After a month of excavating, archaeologists with Time Team, a long-running British archaeology TV show, have discovered missing pieces of a 6th-century Byzantine bucket at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The fragments, along with other finds, reveal more about this site’s prehistoric past. Advertisement Over 80 volunteers from across the world were taking part in […]
Fly Through The Pillars Of Creation In Stunning New 3D Visualization
When we look at things in astronomy, we see them projected onto the vault of heaven. Often we cannot appreciate that they are three-dimensional structures spanning mind-boggling distances. But combining observations at different wavelengths with cutting-edge visualization tools let us bridge that gap. The latest beautiful example focuses on the Pillars of Creation. Advertisement These […]
What Was The First Human Species, And What Makes It Human?
What makes a human human? Is it underpants? Whatever it is that sets us apart from the rest of the animal world, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment in history when we became fully human, and there are a few different candidate species that could have been the first. Advertisement Planet Of The Apes […]
Magnitude 7.2 Quake Hits Coastal Region In Peru – No Tsunami Expected
A strong earthquake, reported by the USGS as magnitude 7.2, has struck the region of Arequipa on the coast of Peru. The epicenter of the tremor was 54 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the small town of Yauca according to the Instituto Geofísico del Perú. The quake hit just after half past midnight local time, […]
Astronauts Take Shelter As Debris From Russian Satellite Breakup Swarms
It’s been an eventful week on the International Space Station (ISS). First, a spacewalk was canceled when coolant water spread everywhere in the airlock. Then astronauts had to take shelter in the spacecraft they used to travel into space because of a report of potentially dangerous space debris approaching. Advertisement The cause of the debris […]
Popsicle Wolves, Primordial Black Holes, And A Fleshy Robot’s Smile
This week on Break It Down, a puppy gets a post-mortem 44,000 years after being frozen in permafrost, altruism found among Neanderthals in Down Syndrome case, the world’s largest terrestrial mammal migration is recorded in East Africa, a robot’s fleshy smile that will haunt your nightmares, NASA is being sued, and the Tunguska Event may […]
What The 3.2 Million-Year-Old Lucy Fossil Reveals About Nudity And Shame
Fifty years ago, scientists discovered a nearly complete fossilized skull and hundreds of pieces of bone of a 3.2-million-year-old female specimen of the genus Australopithecus afarensis, often described as “the mother of us all.” During a celebration following her discovery, she was named “Lucy,” after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Advertisement […]
Turns Out Texas’ State Small Mammal Is Actually 4 Different Species
In news that’s likely to be awkward for whoever decided that the nine-banded armadillo should be the state small animal of Texas, scientists have discovered that it’s actually four different species – and the only one that’s kept the name doesn’t even live in the state. Advertisement At least until now, nine-banded armadillos were considered […]
Meet The Latest Dark Matter Detector: Jupiter’s Night Side
The stuff that makes up animals, planets, and stars is just a small part of the matter scientists believe is out there. Five-sixths of all matter in the universe is believed to be an invisible substance known as dark matter. We do not know what it is because it doesn’t interact with light, only with […]
China Opens Up First Ever Samples Of Far Side Of The Moon
Chinese scientists have opened up the first ever samples taken from the far side of the Moon. Advertisement On June 1, Chang’e 6 touched down softly on the far side of the moon. This was the second time China achieved this feat, and they remain the only nation to have done so. Advertisement ⓘ IFLScience is […]
Over 97 Percent Of Bleached Coral Died At Lizard Island Reef After This Year’s Event
The Great Barrier Reef was struck by an extremely harsh mass beaching event this year, and it looks like parts of the reef are struggling to bounce back. Drone imagery of Lizard Island’s North Point Reef shows that 97 percent of the bleached coral has died since the event earlier this year. Advertisement “This is […]
“Tantalizingly Beautiful” Rocks Yield More Evidence That Asteroid Bennu Came From A Wet World
The sample collected by OSIRIS-REx on asteroid Bennu continues to deliver unique insights into the history of this small space rock and the early Solar System. In the first few weeks following the opening of the sample, evidence began to show that Bennu might have had a wet past. A new discovery now adds to […]
A 44,000-Year-Old Wolf Frozen In Permafrost May Still Contain Living Bacteria
A prehistoric wolf that’s been frozen like a popsicle for over 44,000 years has undergone a post-mortem in Russia, set to reveal all kinds of insights into its life as an apex predator in the Ice Age. Advertisement The wolf was discovered in 2021 beneath around 40 meters (131 feet) of permafrost on the Tirekhtyakh […]
World’s Smallest Elephant Is Now Officially Endangered
Bornean elephants, best known as the world’s smallest living elephants, have now been classified as “Endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), following decades of habitat destruction, conflict with humans, and debate over their status as a subspecies. Advertisement Unique to the island they’re named after, Bornean elephants are characteristically small […]
Livestock Burps Are Set To Be Taxed In Denmark In World First
In a world first, Denmark will tax farmers for the greenhouse gas emissions belched out by their cows, pigs, and other livestock. Advertisement The agreement was announced on June 24 by the Danish government after months of discussions between politicians, farmers, business leaders, and other parties. Advertisement “Agriculture is Denmark’s largest emitter of CO2. It […]
Our Solar System May Have Captured A Number Of Interstellar Objects
In 2017, astronomers at the Pan-STARRS1 observatory looking for near-Earth asteroids spotted an object as it hurtled past our Sun at 38.3 kilometers per second (23.8 miles per second). Advertisement Soon, telescopes around the world pointed in the unusual object’s direction, trying to capture as much data as they could before it moved away from […]
Gravitational Wave Research Helps Demystify Ancient Antikythera Mechanism
The Antikythera mechanism has fascinated people for over 120 years and research in recent years has brought more insight into this incredible device. The fragments that remain have revealed that it was likely used to calculate celestial events such as eclipses and the positions of the planets. Astronomers from the University of Glasgow have added […]
Man Survives Being Lost In Santa Cruz Mountains For 10 Days By Drinking Water Out Of A Shoe
Lukas McClish, a Californian hiker who became lost and stranded in the Santa Cruz Mountains, has been found 10 days after he first set off for what he thought was a three-hour hike. McClish left for his hike on 11 June, but became lost in part due to recent wildfires destroying landmarks used for navigation. […]
The World’s Last Mammoths Were Inbred But That’s Not Why They Died
For thousands of years after mammoths had gone extinct elsewhere, they survived on Wrangel Island off Siberia. The cause of their final demise remains debated, but new evidence indicates we can rule out one popular explanation: inbreeding. Despite being descended from no more than eight individuals, the Wrangel mammoths had enough genetic diversity to still […]
How Benjamin Franklin Charted The Gulf Stream
Back in the early days of the trans-Atlantic postal service, British packages were taking weeks longer than expected to reach the east coast of North America. With customs officials growing increasingly confused and frustrated at these slow delivery times, it fell to future Founding Father of the United States Benjamin Franklin to solve the problem […]
