This week on Break It Down: a new timeline shows exactly when and how the eruption of Vesuvius spread, chimps have been observed going to the bathroom together all at the same time, trust in science remains high worldwide despite recent global events, sex differences between male and female brains are present as early as […]
The Pittcon Promise: Changing Lives Beyond The Lab
Since the 1950s, Pittcon has stood as a cornerstone of laboratory science. Its roots trace back to Pittsburgh, where two visionary societies – the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP) and the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) – teamed up to form something extraordinary. They created the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied […]
Living Conditions Have Improved For Us All, So Why Are Men Growing Twice As Fast As Women?
Most of us know that humans are gradually growing taller, but has that extra height affected everyone equally? A new study says no – suggesting instead that men have outgrown women in both height and weight by a factor of two since the time of our great-great-grandparents. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE “To put this in […]
One Of The Largest Pterosaur Fossils Ever Found Is Rewriting Their Evolutionary History
Scientists studying one of the largest pterosaur fossils ever found and identified have concluded that these animals were likely more diverse in the Jurassic than the fossil record suggests. Armed with what they described as a “field-defining” discovery from the Isle of Skye, the species Dearc sgiathanach, they uncovered groundbreaking insights into their functional anatomy […]
The Aestivation Hypothesis: Are Aliens Waiting For The Next Era Of The Universe?
With 200 billion trillion (ish) stars in the universe and 13.7 billion years that have elapsed since it all began, you might be wondering where all the alien civilizations are at. This is the basic question behind the Fermi paradox, the tension between our suspicions of the potential for life in the universe (given planets […]
Handwriting Vs. Typing: Debate Heats Up Over Which Is Best For The Brain
Who would have thought the subject of handwriting could be contentious? But, it seems this topic is dividing scientific opinion. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Last year, the journal Frontiers in Psychology published an article by Norwegian scientists that promoted the power of the pen. The researchers argued that as digital devices become increasingly commonplace, traditional […]
There’s Only One Vertebrate In The World That Almost Always Has Identical Quadruplets
They say we learn something new every day – and sometimes, discovering that something comes in the form of an adorable video of a pregnant nine-banded armadillo getting an ultrasound. Thanks to said video, we now know that not only is our TikTok algorithm superior, but also that our little armored friends are even stranger […]
A Nasty And Fascinating Surprise Found In 200-Year-Old Bottle Presumed To Be Rum
The mystery of a 200-year-old bottle has been solved. It turns out, it wasn’t a vessel for booze, but a “witch bottle” filled with pee and a bunch of botanicals to ward off malevolent spirits. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The bottle, still intact with its original cork and filled with liquid, was unearthed at a […]
Behold The Weirdest Penises In The Animal Kingdom
Not all penises in the animal kingdom are made the same, from those colored blue to those with four heads, there is some weirdness out there. We have chosen some of our “favorites”, which truly make you say WTF. Do you want a corkscrew with that? Argentine blue-bill lake duck Someone is about to get […]
The Eye-Watering Question Of What Happens If A Bee Stings You In The Eyeball
For anyone who is not a fan of eyes, look away now. We had a curious thought: what would happen if you accidentally got too close to a honeybee and ended up in a one-way battle between your eye and its stinger? Luckily for us, and unluckily for the patients, there are many cases of […]
Crocodilian’s 76-Million-Year-Old Crime Exposed In Bite Mark On Young Pterosaur Fossil
Call in the forensic experts, for a crime has been committed (albeit, 76 million years ago). That’s according to an “exceptionally uncommon” fossil of a young pterosaur that shows it was bitten by some kind of ancient crocodilian way back in the Cretaceous period. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE There’s nothing we can do for the […]
Elephants Are Not People, Colorado Court Rules
California bees may be fish, but Colorado elephants are not people. At least, that’s the ruling of the state’s Supreme Court, who this week decreed that five elephants currently held at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs have no legal right to pursue their release from the establishment. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE It is, […]
Rabbit Feared Extinct Spotted For The First Time In 130 Years, And It’s Feisty
The Omiltemi cottontail rabbit was thought to have been lost to science since the early 1900s. Last seen 130 years ago, the future looked bleak for this little brown rabbit, but an expedition in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range in Mexico has changed all that. Not only did the team successfully capture the […]
People With ADHD Could Have A Reduced Life Expectancy, Says World-First Study
People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have a “deeply concerning” reduced life expectancy compared to those without it, a UK study of over 30,000 individuals with diagnosed ADHD has suggested. For male participants, ADHD was associated with a reduction in life expectancy of 4.5 to 9 years, and for female participants, the reduction […]
A23a: World’s Largest Iceberg Threatens Thousands of Penguins On British Island
The world’s largest iceberg – A23a – continues to move along its collision course with the remote British island of South Georgia. If previous iceberg crashes are anything to go by, a bump with this icy behemoth could be a catastrophe for their resident seals, penguins, and other wildlife. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE A23a weighs […]
The Moon Will Soon Get Its First-Ever Flapping Flag, Thanks To Chinese School Students
The Moon will soon get its first flapping flag, thanks to elementary school students from Changsha in central China’s Hunan Province. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE When the USA first sent astronauts to the Moon on Apollo 11, they wanted to plant an American flag on the surface. The problem was that a regular flag would […]
The Oldest Dinosaurs May Be Lying Undiscovered In The Amazon Rainforest
Failure to find the oldest dinosaur fossils may be because the areas in which they first evolved are now generally hard to explore like the Amazon rainforest or the Sahara desert, closer to the equator and not the far south of the Southern Hemisphere as previously thought, a team of paleontologists has proposed. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
130-Year Mystery Solved As Orchid’s “Finger” Revealed As DIY Fertilization Fallback
Life can get a bit lonely for the orchid Stigmatodactylus sikokianus. It grows in dark and secluded places where it’s easy to miss and rarely visited by pollinators, but a 130-year mystery has revealed how it manages to fertilize all on its lonesome. If nobody shows up, it simply does the job itself. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
Earth’s Quasi-Moon Finally Has A Name, Honoring The Roman Goddess Of… Hinges
One of Earth’s seven quasi-moons has just got a new name: Asteroid 2004 GU9 is now known as Cardea, one of the Roman deities of doors and thresholds with a particular focus on hinges. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Cardea is not a real satellite of our planet like the Moon – it is not gravitationally […]
Earliest Evidence Of Human Relatives In Europe Pushed Back 500,000 Years
Bones from Grăunceanu, Romania have been interpreted as evidence early humans made it to Europe 1.95 million years ago, long before other accepted examples. However, the find is not a clear-cut case, and may face considerable dispute. The bones are not from our relatives themselves, but from potential prey that appear to have been cut […]
