An incredibly rare ocelot has been caught on camera slinking about a mountain range in southern Arizona. The wild cat was spotted on July 24 by a trail camera belonging to the Center for Biological Diversity located in a Sky Island mountain range – somewhere the species has not recently been found. Advertisement “I shouted […]
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Racing Cars And Motorcycles Destroy 1,000-Year-Old Geoglyphs In Atacama Desert
A collection of gigantic artworks carved into the Atacama Desert centuries ago has been destroyed by thunderous parades of 4x4s, quadbikes, and all-terrain motorcycles. Advertisement Located in the Tarapacá region of present-day northern Chile, the geoglyphs of Alto Barranco were made by the region’s Indigenous people along the migration route between the Oasis of Pica […]
Yellowjackets Swarm In North Carolina After Hurricane Helene Disturbs Nests
Requests for allergy medication in North Carolina have shot up in the wake of Hurricane Helene, after the devastating rains and flooding seen in the state also disturbed the nests of yellowjackets. Advertisement Seeing a few yellowjackets buzzing about in the early fall isn’t necessarily unusual – as their usual sources of food start to […]
MicroRNA: Odd Class Of Tiny Molecules Leads Discoverers To Nobel Prize In Medicine
The winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine are Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNAs, tiny molecules that help regulate the expression of genes. The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (around $1,060,000 USD at the time of publishing), which will be shared equally between the winners. […]
There Is A Huge Ocean Of Water Underneath Our Feet
Deep beneath the surface of the Earth, there is a massive reservoir of water. It is estimated to contain three times the amount of water of all the oceans on our surface. Advertisement In 2014, a team from the US used 2,000 seismometers to study seismic waves from over 500 earthquakes. By examining the speed of […]
A Simple Cheek Swab Predicts Your Risk Of Death
A tool that predicts biological age using epigenetic information from cheek swab samples is also an effective predictor of mortality risk, even when using data from other tissues. Advertisement CheekAge is an “epigenetic clock” – a tool that monitors minute changes to DNA called methylation markers to predict age. These tags accumulate in our genome […]
Leaky Hydrogen May Be Responsible For Your Cell Phone’s Declining Battery Life
Rechargeable batteries power much of our electronic age. But while they are reusable, they have a finite lifespan. A new study has identified why. Advertisement Our laptops, tablets, and cell phones are reliant on recharging batteries. Inside a lithium-ion battery, two electrodes store lithium ions; a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode. An electrolyte […]
How Did These Strange Structures In The Desert Of Western Australia Form?
Head to the Pinnacles desert in Western Australia, and you might just think you’ve stumbled onto a Star Wars set, with a vast field of towering spikes of rock sticking out from the dark yellow sands. But while they definitely aren’t the remnants of moviemaking, exactly how and when these strange structures formed has long […]
What Were Neanderthal Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities Like?
Neanderthals have had a tough time of it. Early humans played a role in their extinction, but the story didn’t end there. Later humans doubled down by using their name as the dictionary definition of dumb. Advertisement Were Neanderthals really unintelligent, club-slinging bozos, outcompeted by far more attractive, intelligent, and dashing Homo sapiens? Or could this […]
Why Skipping Leaf Raking Can Benefit Your Lawn This Fall
As the nights get longer and the leaves turn brown, lawn owners everywhere reach for their rakes. This year, experts say that the fall ritual of raking leaves might make you miss an opportunity to give your lawn a health boost. Advertisement Instead, letting a thin layer of leaves sit and then decompose on your […]
Why Are People Putting A Cup Of Ice With A Coin On Top In Their Freezer?
Picture this: you’re checking in on your parents’ house while they’re on holiday. The perfect time to raid their freezer for delicious goods, of course, but when you open the door in search of ice cream, you find something unusual – a frozen cup of water with a coin on top. Why on Earth is […]
“Freshers’ Flu”: What Every College Student Needs To Know
Starting college is supposed to be one of the most exciting times of your life, full of new friends, parties, and the freedom to eat pasta for all three meals a day. And for a while, it can certainly feel like that – then, one day, you wake up with a slightly sore throat. The […]
Mount Adams, Washington’s Largest Active Volcano, Sees Record-Breaking Earthquake Activity
Washington’s Mount Adams has seen some pretty unusual activity as of late, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has announced. Rather than the usual one earthquake every two to three years, six occurred in the area in September alone. Advertisement According to a statement from the USGS, “this represents the most earthquakes located at Mount Adams […]
The Antarctic Peninsula Is Turning Green Before Our Eyes, Raising Serious Concerns
Regions of Antarctica are being rapidly “greened” by growing vegetation as our planet warms, suggests a new study. In the last 40 years, the area of the northern Antarctic Peninsula covered by greenery – mostly mosses – has increased by more than 1000%. Advertisement Global warming affects our whole planet, but polar regions are heating […]
This Glow-In-The-Dark Crystal Is A Dazzling World-First, Dolphins Smile When Playing With Friends, And Much More This Week
This week, the first “Google Maps” of an entire brain is here and you can zoom inside, mysterious “skyquakes” have been heard around the world but we’re not sure what’s causing them, and a retrofitted Cold War spy plane has shown that most tropical storms are radioactive. Finally, as it’s spooky season, we question if […]
Glowing Crystals, Radioactive Storms, And A “Google Maps” For The Brain
This week on Break It Down: resurrecting Cold War spy planes to explore radioactive storms, the most detailed brain wiring diagram we’ve ever seen, mystery “skyquake” sounds have the world perplexed, plus grinning dolphins, glow-in-the-dark gemstones, and can you really feel when you’re being watched? Available on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and […]
USS Stewart, The World War II “Ghost Ship Of The Pacific”, Discovered Off California Coast
Undersea investigators have located the wreck of a century-old US Navy destroyer, USS Stewart, that was lost for nearly 80 years. The wreck, once known as “The ghost ship of the Pacific”, was found off the coast of northern California 1,067 meters (3,500 feet) below the water’s surface. Advertisement USS Stewart was found within the […]
The Deadliest Day In Human History Was Unimaginably Awful
As days go, January 23 1556 was a proper stinker. According to most accounts, this fateful date saw more human lives extinguished than any other day in history, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in the Shaanxi province of northwest China. Advertisement The culprit on this occasion was an enormous earthquake caused by […]
1.5-Meter “Sea Snake” Picked Up On Danish Beach Is Actually… A Whale Penis
Beach cleaners on the Danish island of Bornholm got a shock recently, when they picked up what they initially thought could be the remains of a sea snake. That alone would have been enough to mark the day as unusual for the group, who typically pick up plastic trash and sometimes ship parts – but […]
Laser Message Sent 460 Million Kilometers – Further Than Mars – To NASA’s Psyche
The Psyche mission is on its way to study the metallic asteroid of the same name, and on its journey, continues to test the communication system of the future. Laser light was sent from Earth to Psyche on July 29, when the spacecraft was located 460 million kilometers (290 million miles) from our planet. Advertisement […]