This week, scientists toying with the afterglow of phosphor particles have been able to make succulents glow like something out of Avatar, new fossils have revealed that an ankylosaur known as Spicomellus afer was covered in enormous spikes that were fused to its bones, and, in 1978, a physicist was struck through the head by […]
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A “Good Death”: How Do Doctors Want To Die?
How do you wish to die? It’s an important question that, no matter how scary, should be considered by every person at different stages in their life. But do doctors, those people who tend to see death and dying more frequently than other people, have different views on how they want to spend their final […]
People Are Throwing Baby Puffins Off Cliffs In Iceland Again – But Why?
It’s that time of year again. No, we’re not talking about back-to-school – it’s throw a puffin off a cliff season, duh! In Iceland, as summer draws to a close, obliging locals give baby puffins a helping hand as they leave their burrows for the first time and attempt to find the ocean. The rest […]
Yet Another Ancient Human Skull Turns Out To Be Denisovan
A prehistoric skull that was discovered in China in the 1970s probably belongs to a Denisovan, according to the results of a new study. Known as Dali Man, the specimen was previously the subject of a taxonomical debate and had been tentatively identified as either Homo erectus or an archaic Homo sapiens, yet now appears […]
Gen Z Might Not Be On Course For A Midlife Crisis – Good News, Right? Wrong
Good news, the dreaded midlife crisis may be about to become a thing of the past. The bad news, however, is that this is not due to positive societal improvements, but because young people’s mental health is declining already. The midlife crisis, a characteristic period of self-doubt, identity crisis, and emotional upset, is a common […]
Glowing Plants, Punk Ankylosaur, And Has The Wow! Signal Been Solved?
This week on Break It Down: Think you know Earth? Think again; a new campaign is trying to overturn the highly erroneous map we were all taught in school. A new injection can make succulents glow pretty much any color you like, and better yet, they’re rechargeable. An intriguing new theory to explain the legendary […]
Pulsar Fleeing A Supernova Spotted Where Neither Of Them Should Be
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, can be easily compared to a pizza or a pancake; sure, it bulges in the middle, unlike a pizza, but mostly it all happens in a flat-ish disk. There is stuff above and below the plane of the Milky Way, but it’s an area of low density with few stars. […]
20 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Is It Time For A New Approach To Hurricane Classification?
Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Louisiana, which, although only classified as a Category 3 storm due to wind speeds, wreaked havoc as it brought with it enormous storm surges that ultimately claimed nearly 2,000 lives and became the costliest storm in US history. It seems focusing on a hurricane’s […]
Dog Named Scribble Replicates Quantum Factorization Records – So We Tried It Too
In one of the most hilarious papers we have read this year, two scientists challenged some famous quantum factorization records, pointing out how these approaches are only possible using very specific numbers or by changing the problem into an altogether easier-to-solve one. The team calls it sleight of hand, and are calling it out using […]
How Old Is The Solar System? (And How Can We Tell?)
The Solar System condensed out of a vast cloud of gas, seeded with heavier elements by exploding stars, somewhere between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago. That’s enough detail for most purposes, but if you want a more precise age, it’s good to consider what part of the Solar System you are referring to. The […]
Next Week, A Record-Breaking Over 7 Billion People Will See The Total Lunar Eclipse
Get ready for the Blood Moon next week! Our natural satellite will turn crimson as it is experiencing a total eclipse. It will happen during the evening between September 7 and 8 (depending on the timezone) and will be seen by an enormous number of people worldwide. The moon will first go black as the […]
The Goblin Shark Has The Fastest Jaws In The Ocean, Firing Like A Slingshot At Speeds Of 3.1-Meters-Per-Second
Strap in kids, we’re going full goblin mode with one of the world’s weirdest sharks: the goblin shark. Known to science as Mitsukurina owstoni, it was first discovered in 1898, deep in the waters off Japan. Today, they still lurk in the darkest pockets of the ocean at depths of 250 to over 900 meters […]
We Thought Geological Boundaries Were Random. Now, A New Study Has Identified Hidden Patterns
Earth’s history is divided up into different geological wedges of time, wedges we like to call things like epochs, periods, and eons. They’re defined by events that shaped the planet (think big extinctions and biodiversity booms), and it’s generally been accepted that the boundaries between them are randomly distributed. The rest of this article is […]
Do Fish Sleep?
Yes, some fish do have a sleep-like state, although the brain activity is different from that of humans and other mammals. Can it truly be considered sleep? It depends on your definition, but it is evident that many fish enter a resting, semi-dormant state that appears to have some restorative function. The rest of this […]
The Biblical Flood Myth That Inspired Noah’s Ark Had A Sinister Twist
The flood story you may be most familiar with is probably Noah’s Ark, but it’s far from the only tale of a great flood sent by a god to destroy a civilization. It’s almost as if there are eight basic story plots in the world, not seven: Overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, […]
Massive Review Of 19 Autism Therapies Finds No Strong Evidence And Lack Of Safety Data
A large-scale review of studies into 19 different “treatments” for autism has concluded that, for every single one, there is no strong evidence to support their use. Worryingly, the research team also found that many of these studies lack any assessment of patient safety. They’ve compiled their findings into an online database that’s easy to […]
Giant City-Swallowing Cracks In Earth’s Surface Are A “New Geo-Hydrological Hazard”
Giant city-swallowing cracks in Earth’s surface are a “new geo-hydrological hazard,” threatening millions of city dwellers across the Global South and beyond, a new study looking at the large urban gullies creeping through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Central Africa, has found. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign […]
Three Incredible Telescopes Looked At The Butterfly Nebula To Learn Where Earth Came From
The Butterfly Nebula is among the most beautiful nebulae out there. It’s a planetary nebula formed by an aging star throwing out layers of plasma before turning into a white dwarf. New observations have allowed astronomers to track the formation of cosmic dust in this peculiar environment, understanding where the building blocks of planets, including […]
The Pacific Ocean Is So Vast It Contains Its Own Antipodes
In most countries, people have a belief about where they’d end up if they dug their way through the center of the Earth and popped up on the other side, more technically known as the “antipode”. For people in the USA, they think it’s China. For people in the UK, they think it’s Australia. Australians […]
World’s Tallest Bridge Over “Crack In The Earth” Gets Daunting Load Test By Fleet Of 96 Trucks
The world’s tallest bridge has undergone final load tests ahead of opening, with 96 weighted trucks driving over the bridge to test its structural integrity. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. Construction of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in Guizhou province, China, […]
