News

This week on Break It Down: killer whales have been wearing salmon hats (again) and sucking out the livers of the world’s largest shark, 1.5-million-year-old footprints reveal Homo erectus co-existed with a now-extinct protohuman, fossil dinosaur poop and vomit indicate their rise to power began with plants, we have a date for when Pluto will […]

Let me tell you about my chickens. I built them a warm, safe coop, yet they voluntarily sleep outside where the foxes prowl, always turning up unscathed in the morning. They bully the hell out of my cats and steal their food. I wish they would lay their eggs in their nesting box, but heck […]

It’s that time of year again when many turkeys will be adopting an unfortunate position at the dinner table, as is the fate for many other birds classed as poultry. As domesticated animals, we use the products of poultry for bedding, clothing, and food, with perhaps the most common example being eggs. It got us […]

The question of what protons or neutrons are made up of has an apparently simple answer: quarks and gluons. However, when it comes to atoms’ third component, electrons, the answer is not as easy. That’s because, as far as we know, electrons are fundamental particles. In other words, they have no smaller components. That’s not […]

The fossilized remains of a marine crocodile that is up to 12 million years old have been discovered. The fossilized croc is the youngest known specimen of this species to be discovered so far. The discovery was recently unveiled by a joint team consisting of researchers with Peru’s Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute and the […]

Iceland’s recent bout of volcanism is still going strong, with new imagery and drone footage showing the ongoing volcanic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula in all its beautiful and terrifying glory. The eruption began from the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system between Stóra-Skógfell and Sýlingarfell at 23:14 on November 20, according to the Icelandic Met Office. By […]

Earth’s long history has seen an uncountable number of species come and go – but one of the most famous extinction events we know of is the one related to the dinosaurs. This event occurred across the world and witnessed the loss of around 75 percent of all species of animals during a very narrow […]

Obsidian is perhaps best known in its role as the dark black blade atop ancient spears and axes – but what if we wanted to add a little bit of pizzaz to our prehistoric weaponry? Look no further than rainbow obsidian. What is rainbow obsidian and why is it colorful? As we’ve just mentioned, obsidian […]

If you thought that the Milky Way was just your average run-of-the-mill galaxy, you’d be wrong. Turns out that it’s quite the freak and we shouldn’t consider it a standard example of how spiral galaxies evolve. Multiple results suggest that something unusual is afoot when it comes to the Milky Way’s satellites, the smaller galaxies […]

While you enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, make sure you savor the turkey you’re about to overindulge in – these strange, gobbling creatures might be harder to come by in the years ahead. That’s according to research by a team of forestry experts from the University of Georgia (UGA). In their new study, the […]

Iron sulfides in hot springs around volcanic vents on land could have provided carbon in the form the earliest life needed to get started. A demonstration of the effectiveness of doped iron sulfide as a catalyst in these environments shows there is a third contender in the contest for life’s first home, along with Darwin’s […]

Nearly 13,000 years ago, long before the Pilgrims arrived, mammoth hunters in North America were crafting eyed bone needles from the skeletal remains of foxes, rabbits, and perhaps even an extinct predator. Archaeologists say the discovery is the first of its kind in identifying the species used for these tools, offering a deeper understanding of […]

We all know the planet is warming way too fast, and we all know it’s going to have some pretty dire consequences. However, a new study has found that this temperature increase is far from evenly spread, with distinct heat wave “hotspots” experiencing warming far beyond what can be explained by current climate models. It’s […]

Strange things are occurring beneath Earth’s surface (as ever). Some 2,896 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the planet’s crust, about halfway to the center of the Earth, two giant blobs can be found on roughly opposite sides of the planet. One is situated beneath Africa, while the other lives under the middle of the Pacific Ocean. […]

For close to 40 years, a simple little hypothesis has been quietly sitting in a corner of graph theory, minding its own business. Known as the “bunkbed conjecture”, it always seemed kind of self-evidently true – sure, nobody could prove it, but it made sense – and certainly, nobody had ever found a counterexample.  Until […]

Orcas have been up to all sorts of things in 2024 – from sinking boats to reinstating fashion trends, these super-intelligent marine predators often make the news. While they have been up to some more wholesome antics, they are still capable of predatory behavior, and this latest report suggests they have turned their attention to whale […]

Imagine that, for billions of years, you’re a grain of material unbothered on asteroid Ryugu. All of a sudden, a spacecraft flies down, shoots you with a pellet to kick you up, and collects you, taking you back to Earth. There, you are opened under the most pristine conditions – scientists are keen to study […]

If you’re one of those sit-com families that sit around the table on Thanksgiving and tell everybody what you are grateful for this year, maybe your answer should be “plumbers”. While you eat your turkey, various potatoes, squashes, vegetables, and cranberry sauce, spare a thought for plumbers, who are preparing for what has become known […]

Complex problems often require creative solutions, and the increasing global burden of Alzheimer’s disease certainly qualifies as a complex problem. Few diseases so capture the public’s attention, and few spark as much fear. Yet those not spending every day closely following this research might be surprised to learn how much debate still rages over its […]

A new study has found that less than a quarter as many women under the age of 25 died of cervical cancer in the United States from 2019 to 2021 as died in an equivalent period from 1992 to 1994.  The fall occurred for reasons besides the widespread adoption of the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines […]