Rachael Funnell

big @zeppelinmoonreal.bsky.social energy

Invisible Rainbows: The Unseen Universe Beyond Our Senses The Unseen Universe Beyond Our Senses

Very surreal to see the book on sale on Bookshop and Waterstones.

"When will you feel that it's real, Alfredo?" After the last two years and the drama with Unbound... maybe, when I have a physical copy? Or Never? 😅

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/invi...

Can't believe I get to chat to people about their enormous pickled fish collections and call it work. Was such a pleasure chatting with @briansidlauskas.bsky.social about the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute's fascinating haul (and history) - interview/podcast coming soon!

"Globsters" Like The St Augustine Monster Have Been Washing Up For Centuries, But What Are They? The hairy mass was initially thought to be an enormous new species of octopus.

"Globsters" Like The St Augustine Monster Have Been Washing Up For Centuries, But What Are They? - @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social @iflscience.com

www.iflscience.com/globsters-li...

Wouldn't The Burglars In "Home Alone" Have Died? We Asked An Intensive Care Doctor The only thing more awkward than forgetting your kid? Finding him Home Alone with two corpses.

Ever watched Home Alone and thought "wow, wouldn't Harry and Marv just... die"? Me too, so I asked an intensive care doctor just how gravely injured we're talking "Two words: scrotal exploration" - www.iflscience.com/would-the-bu... @iflscience.com

Excited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26

Like Magic? Don't Miss Our Q&A With Dr Gustav Kuhn, A Leading Figure In "The Science Of Magic" From cyber crime to the placebo effect and mind-reading robots, turns out there’s a lot of science in magic.

Science and magic? Crosses over more than you think. Come ask Dr Gustav Kuhn of @plymuni.bsky.social all about it at CURIOUS Live today at 3PM GMT / 10AM ET iflscience.com/the-science-...
@iflscience.com

Cuttlefish Have Seriously Freaky Eyes. Why Are Their Pupils Shaped Like A "W"? Is it camouflage, or something more?

Why Do Cuttlefish Have Wavy Pupils? - @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social @iflscience.com

www.iflscience.com/why-do-cuttl...

Does This Ancient Egyptian Scroll Recount The World’s Oldest Magic Trick? The decapitated goose trick is as wild as it sounds.

If an ancient scroll’s to be believed, a 110-year-old magician who sank 100 jars of beer daily once wowed a Pharaoh by bringing a decapitated goose back to life www.iflscience.com/does-this-an... @iflscience.com

awh shucks

Like Magic? Don't Miss Our Q&A With Dr Gustav Kuhn, A Leading Figure In "The Science Of Magic" From cyber crime to the placebo effect and mind-reading robots, turns out there’s a lot of science in magic.

Magic isn't only for hijinks, mind, and has been used as a tool for science in all sorts of ways. You can ask magician and psychologist Dr Gustav Kuhn of @plymuni.bsky.social all about it at CURIOUS Live on Dec 11 www.iflscience.com/the-science-...

Project Alpha: What Happened When Magicians Infiltrated Research Into The Paranormal? From ghosts appearing in photographs to a lot of bent spoons, things got pretty weird when the “Alpha Kids” crashed a study.

In 1979, a pair of magicians infiltrated a study into the paranormal, using tricks to test the scientific rigor of the experiments in a hoax that lasted three years. www.iflscience.com/project-alph...

Thank you @iflscience.com and @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social for featuring our research!

By: @begus.bsky.social, Ronald Sprouse, Andrej Leban, Miles Silva and Shane Gero.

“Behold The GARLIATH!”: Scientists Catch (And Release) An Enormous River Monster On Mississippi Floodplains Alligator gars: putting the “gar” in gargantuan for 100 million years.

“Behold The GARLIATH!”: Enormous “Living Fossil” Hauled From Mississippi Floodplains Stuns Scientists
www.iflscience.com/behold-the-g...

By @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social @iflscience.com on that big Alligator Gar tagged & released @garlab.bsky.social #GarWeek

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...

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

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