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The Most Successful Entities On Earth Might Not Technically Be Alive. They Exist In A Strange Biological Twilight ZoneIllustration of blue viruses on ablack background with IFLScience's 'Viral Summer' logo on The Most Successful Entities On Earth Might Not Technically Be Alive. They Exist In A Strange Biological Twilight ZoneIllustration of blue viruses on ablack background with IFLScience's 'Viral Summer' logo on
VAULT

The Most Successful Entities On Earth Might Not Technically Be Alive. They Exist In A Strange Biological Twilight Zone

There’s only one reason viruses aren’t considered the most successful life form of all time: they’re not, actually, life forms at all.

clock-icon4 hours ago

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China’s Tianwen-2 Probe Takes First Close-Up Image And Prepares To Collect Sample From Earth’s Quasi-Moon KamoʻoalewaA gray trapezoidal rock is visible in this image, although quite low resolution.
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China’s Tianwen-2 Probe Takes First Close-Up Image And Prepares To Collect Sample From Earth’s Quasi-Moon Kamoʻoalewa

clock-icon1 hour ago

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AI Reveals Dozens Of New Antibiotic Candidates In A Very Unexpected Place: Encrypted Within Prionsa medical illustration of a Prions, 3d rendering
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AI Reveals Dozens Of New Antibiotic Candidates In A Very Unexpected Place: Encrypted Within Prions

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Clues To Why Alzheimer's Risk Is Lower In People Who Have Received The Tuberculosis Vaccine

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A "Mismatch" Between Our Evolved Instincts And Modern Environment May Contribute To Humanity's Global Struggles

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Python Bowl: Competition To Catch And Kill Invasive Snakes Returns To Florida’s Everglades

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Trending

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In 2024, A Routine Observational Study Captured Something Nobody Had Ever Seen Before – California's Squirrels Hunting And Eating Other MammalsVole hunting squirrels.
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In 2024, A Routine Observational Study Captured Something Nobody Had Ever Seen Before – California's Squirrels Hunting And Eating Other Mammals

“This was shocking. We had never seen this behavior before.”

clock-iconJune 11, 2026
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Not So Creepy Now? Not One, But Two Rare Giant Bigfin Squid Caught In Crystal Clear Deep-Sea Footage bigfin squid (Magnapinna) in a different expedition to the Northern Gulf of Mexico in 2012.
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Not So Creepy Now? Not One, But Two Rare Giant Bigfin Squid Caught In Crystal Clear Deep-Sea Footage

Spotting two Magnapinna squid at once is quite exceptional.

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Most Read

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China's "Great Green Wall" Of 66 Billion New Trees Isn't Acting Like A Natural ForestThe Mingsha Desert peaks over an old-style house and fresh forests in Gansu Province, Northwestern China.
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China's "Great Green Wall" Of 66 Billion New Trees Isn't Acting Like A Natural Forest

China is turning green, but not quite in the way models predicted.

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People Think CERN Is Altering Time. We Are Not Convinced They Know What CERN Isartist impression of particle collisions in the lhc
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People Think CERN Is Altering Time. We Are Not Convinced They Know What CERN Is

They do seem to be excited about the long shutdown of the LHC.

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Latest

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"Move Away And Contact Emergency Services" Australian Space Agency Warns, After Mystery Orbs Show Up On Forrest BeachA large metal sphere on an Australian beach.
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"Move Away And Contact Emergency Services" Australian Space Agency Warns, After Mystery Orbs Show Up On Forrest Beach

Six of the objects have been found over the weekend, requiring emergency responders in hazmat suits to secure the area.

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Neanderthals And Humans Living In A Cave in Türkiye Shared The Same Culture For 30,000 YearsNeanderthal skull
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Neanderthals And Humans Living In A Cave in Türkiye Shared The Same Culture For 30,000 Years

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Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Formed Around A Star Unlike Our Sun – Telling Us Something About Planet Formation In The Distant PastInterstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS as photographed by ESO's VLT on January 18, 2026.
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Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Formed Around A Star Unlike Our Sun – Telling Us Something About Planet Formation In The Distant Past

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This Year You Can See Comet 2P/Encke Approach Earth. It Will Never Look As Cool As It Did On April 20, 2007.Comet 2P/Encke inside a trail of its own debris.
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This Year You Can See Comet 2P/Encke Approach Earth. It Will Never Look As Cool As It Did On April 20, 2007.

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Humans

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Extinct "Hobbits" Probably Lived Off What Komodo Dragons Left Behind, Suggesting They Weren’t As Smart As We ThoughtReconstructed skull of Homo floresiensis
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Extinct "Hobbits" Probably Lived Off What Komodo Dragons Left Behind, Suggesting They Weren’t As Smart As We Thought

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“If This Were A Murder Trial, We’d Have To Acquit”: Did The Earliest American Cultures Hunt Mammoths To Extinction?Mammoth skeleton
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“If This Were A Murder Trial, We’d Have To Acquit”: Did The Earliest American Cultures Hunt Mammoths To Extinction?

