By: Robin Andrews/IFL Science The Republican head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, announced this week that the agency will seek to fully repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules. In a statement, he claimed that the Democrats imposed “heavy-handed, utility-style” regulations on the Internet, and they needed to be undone. “The FCC would simply require…
Costa Rica Just Ran 300 Days On 100 Percent Renewable Electricity
By: Robin Andrews/IFL Science Costa Rica may be a small country, but it aims high when it comes to clean energy. Back in 2015, it generated 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources for 299 days, and back in 2016, it ran for 271 days on anything but fossil fuels. Now it appears it’s…
This GoPro Camera Recorded Itself Being Swallowed By Lava – And Survived To Tell The Tale
By: Robin Andrews/IFL Science We’ll probably never get tired of throwing things in lava. It’s something that’s almost certainly taken place since time immemorial, and although there’s no practical way to turn lava lakes or flows into insane trash incinerators, it’s certainly a lot of fun to watch people try. The latest victim of a fresh Hawaiian lava…
Gigantic Spider Webs Take Over A Jerusalem Forest
By: Tom Hale/IFL Science Welcome to hell, arachnophobes. Although this might look like the set of Mirkwood in The Hobbit, or Aragog’s lair in Harry Potter’s the Forbidden Forest, it is actually the Soreq creek in Israel, not far from Jerusalem. As Reuters reports this week, this canopy of the forest has become the unlikely home for millions of long-jawed spiders…
The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is The Smallest It’s Been In Almost 30 Years
By: Tom Hale/IFLScience The hole in the ozone layer – once a powerful symbol of humans’ meddling with the environment – is the smallest it’s been in almost 30 years. Is this good news about the environment for once!? Well, you’re not exactly wrong, but it’s also not quite as simple as it seems. NASA and NOAA announced that…
Harrison Ford: “Today’s Greatest Threat Is That People In Charge Don’t Believe In Science”
By: Robin Andrews/IFLScience You know when you’re on the opposing side of Han Solo, Rick Deckard, or Indiana Jones, you’ve made a terrible mistake. In this case, it appears this longtime scoundrel is standing quite firmly on the other side of the federal government, particularly when it comes to science. A few days back, Harrison Ford was handed…
The Measles Vaccine Has Saved 20 Million Lives Since 2000
By: Robin Andrews/IFLScience A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a timely reminder to us all as to why vaccinations are so vital. Since the turn of the millennium, 20.4 million lives have been saved thanks to the measles vaccine alone. Back in the year 2000, just over half a million people died from…
We Think We Know Where That Interstellar Object Came From
By: Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience We may have spied our first ever interstellar object in the Solar System last month. Now, scientists think they might know where it came from. The object A/2017 U1 – now nicknamed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “ the first messenger” – caused a huge amount of excitement when it was spotted in October. Its path around the…
Trump Administration Forced To Release Report That Confirms Humans Are Causing Climate Change
By: Robin Andrews/IFLScience A major scientific report has just been published that concludes that the climate is warming, that it is affecting the lives of everyday Americans, and that humans are the driving cause of it. This is well known by now, of course – but what’s strange about this particular report is that the Trump administration released it….