The discovery that birds are dinosaurs shook up how we structure the tree of life, and led to a lot of jokes about chicken nuggets. However, it has made some people wonder why they’re all so diminished in size compared to the giants of the past. There were plenty of small dinosaurs pre-asteroid, but the […]
Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
Psychologists have demonstrated a robust psychological illusion that distorts how we remember when something happened. The illusion causes a mistaken belief that repeated experiences actually occurred longer ago than they really did. How do you judge when an event occurred in the past? For big things that happened across years, we have calendar reminders; holidays, […]
Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
We often assume our ancestors were smaller than us – and usually, it’s true. Out on the northern fringes of the Roman Empire, however, there appears to have been a small population of giants standing guard some 2,000 years ago – at least, if their shoes are anything to go by. “I think there is […]
Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
Researchers have found that people scoring high for psychopathy have structural changes in parts of their brains related to impulse control and emotional regulation. The results further our understanding of people with these associated personality traits and behaviors and could lead to new treatments and rehabilitation strategies. Psychopathy is a tricky subject due to decades […]
We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
This week, a 125,000-year-old Neandertal “fat factory” reveals that they gorged on energy-packed bone grease, a new study has found that there really is a link between eating cheese and having nightmares, and scientists were stunned to find a cave full of mummified, never-before-seen, eyeless invertebrates. Finally, in 2032, Earth may witness a once-in-5,000-year event […]
The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
This week, if you looked up at the right time and with the right equipment, you may have witnessed a “V” and an “X” shape on the surface of the Moon. While your chance to see that event has passed (for now), it is possible to witness another lunar event on Friday, July 4, as […]
Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
While studying a remote, coral-covered island in the Mediterranean, scientists were shocked to discover that it has become riddled with some of the highest levels of microplastic pollution ever recorded in the region. The discovery was made in the volcanic bay of Illa Grossa, located on the Columbretes Islands marine reserve around 50 kilometers (31 […]
Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
This week on Break It Down: We’ve just seen our third-ever interstellar object whizzing though the Solar System, eating cheese really might give you nightmares (but so might dessert), cavers are rewarded with a treasure trove of blind, mummified invertebrates including the only known cave-adapted wasp, the Neanderthal fat factory is just as delicious as […]
World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
An exceptional celestial finding is about to go up for auction at Sotheby’s this month. Meteorite NWA 16788 doesn’t have the catchiest name but it will soon be famous, as it is likely to become the “most valuable” meteorite in the world once it does; the estimated sale price is $2-4 million. At 24.5 kilograms […]
Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
Surgery is always risky, and when you’re operating on an animal rather than a person, the logistics involved can be pretty serious, especially when that animal typically lives in the water. Kimalu, a beluga whale, has just become the first known beluga in the world to recover from general anesthesia after an operation to remove […]
The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
Space, famously, is the final frontier. That makes just about everything we do there unprecedented – and sometimes, they’re un-succeeded, too. One such event – never before tried; never since repeated – was the flight of Soyuz T-15. With a crew of just two cosmonauts, featuring a Soviet space station on its last legs, and […]
Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
A bison got into hot water in the most literal sense in Yellowstone Park on June 21, 2025. The fatal error was witnessed by visitors to the park who saw it stumble into a shallow area before disappearing into deeper water. These springs are so difficult to navigate safely that the decision has been made […]
Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
The US Department of Defense has acknowledged that climate change is one of the biggest threats to global security currently facing the world. In a twist of irony, the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions of any institution on Earth is, uh, their military. Between 2010 to 2019, the US armed forces pumped out 636 […]
Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
We’ve all been there – playing a game of “Chubby Bunny” only to find that actually, you can’t quite fit as many marshmallows in your mouth as you thought. A common European adder found itself in a similar situation on a Danish island, where it was filmed trying – and failing – to eat a […]
How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
Spacecraft are not like the starships you see in movies. There is no endless supply of dilithium or hypermatter that lets you travel however long you want. Fuel is scarce, and you are bound by orbital mechanics. Still, we are pretty clever at traveling to space and have sent probes to many worlds, and even […]
President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
According to the influential medical journal, The Lancet, President Trump’s decision to cut the majority of US funding for foreign humanitarian aid could result in over 14 million additional deaths by 2030. Many of those at risk of excess premature deaths would be children, the report warns. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is […]
Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
Among the breathless heights of the Tibetan Plateau, a fascinating hybrid animal is commonly seen lugging backpacks and showing off its horns. Its name is the dzo, or dzomo; the product of interspecies romping between a yak and a cow. The yak-cattle hybrids are known as “dzo” if they’re male and “dzomo” if they’re female. […]
“Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
In 2019, researchers with the XENON Collaboration saw something unexpected. The device is designed to find evidence of the elusive dark matter, a hypothetical substance that is believed (with good reason) to exist everywhere. Instead, it saw something weird happening to the xenon in the device. One of the atoms decayed. This was a surprise […]
Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
Take a weeble, run it through a Minecraft filter, build it almost entirely of open air, and what have you got? It’s called a Bille, and as a monostable tetrahedron – that is, a four-sided shape that will always come to rest on the same side, no matter how it’s tossed or thrown around – […]
Neurogenesis Confirmed: Adult Brains Really Do Make New Hippocampal Neurons
One of the most divisive debates in modern neuroscience has finally been resolved by a new study showing that our brains continue to form new neurons throughout our lives. Until now, scientists had been split over whether this process – known as neurogenesis – stops after childhood, yet the new research suggests that new brain […]