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"We Got Very Excited": Ancient Human DNA Recovered From Cave Art For The First TimeA person standing in a white hazmat suit in a cave staring up at ancient paintings on the ceiling.
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"We Got Very Excited": Ancient Human DNA Recovered From Cave Art For The First Time

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An Entire Herculaneum Scroll Has Just Been Read For The First Time In 2,000 Years - Without Even Being OpenedRuins of Pompeii with Vesuvius in background
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An Entire Herculaneum Scroll Has Just Been Read For The First Time In 2,000 Years - Without Even Being Opened

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Health and Medicine

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At What Point Does A Developing Fetus Become Conscious? We May Be Close To An AnswerDeveloping human fetus
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At What Point Does A Developing Fetus Become Conscious? We May Be Close To An Answer

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The FDA Just Cleared A New Species Of Flesh-Eating Maggot For Medical UseA surprisingly cute maggot emerges from a piece of fruit.
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The FDA Just Cleared A New Species Of Flesh-Eating Maggot For Medical Use

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You May Feel “On The Same Wavelength” As Someone, But Can We Engineer Brains To Synchronize? It May Actually Be PossibleBob Weir and Mike Gordon
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You May Feel “On The Same Wavelength” As Someone, But Can We Engineer Brains To Synchronize? It May Actually Be Possible

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Review Of mRNA COVID Vaccines Once Again Finds They Are Safe, Highly Effective, And Full Of PromiseA doctor preparing a vaccine
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Review Of mRNA COVID Vaccines Once Again Finds They Are Safe, Highly Effective, And Full Of Promise

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Nature

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Four Newly Discovered Lineages of Peruvian Cacao Trees Could Save Chocolate’s FutureThe University of the West Indies' Chocolate Research Center makes it one of the coolest universities in the world, and these are some on-site cacao plants
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Four Newly Discovered Lineages of Peruvian Cacao Trees Could Save Chocolate’s Future

clock-iconYesterday

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There's A New Theory Of Why Antarctica Froze 34 Million Years Ago, Way Before Ice Covered The ArcticThat's a lot of ice: The sun hovers just above the horizon at the South Pole Atmospheric Research Observatory in the depths of Antarctica.
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There's A New Theory Of Why Antarctica Froze 34 Million Years Ago, Way Before Ice Covered The Arctic

clock-iconYesterday

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Two Halves Of 300-Million-Year-Old Fossil Fish Reunited Revealing Unique Braincase And Snug Brain TissuesA photograph showing two fossils, that are two halves of a round node. Under each is the museum listing showing where they were found and the dates in handwriting.
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Two Halves Of 300-Million-Year-Old Fossil Fish Reunited Revealing Unique Braincase And Snug Brain Tissues

clock-iconYesterday

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In 1971, A Seal Was Donated To The New England Aquarium. Five Years Later, It Started Speaking In EnglishA harbor seal sitting on a rock.
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In 1971, A Seal Was Donated To The New England Aquarium. Five Years Later, It Started Speaking In English

clock-iconYesterday
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Space and Physics

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"Dark Universe Hunter" Euclid Breaks Record For Most Ancient Quasar Ever Found – Twice!The focus of this artist impression is a fiery red-orange disc of spiralling material. The material swirls inwards towards a bright white-yellow centre, from which a thin beam-like jet of material emerges to the left, directed to the top-centre of the frame.
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"Dark Universe Hunter" Euclid Breaks Record For Most Ancient Quasar Ever Found – Twice!

clock-iconYesterday

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Today, Earth Reaches Aphelion, Our Most Distant Point From The Sun. So Why Is It So Stupidly Hot?Diagram showing aphelion and perihelion; Earth's closest and most distant points from the Sun.
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Today, Earth Reaches Aphelion, Our Most Distant Point From The Sun. So Why Is It So Stupidly Hot?

clock-iconYesterday
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NASA’s New Horizons Could Hit The Edge Of The Solar System As Early As 2029 Or As Late As 2040A artists impression of the new horizon spacecraft in space.
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NASA’s New Horizons Could Hit The Edge Of The Solar System As Early As 2029 Or As Late As 2040

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Scientists Found An Enormous Structure In Space That Shouldn't ExistThe big ring in the night sky.
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Scientists Found An Enormous Structure In Space That Shouldn't Exist

clock-icon2 days ago
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Technology

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With "SpudCell", Scientists Have Made The Most Sophisticated Attempt At Creating An Artificial Lifeform Yetlife cycle of SpudCell in grid of 6 numbered images showing a green cell at various stages of division
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With "SpudCell", Scientists Have Made The Most Sophisticated Attempt At Creating An Artificial Lifeform Yet

