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In chimpanzees, peeing is contagious. That’s the surprising conclusion reached by scientists at Kyoto University who described it as “an unexpected and fascinating result”. They conducted observational studies of chimpanzees at a sanctuary and saw that not only did they exhibit contagious urination, but that it was also more likely among individuals with lower dominance […]

At IFLScience, we love a dinosaur movie. If anything, too much (rumor has it Managing Editor Katy Evans even got excited about The VelociPastor). Safe to say, our opinion on the best dino flick can’t be trusted – which is precisely why we decided to scroll our scientist contact list to find out what the […]

Ask around today, and most people will tell you that the RMS Titanic in April 1912 sank due to an ill-placed iceberg, poor visibility, the material weaknesses of the not-so-unsinkable ship, and a healthy dose of human error. However, in the early 20th century, when supernatural séances and recent archaeological discoveries were lighting up people’s […]

When the Paleolithic Period dawned, at least one group from which humanity may have descended had a diet that would infuriate most people who think they’re “eating Paleo”. In fact, a group of australopithecines had an overwhelmingly vegetarian diet. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Members of the genus Australopithecus, made famous by the individual known as […]

A lot of things in space are so big that they make you scratch your head and go “Uh?” – chiefly among them are the Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs), and they have everything you might want in a monstrous celestial object. These galaxies have extremely active supermassive black holes spewing jets of plasma across millions […]

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE My name is Johannes Van Zijl, and I am the Managing and Editorial Director of IFLScience.  I’m here to discuss an exciting yet essential evolution at IFLScience: introducing our new membership model.  This change, grounded in our commitment to transparency and connection, marks a significant step forward in how we engage […]

If you’ve watched the science fiction show For All Mankind, which explores an alternative history where the Soviet Union beat the US to the Moon and further fueled the space race, there’s one particularly cool moment where a gigantic rocket is launched not from a traditional launchpad, but directly out of the ocean. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]

Math, though we promise you it really isn’t that daunting when you sit down and study it, has a reputation for being a tough subject. People can be put off by the basics, like multiplication, without even getting to the really difficult (and interesting) stuff like bunkbed conjectures and the Mandelbrot set. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]

A new register seeks to identify “champion trees” in the United States, recognized for their enormous size and big leafy crowns. The first-of-its-kind initiative is called the National Champion Tree Program (NCTP) and has been judging trees since 1941. Now, after moving from the American Forests to the University of Tennessee School of Natural Resources, […]

The first image that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about prehistoric humans is that of a caveman, possibly draped in a Fred Flintstone-style saber tooth tiger hide. However, while we Homo sapiens and our extinct ancestors undoubtedly spent some of our early years hanging out in caves, the reality is that we probably […]

For the past few months, a dedicated team at IFLScience has been quietly working behind the scenes, plunging into the weird, wacky, and unusual sides of science. Now, we’re thrilled to step forward and share the fascinating discoveries we’ve uncovered with our readers. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE We have investigated the questions that have always […]

The size of the Antarctic ice sheet can be hard to comprehend. Two kilometres thick on average and covering nearly twice the area of Australia, the ice sheet holds enough freshwater to raise global sea levels by 58 metres. Ice loss from this sheet is projected to be the leading driver of sea level rise […]

This week, the bodies of 1,200-year-old mummies uncovered in Peru have been found to have ultrafine line tattoos, China reveals plans to build a giant solar power station in Earth’s orbit, and mid-gestation marsupial embryo development in an artificial uterus has been achieved in an effort to de-extinct the thylacine. Finally, in a guide to […]

One billion years ago, Earth was boring as hell. Animals were yet to evolve and most life was small, simple, and slimy. Even if you were to go sightseeing during this period, you’d be grossly disappointed by the view; the planet was weirdly flat with no towering mountains, but plenty of featureless oceans covered in […]

Earth is the only planet we know of that has ever had a fire. While there may be volcanoes pushing out hot magma on the surface of Venus, the hottest planet in the Solar System, there has never been a fire there. Nor on Mercury, nor Jupiter, nor any of the other planets surrounding our […]

Light is something in our world that we are very familiar with, and yet it can still throw some incredible curveballs when you look at it in detail. One such curveball comes from a pretty well-established phenomenon: what happens when light passes through an interface? That could be glass, water, or something completely different. The […]

Communication is key. That’s true on Earth and it’s true in space. But in space, you need to contend with a crucial fact of life. The speed of light is finite and distances between worlds are pretty big; between star systems they are enormous. A recent analysis envisions what it would be like to communicate […]

USA! USA! We’re number one! We’re number one! No, not in freedom. Nope, not in democracy either. No, no, not in public education, and definitely not in public health. But in likelihood to be exposed to poison in the very air itself? Top of the charts baby!! “Air pollution can harm anyone’s health, but some […]

Swedish artist Mikael Genberg is just a few months away from having an artistic dream fulfilled. His 25-year-long project, called Moonhouse, will soon move from canvas to reality, as he and his team’s model of a traditional red Swedish house is now on its way to the Moon. Advertisement It launched on a SpaceX Falcon […]

Keys, phones, headphones, socks, thermonuclear weapons – some things just always seem to go missing. Believe it or not, there were at least six instances when the US lost atomic bombs or weapons-grade nuclear material during the Cold War. Not only that, but the US is responsible for at least 32 documented instances of a […]