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“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.” So sang Lee Greenwood in 1984, and it’s fair to say it was a sentiment shared by almost everyone in the nation. Not so anymore, however – as data from a new Gallup poll has shown a record low of only 58 […]

If you go down to the beach for a spot of rock pooling this summer, just be mindful of exactly which species you might come across. One person in Japan had a very lucky escape when she picked up a cone snail, not realizing that the creature inside the pretty shell had the power to […]

Using the oldest DNA sample from Egypt to date, researchers have extracted and sequenced the entire genome of an adult male who lived in the region between 4,500 to 4,800 years ago, and in doing so have revealed insights into the possible movements of his ancestors. This is not the first time such an effort […]

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun its first-ever collisions of oxygen ions, in the latest attempt to understand the early universe. The LHC is largely famous for its proton-proton collisions, which ultimately led to the discovery of the Higgs boson and the Higgs field responsible for giving mass to elementary particles such as electrons, […]

Grease is the word – at least, it was for Neanderthals living in what is now Germany some 125,000 years ago. New research shows that our extinct cousins collected huge quantities of animal bones at a dedicated “fat factory”, where they intensively processed them to extract bone grease, adding vital nutrients to their diet. It […]

On July 3, 2025, at 3:54 pm ET, the Earth will officially reach its furthest point from the Sun for this year. This is called aphelion. Our planet’s orbit is very close to a circle, but it is not a circle. It’s an ellipse, so the Earth gets closer and farther from the Sun as […]

NASA’s Perseverance rover may have recorded evidence of a triboelectric discharge caused by a dust devil on Mars, according to a team who presented those findings at the 2025 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). If correct, the strength of the discharge is enough to suggest that lightning could be created within Martian dust devils. […]

Archaeologists have found a hymn dating from nearly 3,000 years ago that describes the city of Babylon in glowing terms, praises its people, location, and river. It seems the words struck such a chord with the inhabitants of what was, for a time, the world’s largest city, that they were widely copied so that it […]

Hidden away among the unexplored limestone hills of Cambodia are a series of karst formations. These uncharted caves, sinkholes, and towers have long been home to rare and elusive wildlife, but we’re only just discovering them. Most recently, four new populations of Kamping Poi bent-toed geckos have been discovered and are suspected of being four […]

OpenAI’s large language model (LLM) ChatGPT is surprisingly good at piloting spacecraft, according to a team that trained it to participate in a simulated spaceflight competition, coming in second place. In 2015, Mexican games studio Squad created the surprise hit video game Kerbal Space Program. In the space flight simulation game, you play a group […]

Astronomers have finally found evidence for a proposed mechanism for a special kind of supernova, known as a Type Ia supernova. It was proposed that at least some of them experience a double detonation, and now they have found evidence that this is indeed the case. The Sun will never go supernova; it’s not massive […]

We (hopefully) all know not to leave dogs or children in hot cars, but what about a half-full water bottle? Probably safe, right? Can’t suffocate; can’t get heat exhaustion; can’t catch on fire – no need to worry at all! Wait – okay, scratch that last one. Turns out, that half-finished Evian in your cup […]

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: Video: Is There An […]

If you look up at the Moon tonight through binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to see an unusual feature: a giant “X” on the lunar surface. This is known as the Lunar X or Werner X. If you scan your eyes along the terminator line, you may also see a temporary […]

Astronomers have detected an object with an orbit that will take it out of the Solar System, and almost certainly must have come from outside as well. Having recognized it long before it reaches its closest approach to the Sun, we will have months to study it as it brightens. What we already know, however, is […]

Despite having a reputation for strategically hunting marine mammals and occasionally sinking yachts in the Mediterranean, it has now been revealed that orcas have a more romantic side. After drones recently revealed they enjoy giving each other kelp massages, new research has since shown that they like to kiss, with tongues.  Until now, the behavior, […]

Given people’s disdain towards changing the clocks back and forth with the shifting of the seasons, you’d think countries would be put off from doing something like changing their time zone entirely. Still, several places have done so over the years – so how easy is it? Turns out, it’s simpler than you might think […]

Humans have been living continuously in space for nearly 25 years, with astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard the spacecraft since astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev first boarded the International Space Station (ISS) on Halloween, 2000. But all good things must come to an end.  The initial pieces of the ISS […]

A new paper from Harvard’s sometimes controversial physicist Avi Loeb has suggested that if we want to find advanced alien life, “black hole moons” may be the object to search for. Finding advanced alien life out there in the cosmos would be one of the most profound discoveries of humanity’s existence. But as much as […]

Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is technically Australia’s biggest lake, but you wouldn’t know it most of the time – it rarely has water in it. But, thanks to record-breaking fall rains, this expanse has now transformed from salt pan to inland oasis, and though it will eventually disappear once again, it’s set to turn a delicious peachy […]