News

This week, Jupiter may have gained a brand new ring when it was struck by a comet in the ’90s, an ancient tablet found by fishers in Iran is written in an unknown language, a new-to-science predator is discovered in the Atacama Trench, human genomes reveal when inter-hominid hook-ups between us and Neanderthals took place, we may finally know how to play […]

We have discovered thousands of exoplanets in the last few decades, while the number of planets in the Solar System has remained at eight – but our discovery of more might not yet be over.  A team of researchers say they have found the “strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is really out there”, […]

If you happen to be in the northern hemisphere between October and March, take a look up at the stars – you might just see the inspiration for what could be the oldest story in the world. What do you need to look for? The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, one of the […]

If we were to zoom right into some biological tissue, be it plant or animal, then we might just see some cells that look as though they’re sending out or receiving tiny bubbles. These are exosomes, and according to some, they’re the cure for pretty much everything – from hair and skin issues to problems […]

We know that Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, but trying to piece together the very earliest stages of its evolution is easier said than done. Luckily, science has had some help from a super blue speck of zircon dated to around 4.4 billion years old, making it the oldest chunk of Earth to […]

Areas across the northeast US have recently been hit with yet another barrage of heavy snow and blizzard-like conditions, with communities buried and road closures galore. “Pffft”, we hear you say, “Lots of places in the northern hemisphere get snow this time of year.” But this isn’t just any type of snowstorm – this is […]

It’s a common misconception that people on the International Space Station (ISS) or on the Moon can’t see stars. We have to blame space photos for that. The way we photograph things in space doesn’t usually give the stars a chance to appear in a pretty manner. In reality, in space, you can see a […]

Imagine knowing you’ve already made an important contribution to biomedical research before you’ve even started high school. This is a reality for a young Chicago student who recently found a bacterium that exhibits antibiotic activity and produces a novel compound that slows the growth of human melanoma and ovarian cancer cells in the lab. Where […]

This week on Break It Down: fishers discover a mysterious tablet bearing an unknown language, sequencing the oldest human genome reveals when we first bred with Neanderthals, Jupiter’s got a shiny new ring, a new predator captured in the darkest depths of the Atacama Trench, working out the rules to an ancient boardgame, and can […]

Spit in a tube and we’ll tell you where you come from: that’s the basic premise being offered up by DNA ancestry kits, which have soared in popularity for those who are curious – or who’ve run out of Christmas present ideas. We’ve all heard of the horror stories of people using the kits and […]

A group of 38 leading experts in fields ranging from synthetic biology to the existence of life beyond Earth has come together to determine the risks posed by “mirror bacteria” – and what they’ve found has them “deeply concerned”. But what exactly are mirror bacteria, and what is it about them that the experts are […]

As large parts of the Northern Hemisphere play the game of wondering if it will snow for Christmas, we thought it might be time to extend the question beyond the Earth, starting with locations closest to us and working out to planets orbiting other stars. The Moon and Mercury No. Advertisement Mercury and the Moon […]

Microplastics are everywhere, which is why scientists have been dedicating a lot of time to trying to figure out a way to safely extract them. Now, it seems a super sponge-like foam that borrows the soaking skills of cotton and squid may be a promising candidate, as it was found to remove 98 to 99.9 […]

Hailed as “another feat in human history”, China has announced the completion of a 3,046-kilometer (1,892-mile) sand-blocking green belt along the Taklimakan Desert, the nation’s largest desert. The project has involved the large-scale planting of red willows, sacsaoul, and other tree species in a strip along the southern fringe of the Taklimakan Desert in Northwest […]

Gigantic superflares burst out of Sun-like stars roughly once every 100 years, releasing as much energy as a trillion hydrogen bombs exploding. Could this mean our star, the Sun, is long overdue for an outburst? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany used data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope […]

Being stocky can have its advantages, especially when it comes to hunting prehistoric game. According to a new reconstruction of the Neanderthal ribcage, our extinct relatives may have been considerably chunkier in this area than we are, with this extra bulk potentially providing the devastating power they needed to ambush and overcome their prey. Researchers […]

If you own a car, you may have noticed that a little warning light, depicting a flat tire with an exclamation mark in the middle, tends to turn itself on much more often in the cold, winter months. First up, it’s a warning light that shouldn’t be ignored. It means one or more of your […]

NASA’s Juno flew by the little volcanic moon Io multiple times between December 2023 and February 2024. It was the closest approach in decades and provided scientists with the best understanding yet of what powers this moon. Io is one of the other few places in the Solar System with active volcanoes spewing lava – […]

Academics and armchair archaeologists still can’t agree on the date when Pompeii was destroyed in a shower of volcanic hellfire. It was almost certainly sometime in late 79 CE, but was it August, October, or even November?  A new study by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii gently backs up the theory that the town’s destruction […]

A collection of particles known as a quasiparticle has been detected behaving as if it has mass when it moves in one direction, but becomes massless when moving at right angle. Improbable as this sounds, the scientists who detected it are already contemplating applications in batteries and sensors. It sounds like a stretched joke about […]