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The moon illusion baffled the great philosophers of ancient Greece and the most brilliant minds of the Scientific Revolution – and it continues to defy a solid explanation.  Advertisement Have you ever noticed the Moon looks bigger when it’s rising or setting? This is the Moon illusion, an optical misperception that causes the moon to […]

If the name Turtle Island sounds familiar to you, this may well be why – if you’re in North America right now, it just so happens to be the very place you’re standing on. Turtle Island is the name used by some Indigenous peoples for the continent of North America (or the Earth as a […]

Remember Alvin, the world’s only giant anteater with albinism? On first glance, his distinguishing characteristic might seem to be his paler-than-usual fur. Look a little closer, however, and you’ll find that like the other rare few animals with albinism, Alvin has red eyes – but what leads to this appearance? Albinism and eyes To understand […]

This week on Break It Down, the first-ever private spacewalk makes history and also maybe a crime, a plasma bubble over the pyramids is spotted by snazzy Chinese tech, a new Neanderthal lineage lived in isolation for 50,000 years, a chance encounter on Google Maps leads to a new discovery, the recipient of a face […]

As any pet owner will tell you, the loss of a furry friend can be totally devastating but what about the other way round? Well, new research has looked deeper into the emotional responses of our feline companions when other pets in the household pass away and asks the question: do cats grieve? Advertisement Researchers […]

When Fiji-based photographer Tom Vierus was busy taking pictures of the birds on Papua New Guinea’s New Britain in March this year, little did he know that his memory card was storing quite the scientific find. Now, ornithologists have revealed that what Vierus had managed to capture was the first-ever photograph of the rare New […]

For the first time, scientists have looked at how teenagers went through puberty during Ice Age. Much like the adolescents of modern times, most individuals seem to have started puberty by 13.5 years of age, before reaching full adulthood between 17 and 22 years old. Advertisement Palaeoanthropologists studied the bones of 13 young humans who […]

An asteroid heading towards Earth is set to have an unusual fate: instead of smashing through our planet’s atmosphere, it’s likely to become trapped in orbit and become a mini-moon. It will be a swift visit, however, and is likely to only remain in Earth’s gravitational grasp for two months.  Advertisement The asteroid, named 2024 PT5, […]

It’s Friday the 13th and, for the superstitious amongst us, that’s probably a reason to stay at home. This day has long been considered unlucky by many people. There is even a specific phobia associated with this inauspicious date (the easy to pronounce paraskavedekatriaphobia). Across the years, there have been many disturbing events that have […]

Both Neanderthals and modern humans started burying their dead at approximately the same time and in roughly the same place, according to the authors of a new study. Seeking to explain why the two groups suddenly decided to start interring corpses, the researchers suggest that burials may have acted as a means of marking territory […]

Finding out your partner or spouse is cheating is among the most painful experiences you can have, but new research suggests that pain can reach far beyond emotional anguish. The study found that people who’ve experienced infidelity are more at risk of chronic health problems, and that these can continue even when they’re in a […]

At least 11 donkeys have been found dead in Death Valley National Park. While the region has been baked by scorching hot temperatures in its hottest summer on record, extreme heat is not believed to be the culprit (at least not directly).  Advertisement The National Park Service (NPS) is currently investigating the donkey deaths, but […]

As smart as we as a species are, Mother Nature almost always seems to have us beat. It’s true for things like brain surgery and robotics; it’s true for the race to swerve the heat death of the planet; and, apparently, it’s also true for advanced math. Advertisement “A central problem of geometry is the […]

The 2024 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced, and once again prove that science can be funny, which only sometimes gets in the way of it being good. Advertisement Highlights this year include research comparing the movements of live and dead trout, and sober and drunk worms. Apparently, being drunk may harm a worm’s capacity […]

Finding new drugs isn’t an easy task, but new research in which wild gorillas were found to be eating the same plants used in local traditional medicine suggests the animal world may just hold the answers. Advertisement The team of scientists made this connection after spending time observing western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) living […]

We humans tend to view pooping as a solitary activity. Unlike many animals, who void themselves without so much as breaking stride and use their waste in ingenious ways, most people would prefer not to discuss or even think about the topic when we’re not actually doing it. But when you’ve got to go, you’ve […]

Gold nuggets may be the product of earthquakes repeatedly shaking the veins of quartz, thanks to the mineral’s unusual electrical properties. The idea is hard to prove, but evidence produced in the lab shows it’s plausible, and would explain anomalies that have been glossed over for a long time. Advertisement Gold is a very rare […]

In 2023, a first-of-its-kind clinical trial used a brain implant and artificial intelligence (AI) to return movement and sensation to a man with quadriplegia. Now, a year on, it’s been announced that he can once again feel the fur of his family dog, Bow. Advertisement The pathways that connect the brain and body were severed […]

Leonardo Da Vinci was pretty much the definition of a Renaissance man, and not just by virtue of being a man who lived during the Renaissance. He was an artist, a scientist, a musician; a dick pic connoisseur and the creator of a mechanical lion that could walk several steps and then rip its own […]

Some 13,000 years ago, wandering people set up a campsite in the Great Lakes region and returned to the plot each summer. The site is one the earliest ever discovered in this part of North America, revealing fresh insights into the population of the continent. Advertisement The humans belonged to a group known as the […]