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Nuclear Fusion Startup Transforms Plasma Energy Directly Into Electricity In First For Private SectorA conceptual image showing a ball of yellow/orange energy in the center with lines of crackling energy shooting out of it.
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Nuclear Fusion Startup Transforms Plasma Energy Directly Into Electricity In First For Private Sector

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Smartphone Location Data Deserves Full Fourth Amendment Protection, US Supreme Court RulesAerial view of rice fields and forest with red location pin icons. Concept of GPS navigation, map positioning, digital tracking, land management, agriculture, and geographic location services
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Smartphone Location Data Deserves Full Fourth Amendment Protection, US Supreme Court Rules

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You Should Believe We Are In A Simulation More If You Are Donald Trump Or Elon Musk, Philosopher ArguesElon Musk and Donald Trump shaking hands in the White House, overlayed with Matrix-style code.
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You Should Believe We Are In A Simulation More If You Are Donald Trump Or Elon Musk, Philosopher Argues

clock-iconJune 25, 2026
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technology

Culture and Society

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Social Media's Golden Age May Have Ended, But What Comes Next?A photo showing a close up of a woman's hands holding a phone. The perspective is set at the end of the phone screen looking down towards their hands. The screen is illuminating the otherwise dark picture, casting light that highlights her thumbs. There are 6 speech-bubble like icons floating above her thumbs showing the icons for "friend adds", the "heat" icon, a speech bubble icon and three more miscellaneous ones.
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Social Media's Golden Age May Have Ended, But What Comes Next?

clock-iconJune 30, 2026

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Pop Music Lyrics Have Become Morally Darker Since The 1960s, Reflecting The Cultural LandscapeA blurred black and white photo showing three people standing on a stage. They appear as silhouettes. One has their hand in the air while the other appears to be holding a microphone to their mouth. On the far right is another person standing at a keyboard. The image shows six spotlights cutting up the dark of the image, allowing the three figures to stand out from the blackness.
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Pop Music Lyrics Have Become Morally Darker Since The 1960s, Reflecting The Cultural Landscape

clock-iconJune 26, 2026
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China "On Track To Surpass" The US In Human Development Goals, Which Measure Action On Poverty, Education, Wellbeing, And MoreBright lights and skyscrapers dominate the cityscape of Chengdu, China.
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China "On Track To Surpass" The US In Human Development Goals, Which Measure Action On Poverty, Education, Wellbeing, And More

clock-iconJune 26, 2026

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The Trump Administration Tried To Shut This Climate Website Down. Scientists Have Just Brought It Back OnlineA photo looking down on three people in orange cold weather clothing moving across a melting ice burg.
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The Trump Administration Tried To Shut This Climate Website Down. Scientists Have Just Brought It Back Online

clock-iconJune 26, 2026
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Company and Product Insights

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How To Get More IFLScience: Add Us As A “Preferred Source" On GoogleA logo of IFLScience with a hand pointing towards it
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How To Get More IFLScience: Add Us As A “Preferred Source" On Google

clock-iconSeptember 3, 2025

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Unlocking The Future Together: Why IFLScience Is Launching A Membership Modelcollage of images related to science with "iflscience is evolving" written in the centre
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Unlocking The Future Together: Why IFLScience Is Launching A Membership Model

clock-iconJanuary 20, 2025
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Opening The Vault: Uncovering A World Of Strange And Intriguing ScienceAn image of the vault doors opening with a screenshot of the IFLScience Vault article.
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Opening The Vault: Uncovering A World Of Strange And Intriguing Science

clock-iconJanuary 20, 2025
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Features

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How These Caves Alerted The World To Australia’s Unusual Megafauna And Helped Inspire Darwin’s Theory Of EvolutionThe stalactites of Cathedral Cave draw they eye, but there is more scientific interest in fossils found in the cave floor below.
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How These Caves Alerted The World To Australia’s Unusual Megafauna And Helped Inspire Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution

Almost two centuries later, astonishing fossils are still being found in Wellington Caves.

clock-iconYesterday

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Scientists May Be Close To Creating An Artificial Lifeform, First Ancient Human DNA Recovered From Cave Art, And Much More This WeekA selection of images from the top stories covered by IFLScience this week June 29 to July 3
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Scientists May Be Close To Creating An Artificial Lifeform, First Ancient Human DNA Recovered From Cave Art, And Much More This Week

All the biggest science news stories of the week.

clock-icon3 days ago
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Multimedia

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How We Remember: The Neuroscience of Memory Explainedblue brain image on a black background to the right of yellow text that reads How Does Memory Work?
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How We Remember: The Neuroscience of Memory Explained

clock-iconMay 1, 2026

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AI Consciousness Explained: Science vs Philosophya robot
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AI Consciousness Explained: Science vs Philosophy

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Unethical Experiments That Shook The WorldThe Tuskegee syphilis study
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Unethical Experiments That Shook The World

clock-iconApril 17, 2026