Rachael Funnell

British people:

Domestic Cats Can Be A Nightmare For Conservation For A Weird Reason: They Keep Making Hybrids Not again, Mr Crumbles.

Do you know where your cat is? It's like that 60s PSA, but seriously, a free-roaming Mr Crumbles could be cooking up some wildcat hybrids - and that's a big problem. @iflscience.com www.iflscience.com/domestic-cat...

Bottom trawling to continue in English protected waters, government rules Defra says blanket ban on ‘destructive’ fishing practice disproportionate as MPs urge minister to reconsider

This is infuriating. What is the point of a Marine Protected Area if trawlers are allowed to keep ploughing it?
Yet again, the government has succumbed to commercial lobbying.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I was reading in the garden the other day and I must've been very still because some bird of prey slam-dunked a swift onto the ground right next to me. We were all so stunned we just sort of blinked for a bit. Predator flew off, and after a few awkward minutes of zero small talk, the swift did too

Introducing a crazy new look for Spicomellus, based on new osteoderms unlike anything we've ever seen before. I was brought in to produce a life reconstruction based on the new material, published today in Nature by Maidment et al:

Hi all, me, @richardjbutler.bsky.social and the amazing UK-US-Moroccan team are delighted to announce that.. we have a new specimen of Spicomellus AND IT'S WAY WEIRDER AND WAY COOLER THAN WE EVER IMAGINED!!

Deep In Virginia, When The Light Hits Just Right, A "Rainbow Swamp" Appears Swamps typically bring to mind an array of mushy greens and murky browns, but in Virginia, they do things differently.

OH GREAT NOW THE SWAMP IS WOKE

www.iflscience.com/deep-in-virg...

Flies Hated Cocaine. Then Scientists Tinkered With Their Taste Receptors, And Now They’re Hooked “This opens the door to testing human variants associated with cocaine use disorder."

Did you know that flies hate cocaine? These well-adapted creatures have evolved to avoid things that might do them harm by developing a distaste for bitter things.

Not these ones though. 🧪

www.iflscience.com/scientists-h...

“She Would See That Face Morph Into The Face Of A Dragon”: Strange Tales From Neuroscience At CURIOUS Live Join us as we talk Horror On The Brain with neuroscientist Dr Austin Lim.

To my science and writer pals, we've got a great opportunity tomorrow to speak with #neuroscientist
@docaustinlim.bsky.social, who recently wrote Horror On The Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction. CURIOUS Live kicks off at 10amCST/4pmBST @iflscience.com www.iflscience.com/she-would-se...

YouTube video by IFLScience Walking With Dinosaurs: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked And Sounded Like?

We had a little sneak peek ahead of #WalkingwithDinosaurs starting this week and chatted to the folks behind the scenes who made the science and (VFX) magic happen. And of course, people stole things from set 😏🪺. More scoops here 👇

dictionary definition reads: flopperoo, a complete failure especially within theatre, cinema, or TV

just discovered my new favourite word

Incredible Footage Shows Ultra Rare All-Black King Penguin On South Georgia Island “I don’t believe anyone has seen this all black penguin before.”

Incredible Footage Shows Ultra Rare All-Black King Penguin On South Georgia Island via @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social @iflscience.com

www.iflscience.com/incredible-f...

it's got to be a high-scoring kind of spoonerism to accidentally call a spoonbill a spillboon

Tail-Breathing Killifish Can Travel 6,000 Times Their Body Length On Land Fittingly, they’re known locally as jumping guabine.

The jumping guabine is considered pretty common in its home of Trinidad, but it's secretly been pulling off one of nature's greatest expeditions using its tail to breathe. Check out the amazing sequence from #TheSecretLivesOfAnimals @iflscience.com www.iflscience.com/tail-breathi...

email from Evri reads "we've got your zooplus parcel"

and we're gonna put it in the bin

haunted by the way that modern culture has warped what it means to spend time with family, my saturday plans are now building a christmas tree out of gherkins

What Is The Closest Living Relative To T. Rex? You Might Be Surprised Sort of makes sense when they’re chasing you.

When you see one chasing a human, the closest living relative of T. rex does kind of make sense #Paleontology @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/what-is-the-...

Explosive Study Reveals How Squirting Cucumber Engorges And Erupts, Shooting Seeds 10 Meters “The seeds spurt out, even endangering the eyes.”

Ever heard of the squirting cucumber? It's high time you got uncomfortably familiar with the mechanism that allows it to spew seeds 10m in a way that might be unique in the plant kingdom @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/explosive-st...

Groundbreaking “Genetic Time Machine” Reveals Evidence Of Cumulative Culture In Chimpanzees When females switch social groups, they take all kinds of tricks with them.

Do #chimpanzees have culture? Simple and complex tool use is seen across different groups, and it seems the most sophisticated toolsets spread as females switch groups. As for whether her new community wants to learn? That's another thing @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/groundbreaki...

has anyone given a name to the phenomenon of thinking things are AI when they probably aren't because I've been looking so closely at hands for so long that now they all look wrong

What Did Dinosaurs Sound Like? New Parasaurolophus Model Hopes To Find Out "We'll have a chance to listen to the actual sound of a dinosaur in 21st century."

If you loved #JurassicPark III then you'll love this new research trying to work out what #dinosaurs sounded like with Parasaurolophus pipes, aka, the linophone @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/what-did-din...

precisely.

The Fluorescent Emperor Scorpion Crushes Prey To Death With Its Fearsome Claws They only sting as babies. Then, it’s crushing time.

One of the world's largest #scorpions also has a nifty habit of fluorescing like a Halloween decoration under UV light: meet the emperor scorpion @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/the-fluoresc...

New “Pharoah’s Dawn Chicken From Hell” Dinosaur Weighed About The Same As A Human Now that’s how you name a new species of oviraptor.

this one from Zubin Erik Dutta really spoke to me www.iflscience.com/pharoahs-daw...

Scientists Resurrect 145-Year-Old Shipwreck Seeds. Now, They Want To Make Whiskey The discovery’s been described “like winning a million-dollar jackpot.”

In a discovery that's being described “like winning a million-dollar jackpot," scientists have retrieved 145-year-old seeds from a shipwreck in Michigan, and now they're going to make it into whiskey @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/scientists-r...

initiating wotsits protocol

IFLScience We Have Questions: The Biggest Wild Goose Is... Poisonous? With special guests from the How Many Geese comedy nature podcast.

Some geese are poisonous, that's just a fact you have to roll with & we dive into more weird #science with Jack Baddams and Roddy Shaw, incredible hosts of comedy nature podcast How Many Geese - catch the full episode of #WeHaveQuestions now @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/iflscience-w...

15 Species That Glow Under UV Light Identified, And You Could Help Scientists Find More All you need is a blacklight and enthusiasm.

There’s a whole world out there that glows, we just don’t have the eyes to see it. #Biofluorescence is being reported in more and more species with a new preprint adding another 15, and you can help find more with 1 piece of kit @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/15-species-t...

Romanticise your life, they said, so I’ve started looking forward to switching off the dehumidifier at the end of each day and guessing how much water it’s sucked out of my wet mushroom of a rental property

Divers Thought They'd Found A Shipwreck, But This Giant Shadow Is Alive It's so big, it can be seen from space.

Something big has been lurking in the Solomon Islands, sitting unseen 12m below the surface for 300 years. This is a lovely tale of hope and really, really big coral. @iflscience.bsky.social www.iflscience.com/divers-thoug...