By: Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience Ever touched your finger inside your belly button? Yeah, it feels weird right. Makes your groin tingle and you kinda need to pee. Well, it turns out there’s a good reason for that. And we’re going to explain it to you right now. The reason is that your belly button, or umbilicus, connects to fibers that…
The Ultimate Way to Cure Anxiety: Why are We All Addicted to Something?
By: Markab Algedi/The Mind Unleashed Why are we all addicted to something? Why do human beings in our culture have this nagging, constant insatiability? What are we searching for, why do we feel like we are lacking, and why do we seem to be constantly trying to cure ourselves of restlessness, boredom, or anxiety? I don’t know…
New Skin Patch Could Get Rid Of “Love Handles”
By: Rachel Baxter/IFLScience Ever wanted an easy way to get rid of the stubborn excess fat around your midriff? Well, scientists have come up with a clever way to combat “love handles” in mice. They hope in the future it could be used to combat obesity and type 2 diabetes in people. Using a special medicated skin patch,…
Researchers Have Linked A Human Brain To The Internet For The First Time Ever
By: Patrick Caughill/Futurism Researchers from Wits University have linked a brain directly to the internet. Data gathered from this project could help fuel the next steps in machine learning and brain-computer interfaces. BRAIN MEETS IOT A team of researchers at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa have made a major breakthrough in the field of biomedical…
Plastic-Eating Fungus Found At A Landfill Site In Pakistan
By: Josh Davis/IFL Science One of the defining characteristics of the Anthropocene, the geological epoch we have recently ushered in, is the massive amount of plastics that we manufacture and discard. One of the reasons we use so much of it is because it’s difficult to degrade, but this also means that the billions of tons of plastic…
Researchers: Depression May Be A Physical Illness Linked To Inflammation
By: Karla Lant/Futurism Scientists are now calling the link between depression and inflammation caused by a faulty immune system definitive. Whether it’s causal or not, the connection opens up new avenues for treatment and new hope for sufferers. PHYSICAL ROOTS OF DEPRESSION Although current treatments for depression mostly focus on brain chemicals such as serotonin, scientists…
This Teacher’s Neat (But Extremely Gross) Experiment For Her Students Has Gone Viral
By: James Felton/IFL Science Teaching children to love science can be difficult. Getting kids to wash their hands can be even more so. Well, one teacher in Gray’s Creek, North Carolina, has managed to do both for her class in one foul, really gross swoop. In a post that’s gone viral on Facebook, Donna Gill Allen showed off…
Animal Sanctuary Flooded By Hurricane Rushes To Save Everyone
By: Sarah V Schweig/The Dodo “When you’re faced with circumstances like that you’re stronger than you think.” Renee King-Sonnen is the kind of person who has made a habit of overcoming the impossible. She married a cattle rancher — and now the ranch is a sanctuary. All the cows that were being raised for slaughter were saved, transformed…
New Low-Cost Cancer Treatment Could Kill Tumors With Ethanol
By: Karla Lant/Futurism New research proves that an ethanol-based gel can achieve a 100 percent cure rate when injected directly into squamous cell tumors. This low-cost, easily administered cancer treatment could significantly improve outcomes in the developing world. ETHANOL-BASED CANCER TREATMENTS Researchers from Duke University have achieved a 100 percent cure rate for squamous cell carcinoma in…