Rachael Funnell
@rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social
Journalist and writer: @iflscience | http://iflscience.com | Literary agent: http://theliteraryoffice.com
Big thanks to @tweetisaurus.bsky.social @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social and @stevebrusatte.bsky.social for talking me through the real cost of dinosaur auctions. $50 mil is just the surface of what's lost when fossils wind up in people's living rooms @iflscience.com www.iflscience.com/50-million-d...
$50 Million Dinosaur Sale Smashes Auction Record. Three Palaeontologists Told Us Why That’s Potentially Catastrophic For Science And Education
“Dinosaurs like Gus belong in museums,” said Prof Steve Brusatte to IFLScience.
iflscience.com
a rather cursed one for #mushroommonday but can anyone tell me what sin grew inside this can of baked beans? #fungifriends
thank goodness, this will really help all the people who can't afford food and energy
Come for the #science behind Andy Weir's "Eridians" in #ProjectHailMary, stay for the part where he acts out how whales inspired the vocalizations they make. www.iflscience.com/project-hail... @iflscience.com @amazonmgmstudios.bsky.social
Project Hail Mary: Author Andy Weir On Creating Erid, Eridians, And The Curious Biology Of “Rocky”
Plus why if astrophage were a thing, it would be up to the amateur astronomers to save us all.
iflscience.com
RIP the metaverse. Can't believe combining the worst parts of going to the office and the worst parts of working at home didn't make it.
Forever amazed by the incredible stuff people get up to at museums to bring exhibits to life! Loved this chat with exhibition developer Ben Miller and scenting consultant Liam Findlay 🦖
Ben Miller@extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 5mo agoI spoke to @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social yesterday about making synthetic T. rex breath for Sue’s exhibit! www.iflscience.com/what-did-t-r...
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...
Invisible Rainbows: The Unseen Universe Beyond Our Senses
The Unseen Universe Beyond Our Senses
uk.bookshop.org
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!
Brian Sidlauskas@briansidlauskas.bsky.social · 7mo agoOMG I'm in IFLScience!
"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...
"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.
iflscience.com
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
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.
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
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
Does This Ancient Egyptian Scroll Recount The World’s Oldest Magic Trick?
The decapitated goose trick is as wild as it sounds.
iflscience.com
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...
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.
iflscience.com
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.
IFLScience@iflscience.com · 9mo agoVowel Sounds "Thought To Be Unique To Humans" Discovered In Sperm Whales For The First Time www.iflscience.com/vowel-sounds...
“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
“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.
iflscience.com
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...
Domestic Cats Can Be A Nightmare For Conservation For A Weird Reason: They Keep Making Hybrids
Not again, Mr Crumbles.
iflscience.com
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/...
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
theguardian.com
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:
Prof Susie Maidment@tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 11mo agoHi 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!!
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!!
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...
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."
iflscience.com
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...
“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.
iflscience.com
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 👇
Walking With Dinosaurs: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked And Sounded Like?
YouTube video by IFLScience
youtube.com
Incredible Footage Shows Ultra Rare All-Black King Penguin On South Georgia Island via @rachaelhfunnell.bsky.social @iflscience.com www.iflscience.com/incredible-f...
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.”
iflscience.com
it's got to be a high-scoring kind of spoonerism to accidentally call a spoonbill a spillboon