New Zealand is well known for its Bird of the Year competition, which has seen winners ranging from a delightfully round, drunk pigeon to a rogue bat. But did you know it awards a “Bug of the Year” too? And this year’s champion is an ancient and surprisingly savage killer. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The […]
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Most Dangerous Animal, Tomb Discovery, And How To Break Habits
This week on Break It Down: the first ancient Egyptian royal tomb has been discovered since Tutankhamun over 100 years ago, a brand new “dangerous animal” scale reveals the realistic threat of different creatures, architects are operating on land and at the deepest parts of the ocean (they just don’t look how you imagine), a […]
New Tongan Island Forged By Volcanic Eruption Just Had A Hefty Growth Spurt
The volcanic eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai back in 2021 might’ve been the largest in over a century, but that’s far from the only eruptive activity that Tonga has seen as of late. In 2022, a new volcanic island emerged from the ocean nearby – and it’s just grown again. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The […]
Camels Drinking, Marlins Pouncing, And Mother-Calf Bonding: Spectacular Underwater Photographer Of The Year 2025 Winners
It’s time to unveil the Underwater Photographer of The Year! With over 6,000 images entered ranging from angry fish to silly camels, the competition showcases the best underwater photographers have to offer across 13 categories, including Macro, Wide Angle, Behavior, and Portrait. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The title of Underwater Photographer of The Year 2025 […]
What Is That Horrible Sound When You Crack Your Knuckles?
Cracking your knuckles is right up there with the most divisive things you can do at the dinner table. Some shrug it off, some fall to their knees crying, “Won’t somebody please think of the arthritis?!” ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE It is really quite remarkable how a small bend of the finger can elicit a […]
Could Gas Moons Exist? If So, Why Aren’t There Any In The Solar System?
The Solar System has four planets made mostly of gas, but no moons with the same composition. So is it a law of nature that gas moons are impossible, and if not why don’t we have any? Can gas moons exist? ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The answer to this is probably. We can’t be completely […]
Neanderthals Suffered A Massive Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago
Neanderthals clung onto existence in Eurasia until roughly 40,000 years ago, yet new research suggests that their numbers declined drastically around 70,000 years prior to their eventual extinction. As a consequence, genetic and physical diversity within the Neanderthal population plummeted, leading to a largely homogeneous set of characteristics among the species’ final representatives. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
Evolution Itself May Be Evolving, Allowing Faster Adaptation To Change
How is it that organisms are so damned good at evolving to overcome environmental challenges? This is a question that has long been posed by researchers, but the answers have not been overly clear. Now, a new study suggests that evolution itself may be a process that can evolve. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Life has […]
Rodent Resuscitation? Watch Mice Attempt To Revive Their Unconscious Mates
In some wholesome news, some mice seemingly attempt to revive their unconscious peers in an act that could be interpreted as akin to human “first aid”. The rodents were found to paw at, bite, and pull the tongues of their comatose conspecifics – and the researchers were even able to identify distinct brain regions that […]
Inhalable Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy 24 Years In The Making Enters Clinical Trials
A new inhalable gene therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) has entered Phase I clinical trials, a major milestone on the journey towards seeing this treatment in the clinic. For this first phase, the aim is to test the treatment on around 36 people at centers across Europe, with results expected in early 2027. ADVERTISEMENT GO […]
Giant Megafauna Lived Alongside Humans As Recently As 3,500 Years Ago
It seems some species of megafauna may have existed for much longer than previously assumed. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE For a long time, the overall consensus has been that mammalian megafauna – giant mammals that roamed the Earth in the past, including species like mammoths, giant sloths and sabertoothed tigers – went extinct at the […]
Yep, The Pain Of Pulling Hair Really Does Hit Faster Than Other Pain
Some pain just hits different. Even without getting into the age-old argument about childbirth vs. a kick in the balls, everyone knows that papercuts hurt way more than they should, while the pain of falling into the world’s most dangerous plant sounds like a very bad time indeed. Having your hair pulled is one pain […]
What Is Vaper’s Tongue?
With New York’s Attorney General recently announcing plans to sue vape distributors for “fueling the youth vaping epidemic” and “creating a massive public health crisis”, it’s worth taking a look at some of the potential side effects of vaping – one of which appears to be something called “vaper’s tongue”. What is vaper’s tongue? ADVERTISEMENT […]
This Is Why You Should Never Kill Spiders In Your Home
Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is one of the most common phobias – even for those without a full-blown fear, these eight-legged beasties still give plenty of people the creeps. But before you reach for a slipper the next time you see one scampering up your bedroom wall, consider this: spiders aren’t out to get […]
Microsoft Says Its Majorana 1 Quantum Chip Uses Entirely New State Of Matter To Work
Microsoft has unveiled a new quantum chip named Majorana 1 which it claims will be able to solve major, real-world problems within decades. Though others are skeptical of the claims, Microsoft adds that their new chip design involves manipulating an “entirely new state of matter”. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Quantum computing, like nuclear fusion power, […]
Humans Have Had Projectile Weapon Technology For 300,000 Years
The point at which ancient humans developed the weaponry for long-distance hunting is a matter of fierce debate amongst anthropologists. The authors of a new paper suggest that our ancestors may have possessed this lethal technology more than 300,000 years ago. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE To kill an animal remotely, prehistoric hunters would have had […]
US Hospitals Face Impending Bed Crisis As Early As 2032
US hospitals are on track for a crisis in as little as seven years. This stark warning comes from a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who are concerned about trends in hospital bed occupancy and staffing across the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]
What If We’re Alone? Massive Search For Technosignatures In The Northern Hemisphere Finds Nothing
One of the greatest mysteries left for humans is the question; where is everybody else? Though there are around 200 billion trillion stars out there in the observable universe, we have found evidence for the existence of intelligent life on precisely one planet. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Many astronomers are trying to rectify this, searching […]
Scientists Work Out How To Extract Water From The Driest Hot Desert On Earth
Scientists have proposed an unlikely solution to water scarcity in one of the driest places on the planet: fog. By harvesting moisture from the air, they argue, we could provide vulnerable communities in Chile’s Atacama desert with much-needed water. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The Atacama is the driest nonpolar desert – but not the driest […]
“Living Link To Velociraptor” Birds Are Surprisingly Intelligent
A new study measuring the cognitive skills of paleognaths – the small-brained, generally flightless, and more stereotypically dinosaur-like class of birds that includes ostriches, emus, and rheas – has yielded a surprising result: they’re not as “dumb” as we give them credit for. In fact, given the right motivation, they’re enthusiastic problem solvers – and […]
