News

Allow us to set the scene: you’re out walking on a misty mountain. It was clear as day when you set off this morning, but as you’re reaching the peak a thick fog comes rolling in behind you. The Sun is just about still breaking through when you spot it, a great looming “dark watcher” […]

Around every 80 years, the system we call T Coronae Borealis experiences a sudden increase in brightness. It becomes up to 1,585 times brighter, something that earned it the nickname of “The Blaze Star”. But it has a more accurate name: it is a recurring nova, and it is going to get brighter again very […]

In the depths of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, researchers have uncovered a tiny yet fascinating new species of marine life, and it’s been awarded a name fitting its appearance – “little flower”. Vitrumanthus flosculus, with “flosculus” meaning “small flower” or “floweret” in Latin, was discovered on underwater mountain ranges called seamounts, south of Japan’s coast. […]

It’s easy for a science website to get bogged down in the weirdest mysteries of the universe, while people really want the answers to more basic (but fun!) questions like “Why can’t we power our cars with magnets?” and “What would happen if you tried to swim in a pool on the Moon?”. One such […]

The JWST has examined Chiron, a minor planet that orbits between Jupiter and Neptune, and found unexpectedly different ices from the other objects located in that region of the Solar System. The composition is not yet understood, but once explained, it may reveal something important about the origins of the Solar System beyond the “snow […]

It has been just over three years since JWST was launched into space and in that time, the telescope has dramatically expanded our understanding of the distant universe. Among the important findings is the discovery of very young galaxies that already looked like their more senior counterparts in the local universe, and a recent study […]

A desert might not be the first place you’d expect to be a hive of activity, but northwestern China’s Kubuqi Desert is currently bucking the trend, as an ambitious project to build a “Solar Great Wall” continues to transform the desolate landscape. Once completed – expected to be sometime in 2030 – the solar farm […]

The death of former president Jimmy Carter has unleashed a wave of tributes far beyond those given to most former leaders. Many are focused on his unique post-presidential career, but his four years as president, judged a failure at the time, have undergone a considerable reassessment. Yet missing from almost all this commentary is the […]

Every year, animals in the deer family go through a cycle of growing and shedding their antlers, those badass branched bones that come in handy for finding mates and finding. They don’t always look so bony though; for at least some of the year, antlers are covered in a fuzzy layer called velvet. This so-called […]

Over our long and meandering evolution, the human species has lost a lot of body hair. For some reason, we have been left with forests of the stuff growing out of our noses and, especially as we age, the ears.  A lot of people are tempted to pluck, wax, or otherwise remove this hair, shunning […]

It’s something that many of us have experienced at one time or another. You head out on a winter’s day, ready to face the world… and then, seemingly out of nowhere, you need to pee. There has to be a scientific explanation for this irritating phenomenon, and we wouldn’t be IFLScience if we weren’t prepared […]

Wake up? Brush your teeth. Going to bed? Brush your teeth. The dental routine of being a human can be a bit monotonous, but it’s an important step towards maintaining a happy mouth. It can be slightly baffling, then, to spot a photo of a bonobo with a seemingly perfect grin. How are wild animals […]

The debate about whether (and, if so, how) animals think is an ancient one. Aristotle considered it important enough to write on the question extensively, and it’s a safe bet people were debating it long before we have written records. Unsurprisingly, it’s a major topic of research today, but one that tends to defy easy […]

Issue 30 (January 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 30 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

Current models do not measure gravity waves with sufficient accuracy, new research suggests. This is important, the study authors say, because it affects the accuracy of atmospheric modeling technologies, which are essential tools in our arsenal when it comes to predicting weather events and creating climate simulations. That means fixing these deficiencies could improve their […]

Scientists warn that the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could trigger a dramatic spike in deaths, and we are not prepared.  Researchers at Northern Arizona University took a hypothetical strain of E. coli resistant to all known forms of antibiotics (a state known as pan-resistance) and, using long-term data relating to sepsis cases in the […]

As you read this, some 13,000 satellites are hurtling through space, orbiting the Earth at breakneck speeds of 6 miles (or 10 kilometers) per second – which is more than 14 times as fast as a fighter jet. While it is an incredibly impressive feat that exemplifies the scientific progress humanity has made over the last century, […]

This week, a new discovery suggests Neanderthals may have mastered fire 270,000 years ago, for the first time, a baby conceived using a breakthrough IVF alternative has been born, and some teabags might be releasing millions of microplastics that could enter intestinal cells. Finally, we explore the biggest waterfall on Earth, which is surprisingly unimpressive […]

Yes, morning glory clouds are a thing and no, it’s probably not what you are thinking. In this case, morning glory refers to a rare but striking cloud formation found in northeastern Australia, near the Gulf of Carpentaria. Imagine remarkably long tubes of cotton-like clouds that stretch for hundreds of miles, appearing either solitarily or […]

Scientists have resurrected a strange seed that was discovered in a cave in the Judean desert during the 1980s. According to radiocarbon dating, the seed was over 1,000 years old when it was found, and its DNA links it to a genus of tree that, although lost today, was mentioned in the Bible. Named “Sheba”, the unknown […]