The cosmic puzzle created by evidence of apparently enormous black holes in the very early universe continues to deepen. Observations by the JWST of one such anomaly, known as J1120+0641, indicate that the once favored explanation for how these objects could emit so much light so soon after the Big Bang is unlikely, forcing astronomers […]
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Why Do We Always See The Same Side Of The Moon?
Full Moons can appear different sizes when rising compared to high in the sky, but they always have the dark patches in the same spots. Telescopes reveal the same craters month after month. It’s not just a full Moon thing. When the Moon is a crescent or half full, you won’t be able to see […]
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Spots Shimmering Rock Unlike Any Other Seen On Mars
A strangely light-toned boulder on Mars is completely unlike any other rock we’ve seen on the Red Planet up to now. Spotted by NASA’s Perseverance rover at a site called Mount Washburn – which sits within the wider study location of Jezero Crater – the unusual object may provide some intriguing clues into the ancient […]
The Human Y Chromosome Is Evolving Way Faster Than The X Chromosome
For the first time, researchers have fully sequenced the sex chromosomes of non-human primates, revealing how the male-specific Y chromosome is evolving at an incredible speed while the X chromosome remains largely static. Comparing these findings to the human genome, the study authors discovered that our own species is very much part of this evolutionary […]
How Glacier Algae Are Challenging The Way We Think About Evolution
People often underestimate tiny beings. But microscopic algal cells not only evolved to thrive in one of the most extreme habitats on Earth – glaciers – but are also shaping them. With a team of scientists from the UK and Canada, we traced the evolution of purple algae back hundreds of millions of years and […]
New Threat Emerges For Mars-Bound Astronauts
Astronauts who make the round-trip to Mars may be rewarded with a unique badge of honor in the form of “cosmic kidney disease”, which is a hell of a lot less fun than it sounds. According to new research, the conditions experienced by interplanetary travelers can radically alter the structure and function on the kidneys, […]
Why Is Our Galaxy Called The Milky Way?
There’s something deliciously creamy about the band of stars that streaks across the night sky. Perhaps that’s why so many chocolate bars are named after celestial objects (I’m thinking Mars, Galaxy and Milky Way), although the story of how our spiraling home got its name actually has nothing to do with confectionery. Advertisement The tale […]
Medicine For Regrowing Teeth To Be Tested On Humans For The First Time
A drug that regrows teeth could be on the market by 2030, if all goes well in an upcoming clinical trial. Beginning in September of this year, 30 adult males will be intravenously administered the medicine as part of a Phase I study into its safety and efficacy, marking the first time that a drug […]
Is Blue Light From All Our Devices Actually Bad For Us?
With screens dominating much of our day-to-day lives, people are keen to know whether or not they have any effect on us – not just from the content we see, but from the light of the screen itself. Some are particularly concerned about the impact of blue light, with all sorts of accessories being peddled […]
World’s Oldest Liquid Wine Contains Human Remains, NASA Uses New Laser System To Send Astronauts Videos Of Pets, And Much More This Week
This week, new evidence suggests Jupiter’s Great Red Spot might be younger than the United States, a newly discovered 78-million-year-old dinosaur had a seriously fancy hat, and a never-before-seen immune response has been observed in volunteers deliberately infected with COVID-19. Finally, we explore the fight for ownership over the $17 billion shipwreck of the San […]
Unveiling Ancient Earth: Discovering Remnants Of Primordial Crust
Our planet was born around 4.5 billion years ago. To understand this mind-bendingly long history, we need to study rocks and the minerals they are made of. The oldest rocks in Australia, which are some of the oldest on Earth, are found in the Murchison district of Western Australia, 700 kilometres north of Perth. They […]
Experience The Groundbreaking First Video Of A Space-Time Crystal
A German-Polish collaboration successfully conducted the first video recording of a space-time crystal. The recurring material structure was micrometer-sized and at room temperature, representing a significant step forward in finding applications for these intriguing objects. Advertisement A crystal is by definition a material whose constituents are arranged in a lattice, a highly ordered microscopic structure. […]
One Type Of COVID Mask Works Better Than The Rest – But Any Beats No Mask At All
Like it or not, COVID-19 is still with us. Masks are among our best lines of defence against airborne pathogens – not just SARS-CoV-2 – and, though many of us would prefer to consign them to the past along with all that sourdough we baked during lockdown, it’s important we keep learning the best ways […]
Physicists Accidentally Discover A Whole New Way To Write Pi
Ah, pi. The most popular of the irrationals. Its expansion goes on forever, in any base, with no way to predict which number will come next; it’s so unknowable that even NASA only bothers learning around 15 digits, and they put people on the Moon. Advertisement But just because we can’t write pi using numbers […]
Meta Creates Way To “Watermark” Audio Generated By Artificial Intelligence
Voice-replicating technology has improved an impressive amount in the last few years, thanks to new speech generative models. Advertisement With various products, people are able to generate relatively convincing audio copies of people’s voices with surprisingly little input. Voice Engine from OpenAI, for example, claims to use “text input and a single 15-second audio sample […]
Green Parrots Rub Against Plants For Parasite Protection – And Probably Also To Get High
The relationships between animals and their environments are some of the most complex and fascinating that exist. From whales taking time for spa trips, to orangutans using local plants to treat wounds, animals’ knowledge of what local flora can make them feel better is pretty damn impressive. New research suggests that Norfolk Island green parrots […]
If Cheese Requires Mammalian Milk, Can We Make Whale Cheese?
Cheese is a wonderful thing. Recently linked to healthy aging, it dates back to at least the Ancient Egyptians, has been a symbol of socioeconomic status, and flavoring human lives for thousands of years, in which time we’ve come up with all sort of curious curdled creations, from rainbow colors to 3D sculptures. Where we’ve […]
Homosexuality Is Common In Animals So Why Do Scientists Rarely Talk About It?
Same-sex sexual behavior has been observed in many non-human species across the world. It is now a widely recognized phenomenon, but a new study suggests that there is a sharp discrepancy between how common the behavior is and how often it is reported. According to this work, researchers often see same-sex sexual behavior in the […]
Disco Dinosaur, Ancient Wine, And A $17 Billion Shipwreck
This week on Break It Down, white wine with a hint of human remains becomes the oldest ever discovered, Jupiter’s Red Spot may be younger than the United States, a disco dinosaur has been discovered with one hell of a hat, people volunteer to be infected with COVID-19 – for science, NASA uses its first […]
US Government Acknowledges Harms From Federal Dams On Columbia River Basin Tribes
The US government has for the first time acknowledged the harms caused by the building of hydroelectric dams to Tribes in the Pacific Northwest. Advertisement A 73-page report from the Department for the Interior documents the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams” on Tribes living within the basin, focusing in on […]
