This week, a fossil of dinosaur skin has revealed it had both scales and feathers, a new study could explain why hundreds of stars have vanished without a trace, and a 1-million-year-old skull from China may belong to the “dragon man” lineage. Finally, we explore the global impact of “dark extinctions”.Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday and Saturday. We Now Know Exactly When Humans And Neanderthals Hooked UpDespite disappearing around 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals continue to live on in the DNA of most modern humans. The persistence of these ancient genes indicates that our distant ancestors had a thing for stocky, big-nosed hominids, and new research has revealed exactly how these interspecies sexy times played out. Read the full story here“Hidden Gem” Fossil Of Dinosaur Skin Preserved Like Glass Reveals It Had Scales And FeathersA new fossil of the partially feathered dinosaur Psittacosaurus has revealed that these animals had bizarre skin that included both bird-like feathers and reptile-like scales. The first-of-its-kind fossil provides new insights into the evolution from scales to feathers, demonstrating that these animals exhibited “zoned development” in their skin. Read the full story hereHair-Raising Human Head Transplant Machine Concept Unveiled By Startup – But Is It Realistic?This week, startup BrainBridge unveiled its concept for a world-first head transplant system, promising to combine artificial intelligence with the latest in robotics to literally remove a human head and put it on a new body. If everything works as intended, once the head is in place, the person will apparently be able to get up and go about the rest of their life with a brand-new set of healthy limbs and organs. Sounds fantastical? Right now, science says it probably still is. Read the full story hereHundreds Of Stars Have Vanished Without A Trace. A New Study Could Explain WhyIn 2019, the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project attempted to catalog how many stars have seemingly disappeared in the last 70 years and found around 100 that had gone missing without a concrete explanation. Now, new observations could help explain what happened. Read the full story hereMysterious 1-Million-Year-Old Skull From China May Belong To "Dragon Man" LineageIn 1989 and 1990, a pair of 1-million-year-old skulls belonging to an unknown human species were unearthed in Yunyang District of Hubei province, Central China. A third similar skull was found nearby in 2022, but the mystery didn’t become any less hazy; were they Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens? Might they even be related to the elusive Asian “Dragon Man” lineage? Read the full story hereTWIS is published weekly on our Linkedin page, join us there for even more content.Feature of the week: How "Dark Extinctions" Are Silently Erasing Life On EarthThere’s something missing on our planet, but we don’t know what it is. Like trees that fall in the silence of an empty forest, entire species are vanishing with no one to witness or record their existence – or their demise. It’s a phenomenon known as "dark extinction", and it severely undermines our ability to catalog the world’s biodiversity or to fully understand our own impact on the web of life. Read the full story here More content:CURIOUS Live, our free virtual event, is back on May 31, 2024. Register now and join us as we explore nuclear war, the connection between mental and physical health, insect detectives, and the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Grab your free ticket now!Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 22 May 2024 is out now. Check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.PLUS, the entire season 3 of IFLScience's The Big Questions Podcast is available now.

Auroras (also called the northern and southern lights) are visible from the ground after powerful solar storms, but these natural light shows look even more majestic from above. Here are 32 spectacular photos of auroras taken from space.

Here's what we know so far.

Disgraced Soros Backed Former Baltimore DA Marilyn Mosby Avoids Jail, Forfeits Florida Home [VIDEOS]

Moving in the opposite direction. The post Noel Gallagher, No Doubt and the moment music changed in the 1990s first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The concept of an “AI Revolution” has gained significant attention in recent years, with many experts and enthusiasts predicting a transformative impact on various aspects of society. However, some experts, like Catherine […]