Asia’s oldest elephant has died at the astonishing age of over 100. While elephants are known for their long lifespans, it’s exceptionally rare, practically unknown, for an Asian elephant to surpass a century. Vatsala died earlier this month at the Panna Tiger Reserve in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, leaving behind a host […]
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Ancient Human DNA Reveals Earliest Zoonotic Diseases Appeared 6,500 Years Ago
The COVID-19 pandemic was, at its heart, a serious reminder that our health can be significantly impacted by diseases from other animals. Obviously, this is not a new story; we’ve known for decades that emerging diseases often jump to humans from other species, but how long has this been going on for? According to the […]
Boys Are Better At Math? That Could Be Because School Favors Them Over Girls
Given all we know – and the far more we don’t know – about the brain, there’s no reason to assume that any gender should have a monopoly on mathematical ability. And yet, for many people, the idea that boys are better at math, or math-adjacent subjects like physics or engineering, is… well, it’s just […]
Looptail G: Most People Can’t Recognize A Letter You Have Seen Millions Of Times
The letter “g” is pretty inescapable. It’s everywhere. Good. Great. Gongoozler. God. Garbage. Giggles. But according to a new study, people are really, really bad at recognizing it in the wild. You’re probably familiar with how to write lower-case “g”s, but how they appear on a screen or in print is not the same. How […]
24-Million-Year-Old Protein Fragments Are Oldest Ever Recovered, A Robot Listened To Spoken Instructions And Performed Surgery, And Much More This Week
This week, a new interstellar comet’s origin region has been tracked and it’s thought to be “much older than the Solar System”, Colossal Biosciences has announced its plans to make one of the biggest birds to ever walk the Earth the 5th “de-extinction” species, and chimpanzees have been observed sticking grass in their ears and […]
DNA From Greenland Sled Dogs – Maybe The World’s Oldest Breed – Reveals 1,000 Years Of Arctic History
Sled dogs have been performing a vital role for people living in the Arctic for 9,500 years. In fact, the ubiquity of these dogs across the polar region is a testament to their significance. While there are various breeds of sled dog today, one breed is not only the oldest among them, it may well […]
Why Doesn’t Moonrise Shift By The Same Amount Each Night?
If you were entranced by the full Moon last night, and would like to watch it rise again this evening, you’re probably aware you’ll have to wait until later in the night. But how much later? A quick check of moonrise (or set) times over successive nights reveals wide variation – sometimes the difference is […]
Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot Surgery – No Human Required
This week on Break It Down: just a week after the discovery of our third-ever interstellar visitor we may know where it came from, ancient enamel provides a snapshot into the lives of prehistoric rhinos, the moa becomes the fifth species targeted for de-extinction, a robot performs gallbladder surgery – no human required, chimps start […]
“Human”: Powerful New Images Mark The Most Scientifically Accurate “Hyper-Real 3D Models Of Human Species Ever”
Do you ever get that thing where you bump into a relative you haven’t seen for a while and don’t immediately recognize them? Maybe it’s little Timmy who you haven’t seen since he was yay-high, or perhaps Jennifer with the new hair. Or maybe it’s Homo floresiensis, “the hobbit” of Homos that went extinct around […]
Did We Accidentally Leave Life On The Moon In 2019 – And Could We Revive It?
We don’t really know if there is other life in the universe, but due to one failed Moon landing in 2019, we know there is terrestrial life on the Moon… kind of. One small cockup by “man”, one giant spill for tardigrade kind In February 2019, SpaceIL, a private Israeli non-profit that worked in partnership […]
1.8 Million Years Ago, Two Extinct Humans Had One Of The Gnarliest Deaths In History
When you’re tucked away in the safety of your home tonight, spare a thought for these two ancient human relatives whose lives in East Africa ended around 1.8 million years ago in a deeply undignified fashion: mauled to pieces by a crocodile and, somehow, chewed over by a leopard-like carnivore. The pair belonged to the species Homo […]
“Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
Taman Negara National Park is a critical habitat for Malayan tigers. It was once home to the densest population of tigers in Malaysia, but their numbers have since crashed, and now the park forms a vital corridor connecting two separate groups. This information, however, hasn’t escaped the knowledge of poachers, who lay snares to illegally […]
Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
Who’s a good boy? Oosagoodboyyy?! That’s right! Your dog is a good boy! But how he got that way is a puzzle that’s long plagued archaeologists and palaeontologists. Simply put: we know dogs were once wolves. We know they’re not anymore – in fact, in some cases, they could hardly be further from the keystone […]
Why Do Orcas Have White Spots Near Their Eyes?
Orcas are easily recognized by their jet-black bodies punctuated with striking white markings, most notably the “eye patch” on their head, which makes them appear like an ominous masked supervillain. But these markings aren’t just eye-catching to humans – they’re an ingenious evolutionary tool. The black-and-white coloring of orcas is primarily a matter of camouflage. […]
Tomb Of First King Of Ancient Maya City Discovered In Belize
After more than 40 years of exploration and excavations at the ancient Maya city of Caracol, researchers have finally unearthed a tomb belonging to one of its rulers. Even more significantly, the burial happens to contain the remains of Te K’ab Chaak, the very first king of this pre-Hispanic powerhouse and founder of its royal […]
The Real Reason The Tip Of Your Tape Measure Wiggles Like That
It’s the mainstay of every toolbox; a holiday stocking stuffer for a crafter of any kind; the precursor to one of those snappy bracelets that grade school kids love to thwap you with – we’re talking, of course, of the tape measure. Retractable, dependable, and always, for some reason, slightly wobbly at the end. But […]
The “Haunting” Last Message From NASA’s Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
Thanks to NASA’s steadfast commitment to blasting robots into space, we now get regular images from another planet beamed back down to Earth. The current generation of Mars rovers began their adventures – finding strange rocks and potentially getting caught up in the center of electrified dust devils, among other important planetary research – in […]
Adorable Video Proves Not All Gorillas Hate The Rain. It Might Even Win One A Mate
In recent years, videos of gorillas showing their distaste for rain have attracted millions of views on YouTube. However, the spread of these videos has created an impression among viewers that gorillas, at least once they leave rainforests, are united in their opinion of the wet stuff falling from the sky. Now, another video shows […]
5,000-Year-Old Rock Art May Show One Of Ancient Egypt’s First Rulers
A newly-discovered rock art panel on the western bank of the River Nile may depict an Ancient Egyptian authority figure from the dawn of the First Dynasty. Based on the style and content of the engraving, the author of a new study suggests that it was most likely commissioned by an early political ruler during […]
Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Levels “20 Times Higher” In Newborn Babies – What Does This Mean?
If you read any research about Alzheimer’s disease, two proteins are going to be your main characters. There’s amyloid-β, which builds up and forms plaques in the brain; and there’s tau, which aggregates into clumps called tangles. These tangles occur when the tau protein is altered by phosphorylation, and for many decades, the buildup of […]