News

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 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 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 […]

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 […]

A study has found that a significant percentage of 4 to 7-year-old children from the United States believe hotdogs, hamburgers, and bacon come from plants. Spoiler: they’re not. Published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2021, the study involved a team of psychologists who asked 176 children from a southeastern metropolitan area in the […]

A new genus of sea monster has just been officially identified, and it’s a palaeontological weirdo. The new species has been named Traskasaura sandrae, and is described as “very odd” owing to a confusing combination of seemingly primitive and comparatively modern traits. One thing’s clear, though: this thing was a killer. Its impressive name is […]

If you love spicy food but are sometimes outdone by the hot punch to your mouth, then there may be good news coming your way. Researchers have identified molecules that suppress the heat from chili peppers, which may become a new “anti-spice” capable of lowering the heat. A chili pepper’s spiciness is known as its […]

Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains is the only spot on the planet that’s known to have been lived in by Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens. By analyzing traces of DNA left behind by these three human lineages, researchers have now reconstructed the cave’s chronology, revealing exactly when each species moved into the prehistoric hotspot. […]

A tailless alligator has been attracting some double-takes in southern Louisiana this week. It may look a little unusual, but gators are incredibly tough creatures with impressive healing abilities, and experts believe there’s good reason to suggest this guy will be alright.  Ashlyn Bartholomew was driving her kids home from baseball practice in Plaquemines Parish […]

President Donald Trump has unveiled his plan to build a “Golden Dome” missile defense system to shield the US from attack, claiming it will be ready by the end of his time in office. That is, of course, if building such a system is even technically possible at the moment. Experts have questions over the […]

For most of us, “eating dirt” is more figurative than literal – and even then, it’s not presented as a good thing. Every so often, though, somebody will look at the ground, see the clay or mud or dust at their feet, and think, “yum”. It’s called geophagy – from the Greek “geo”, meaning earth, […]

NASA’s Perseverance is a phenomenal robot that has captured some stunning views of Mars, at least during the day. It’s not designed for night-time ogling despite the recent incredible observations of aurorae on Mars. Still, working at the very limit of the camera tech, the rover team has captured a rare moonlit night scape on […]

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of it, let alone seen it, but this may be one of the most ubiquitous animals on the planet.  Alicella gigantea is basically a big, pale shrimp-like creature that lives in the deepest depths of Earth’s oceans. It has the title of being the world’s largest amphipod, an […]