A scientific paper that attracted vast media attention with claims of an airburst destroying the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam, and inspiring biblical stories, has been withdrawn over serious concerns. It’s now been republished in a much less prestigious location. The withdrawal casts further doubt on several related papers, which have similarly attracted major attention, […]
“It Can Suck Down Earthworms Like Spaghetti”: The Mission To Save A Really Big Snail
It’s hard not to feel jealous of New Zealand, home to some of the planet’s most spectacular organisms. They’ve got blue mushrooms and the world’s rarest and most eccentric birds (that aren’t easy to get sperm from, FYI). The most recent specimen to catch our eye? A snail whose worm slurping skills makes that spaghetti […]
Why Human Remains Are Rarely Found Inside The Pyramids Of Ancient Egypt
What on Earth were the pyramids up to? The current scholarly consensus is that they served as monumental royal tombs. Of course, that has not stopped people from proposing more… creative theories about their purpose, ranging from interdimensional energy conduits to ancient grain silos built by Joseph (and no, they were not built by aliens). […]
The Ordovician Mass Extinction Killed 85 Percent Of Life On Earth In A Totally Unique Way
When you think about a prehistoric mass extinction event, chances are your mind goes to the K-Pg boundary, and the day that fateful asteroid smashed into Earth with enough force to wipe out some three-fourths of all plant and animal life, putting an end to the age of dinosaur supremacy forever. It’s the best known […]
IFLScience We Have Questions: Why Don’t Animals Have To Brush Their Teeth?
Wake up? Brush your teeth. Going to bed? Brush your teeth. The dental routine of being a human can be a bit monotonous, but it’s an important step towards maintaining a happy mouth. It can be slightly baffling, then, to spot a photo of a bonobo with a seemingly perfect grin. How are wild animals […]
The First American To Fly Into Space Had To Pee In His Space Suit
The year 1961 was the beginning of human exploration of space. On April 12, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and the first one to orbit the Earth. Weeks later, on May 5, Alan Shepard will become the first American in space. NASA was playing catch-up to the USSR, geopolitics and […]
The Biggest Chemical Cover-Up In History Was Kept Hidden For Years
Up to 99 percent of people have “forever chemicals” in their bodies, where they linger indefinitely and potentially cause a host of health conditions. Disturbingly, the manufacturers of these chemicals were aware of the risks and deliberately concealed them, following a playbook strikingly similar to that of Big Tobacco. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl […]
Can You Hear Electricity?
Several months ago I thought I was going mad. Whenever I lay in bed and turned off the lights, I’d hear the faint sound of something humming in the flat. It happened every night without fail. Once I homed in on it, I’d spend time going around checking the sockets of anything I’d plugged in, […]
Newest Member Of The Solar System Just Announced, Capuchins Have Started Stealing Baby Howler Monkeys, And Much More This Week
This week, the US ran a solar storm emergency drill and it turns out we’re woefully unprepared, a fluorescent Archaeopteryx changed our understanding of the evolution of flight, and a new book claims to have identified six living relatives of Leonardo Da Vinci using DNA. Finally, the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs is back, and we […]
Capuchin Kidnappers, Spinosaurus Daddy, And A New Member Of The Solar System
This week on Break It Down: the Solar System just got a new member, capuchins have started stealing howler monkey babies on a remote island, the US ran a solar storm emergency drill and it didn’t go so well, stunning new fossil evidence reveals never-before-seen feathers that indicate Archaeopteryx could fly, a deep dive into […]
Plastic Rocks Are A “New And Terrifying” Phenomenon Coming To A Shore Near You
On once-pristine coastlines, scientists are finding rocks laced with plastic, formed by trash-loaded waves battering the land and fusing synthetic waste into stone. Known as plasticrusts, the phenomenon was first reported in 2016 by Portuguese scientists who spotted unnaturally colored rocks on the idyllic island of Madeira off the northwest coast of Africa. In certain […]
“We Also Tried Remote Control Cars Dressed As Females”: How Scientists Took On Rare Kākāpō Artificial Insemination
Conservation biologists have reported success in increasing the breeding rate of one of the world’s rarest and most eccentric birds with artificial insemination. However, the lengths they have had to go to demonstrate why it’s better not to let a population shrink so far in the first place. Kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) are one of New […]
“Missing Americans”: US Excess Deaths Still Above Pre-COVID Levels, Upwards Of 1 Million
Between 2022 and 2023, there were 1.5 million “missing Americans” according to new research. That figure refers to excess deaths – people who would be alive had the US had a mortality rate on par with similar countries. While excess deaths had been steadily increasing for decades, the numbers have failed to fully recover from […]
Clever Hawk Spotted Using Pedestrian Crossing To Catch Prey In New Jersey
The human species was born with a single goal in our collective mind: to tame the natural world, and exploit it for our own purposes. As a recent account of a Cooper’s hawk in New Jersey has shown, however, sometimes, nature can flip that relationship right back on us. “Many animals have learned to use […]
There’s A Bold And Controversial Theory That Jesus Was A Hallucinogenic Mushroom
During the late 1960s, a renowned British scholar undid his whole career by backing a pretty wild claim: According to John Marco Allegro, an influential philologist and archaeologist, Jesus was not a living man but a mushroom. I know, it all makes sense now. For some, the Bible represents the literal truth in all things, […]
You Don’t Have 5 Senses, You Have Way More Than That
Contrary to what many people think, humans are not limited to a measly five senses. In fact, some philosophers and neuroscientists argue that we may have dozens of senses that we often take for granted. Now to be clear, we’re not talking about mystical senses or anything uncanny, but it does seem that humans, as […]
Space Oddity: The Atmosphere Of Titan Spins In A Different Way From The Saturnian Moon
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is truly a remarkable world. It has a thick atmosphere as well as rivers, lakes, and seas of methane and hydrocarbons. It is too cold for liquid water, but it is the only other world in the Solar System with liquid on its surface. And of course it rains […]
Hummingbirds Have Rapidly Evolved In California Over The Past Century
Hummingbirds in California are rapidly evolving. Within just a century, perhaps even just a few decades, their beaks have been getting pointier and pokier. Scientists believe the (relatively) rapid change has been driven by humans, whose supplemental feeders and introduced plant species have helped change the way these fluttering cuties move, eat, and live. In […]
The Moon’s Mysterious Magnetic Rocks Might Have A Cataclysmic Explanation
The Moon today has no inherent magnetism, making the discovery of magnetized rocks on the surface a big problem. Where did they come from? Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have a bold suggestion: the Moon used to have a weak magnetic field, and then something made it spike. That something was an […]
The Earth’s Core Is Leaking. The Result: More Gold
There are many reasons humans have valued gold throughout the years: it’s stable, malleable, non-toxic, and of course, shiny. But one of the main reasons you might hear – that it’s particularly useful as a currency because of its rarity – isn’t strictly true. And, thanks to a new revelation this month that the Earth’s […]
