at IFLScience love a cave. The deeper, bluer, and more terrifying the better. We are also always keen to celebrate the weirdest wonders planet Earth has to offer, and as geological oddballs go, the Trabuc Caves in southern France take the cake. Situated in Mialet, France, the caves are the largest network of underground passages in the […]

A pink diamond, described as the “most important pink diamond” to ever come to market, sold for a record-breaking $34.8 million within just two minutes at an auction by Sotheby’s New York on Thursday afternoon. The Eternal Pink is a 10.57-carat diamond that’s said to have a “flawless” clarity. Mined in 2019 at the Damtshaa […]

Shilajit is a dark sticky substance that has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. While there’s a lack of evidence-based scientific studies on this tar-like goo, some modern research has hinted that some of its purported benefits may have an element of truth. What is shilajit made of? The “herbomineral” substance comes […]

The US Navy has just received a revamped “Doomsday” plane that has been kitted out with new communications hardware to connect the President’s “big red button” to the nation’s nuclear forces. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman recently returned the first E-6B Mercury aircraft to the US Navy after installing five new kits onboard that improve its […]

The idea of the “Aryan race” has been discredited for decades and is now synonymous with racism, notions of racial superiority, and hyper-nationalism. While many may reject it as a bygone designation for a supposed “type” of people, there are still plenty of misunderstandings associated with the term’s origins and where it came from. The […]

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate Prediction Center has officially declared an El Niño, with all the likelihood of extreme weather that involves. The event comes as no surprise, after months of warnings by the World Meteorological Organization and national climate institutes, but the timing of the announcement reflects the fact the […]

Taurine could be an inexpensive “elixir of life” by boosting lifespan by up to 10 percent, according to new results in animal models. The amino acid is typically found in meat and fish and declines with age, but keeping it topped up in our bodies cold have a life-extending impact if the results translate to […]

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered the oldest wind instruments ever found in the Middle East, dating back to the period when humans made the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agricultural settlements. Constructed from the wing-bones of small ducks, the flutes mimic the calls of local birds of prey and may have been used for hunting […]

An international team of underwater archaeologists made an incredible discovery last year, when they found three new shipwrecks in the treacherous Mediterranean waters off the coast of Tunisia. One of the wrecks is ancient, dating back to somewhere between 100 BCE and 200 CE, while the other two are thought to be from the late […]

Ammonites the size of an adult human were gliding through Earth’s oceans around 80 million years ago. Today, their fossils are found all around the world, but the biggest of them all was retrieved in Germany back In 1895, and it was an absolute whopper. It belonged to Parapuzosia seppenradensis, which is thought to be […]

Everyone’s favorite smart, sentient “aliens” just got a whole lot weirder: Octopuses are able to recode proteins in their nerve cells to protect their brains from changes in temperature, new research has revealed. When things get chilly, the canny cephalopods tinker with their RNA – the messenger molecule between DNA and protein production – ensuring […]

A newly discovered dinosaur in Utah is thought to have lived in a time of big environmental change and stood on the edge of a period of rapid warming on Planet Earth. Iani smithi dates back approximately 99 million years and lived in what is now Utah during the mid-Cretaceous. Iani smithi is a special […]

The “rebound” is an inescapable trope in romantic novels and rom-coms, understood to be relationships that are started up almost immediately after another one has ended. People who enter into these relationships are often uncharitably thought of as being “hung up” on their previous partners, trying to deal with unresolved feelings by jumping into something […]

The first rabid moose in Alaska was announced by the Department Of Fish And Game after an animal was found stumbling, drooling, and acting aggressively on June 2. Rabies in moose is rare, but not unheard of, and this latest case marks a historic first for the US state. “The moose was unbalanced, stumbling, drooling […]