IFLScience - Break It Down

This month on Break It Down: 

Why are there over 8 million pickled fish in some WWII-era bunkers in Louisiana? We ask Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute director Brian Sidlauskas to spill the tea.

The discovery of the world’s oldest clothes predates the previous record holder by 9,000 years.

We speak to Professor Hannah Fry about all things AI, including why one chatbot encouraged the assassination of the Queen of England.

Some cave coral shows off its flashy burglar alarm.

Scientists explain why building an enormous underwater wall could be the best plan to save the “Doomsday Glacier”.

The mystery of why some people experienced blood clots following a specific kind of COVID vaccine has finally been solved.

Curiosity finds the second most compelling evidence of life on Mars yet.

Why scientists created a 228-meter popsicle that delves 23 million years into the past by digging deep beneath Antarctica.

Conservation success as it’s announced we’ve successfully saved the Bermuda snail from extinction.

Meet the people taking bold new approaches to the biodiversity crisis in creating a “de-extinction toolkit” that can benefit some of Earth’s most threatened species.

Plus, everything you can find in this month’s issue of CURIOUS, a teaser of a fascinating chat about games VS metrics with Professor C Thi Nguyen, and what do other worlds smell like? We sent our space editor to find out.

 

So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…

Links:

Pickled fish: https://www.iflscience.com/where-can-you-find-a-one-of-a-kind-pocket-shark-among-8-million-pickled-…

Oldest clothes: https://www.iflscience.com/these-tiny-unremarkable-looking-scraps-of-elk-hide-may-be-oldest-sewn-cl…

Prof Hannah Fry on AI: https://www.iflscience.com/in-2021-a-teenager-started-a-relationship-with-artificial-intelligence-t…

Flashy cave coral: https://www.iflscience.com/funky-green-glowing-coral-is-the-first-report-of-bioluminescence-within-…

Doomsday glacier’s underwater wall: https://www.iflscience.com/the-radical-plan-to-build-an-80-kilometer-wall-around-the-doomsday-glaci…

COVID blood clots: https://www.iflscience.com/mystery-of-rare-blood-clots-after-covid-vaccines-finally-solved-after-ye…

Life on Mars: https://www.iflscience.com/mudstone-molecules-might-be-second-best-proof-weve-found-that-mars-once-…

Drilling beneath Antarctica: https://www.iflscience.com/scientists-drilled-into-antarctic-ice-until-they-met-bedrock-then-got-a-…

Snail saved from extinction: https://www.iflscience.com/we-can-prevent-extinction-snail-officially-saved-from-extinction-proving…

The world’s first de-extinction lab: https://youtu.be/1kEeZRacCds?si=p1tsE4p66cbrKvLi

CURIOUS magazine: https://www.iflscience.com/curious-magazine

What do other worlds smell like? https://www.iflscience.com/podcasts/we-have-questions

This week on Break It Down: How a transplant patient lived for two days without lungs, the Artemis II Orion Capsule is probably smaller than you’re thinking (but it does have a toilet), the world’s only venomous primate is also super adorable, why a pair of giant legs has scientists questioning everything we thought we knew about stegosaurus, a cosmic miracle has been confirmed, and why do humans love fire? We asked the experts.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…

Links:

Lung transplant

Artemis II

The Apollo 10 toilet debacle

Venomous primates

Mega-stegosaurus

How did dinosaurs have sex?

Cosmic miracle

Why do humans love fire?

CURIOUS magazine

We Have Questions

IFLScience YouTube – The future (additional) home of Break It Down

This week on Break It Down: a potential environmental trigger for autism has been identified, interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is doing weird things with its tail, 90 percent of people are at risk of a newly recognized syndrome, why we know the Denisovans didn’t hook up with the Jomon, as Iceland falls, mosquitos have just one place left on Earth they’ve yet to conquer, and why are people talking to “wind phones”? It’s all to do with “after-death communications”.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…

Links:

Environmental trigger for autism

Trump and Tylenol

3I/ATLAS tail changed direction

CKM syndrome

Extinct humans no Denisovan DNA

Mosquitos’ final frontier

Wind phones

CURIOUS

The Vault

YouTube

The Big Questions - Why do people believe in the paranormal?

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This week on Break It Down: 3I/ATLAS is a 10 billion-year-old time capsule, a world-first fossil captures the moment a rock hyrax dragged its butt 126,000 years ago, a living person received a pig liver transplant for the first time, the “oldest human habit” might not be what it seems, a rare gynandromorph spider is a 50/50 wonder, and what is this prehistoric creature with two heads? We asked a dinosaur expert.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…

Links:

3I/ATLAS
Butt drag fossil
Trackways of fish leaving the ocean
Pig liver transplant
Oldest human habit
50/50 spider
Two-headed fossil
Sword Dragon of Dorset
CURIOUS magazine
What lives in Loch Ness?
The Big Questions
What’s all the fossa-bout?

This week on Break It Down: the second oldest use of the color blue ever has been discovered in Europe dating back 13,000 years, “chemical fossils” suggest the oldest life on Earth may have been sponges 541 million years ago, skin cells have been turned into fertilizable egg cells thanks to some pretty nifty genetics research, the world’s first naturally mummified big cats have been found in a cave in Saudi Arabia, complex chemistry coming from Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus could be a big clue to eventually finding life in the Solar System, and we remember the pioneering scientist Jane Goodall and her incredible life.

So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…

Links:

Blue pigment
Oldest animals
Skin cells
Babies born with genes from three people
Mitochondrial disease
Mummified cheetahs
Enceladus
Goodbye Jane Goodall
CURIOUS
Spooky Season at the Vault