News

WhatsApp has revealed a new “Chat Lock” feature that will allow users to hide personal conversations in a folder that’s sealed with a password or biometric authentication. While the company said it’s been designed to add “one more layer of security” to its instant messaging platform, many have dubbed the update as a “feature for […]

During the late 19th and early 20th century, in the seaside town of Eden, Twofold Bay, Australia, there was a very curious and smelly “cure” for rheumatism. This cure relied on locating a dead whale, making a hole in the skin, and crawling inside as if it were a slimy, meaty, rotting sleeping bag for […]

Fungi found feeding on plastics have given researchers fresh hope that we may one day be able to clean up the new habitats humans have made on Earth by leaving anthropogenic trash laying around. These “plastispheres” have been recognized as a habitat for marine organisms, but new research looking at these unique ecological niches on […]

Jupiter is a very pretty planet. Whether seen with a small telescope or up close by spacecraft, the planet’s colorful stripes and storms are a stunning defining feature. They are the product of a complex atmosphere always churning, which can regularly lead to stripes changing color. The reason for it has been quite the cosmic […]

DNA left behind in the surrounding environment could act as an invisible fingerprint, identifying the exact people to have been there previously, according to new research. The findings suggest there may be no place to hide from future scientists or law enforcement, posing a new ethical dilemma of how such information could be gathered and […]

On September 13, 2005, a disease began to spread in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. An update to the game had introduced a new area for higher-level players, known as Zul’Gurub. In the area, there was a boss called “Hakkar the Soul Flayer” (warning: this article may contain words used […]

In 1999, a plane took a strange course across the United States. It had climbed to its designated altitude as usual, but instead of heading towards Dallas, it began flying straight over the US towards Canada. No contact could be made with the crew, and military jets scrambled to intercept the phantom flight, fearing the […]

Sounds may be physical phenomena, but to humans they also carry meaning and certain qualities. For instance, some sounds are more pleasing than others, while some are more ominous or unsettling, relaxing and soothing, or just plain noise. Now a group of Swiss researchers have discovered that our brains show a preference towards pleasing sounds […]

Mad cow disease – or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) – has made a rare appearance in the US, although the detection of the condition in a single cow in South Carolina does not pose any danger to people. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the animal was identified and isolated before it had […]

A medical case report documents the time a man drank a big bottle of NOS Octane Booster, believing it to be an energy drink. The 54-year-old man showed up at the emergency department in Washington, Seattle, after experiencing seizures and a state of agitation. Usually the onset of seizures would require a bit of investigation, […]

The Statue of Unity is the tallest statue in the world, towering so high that the Statue of Liberty’s outstretched arm barely reaches its belly. Standing at 182 meters (597 feet) tall, the giant statue can be found gazing over the Narmada River near the town of Kevadia in Gujarat, India. It depicts Vallabhbhai Patel, […]

If you own a telescope, now might be a really good time to take a look at a famous galaxy in Ursa Major. If you don’t, but know someone who does, see if they’ll let you take a look – it’s not often you get to watch a giant star explode before your eyes and […]

An eating disorder awareness group is raising awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) image-generators and how they propagate unrealistic standards of beauty like the data on the Internet they were trained on. The Bulimia Project asked image generators Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney to create the perfect female body specifically according to social media in […]

This week, we explore the gravity anomaly at Hudson Bay, Canada, find out the estimate for the maximum number of T. rexes to ever walk the Earth, and investigate whether you can actually sniff out an oncoming downpour. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday […]

The flood story you may be most familiar with is probably Noah’s Ark, but it’s far from the only tale of a great flood sent by a god to destroy a civilization. There are eight basic plots in storytelling, not seven: Overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, rebirth […]

When can you really consider yourself to have an “adult” brain? People often claim that the brain is fully cooked at the age of 25, making us more rational but also harder to change – but in reality, things are a lot more complex. Does the brain stop developing at 25? The short answer: No. […]

A likely detection has been made of gravitational waves from a long-sought event: a black hole consuming a neutron star, and telescopes worldwide are hoping to confirm it. The signal was picked up by LIGO during an engineering run, and the circular alerting astronomers acknowledges uncertainty remains. Nevertheless, there is a better than even chance […]

While the iconic “crime scene – do not cross” tape may be a familiar sight on land, it’s a different story when it comes to water. With no way to tape off an entire lake or a slice of the vast expanse of the ocean, investigations in, under or beside the water present a unique […]

The undead don’t usually participate in clinical studies, although three supposed zombies once agreed to have their brain activity measured by researchers in Haiti. Like an episode of Scooby Doo, the investigation was launched in an attempt to uncover the identity of the spooky trio, each of whom had been recognized by locals as long-deceased […]

From the iconic Brandenburg Gate to the tranquility of the Tiergarten, modern-day Berlin is certainly not short of attractions. Germany’s capital is also peppered with clues to a tumultuous and sometimes troubled past. During one of its darkest episodes, as the Nazis rose to power and the world hurtled towards global conflict once more, Adolf […]