IFLScience - Break It Down

AI Assassins, Inside A De-extinction Lab, And Life On Mars? | Break It Down Podcast

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 

Deep-Space Toilet, Mega-Stegosaurus, And The Only Venomous Primate

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

3I/ATLAS, CKM Syndrome, And Mosquitos’ Final Frontier

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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A Two-Headed Fossil, 50/50 Spider, And World-First Butt Drag

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?

Mummified Cheetahs, Skin Cells Turn Into Eggs, And Almost Life On Enceladus

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

Neanderthal Noises, Dome-Headed Dinosaurs, And Mystery Larvae

This week on Break It Down: Homo habilis might not have been the apex predator we thought it was, the oldest and most complete pachycephalosaur reveals why they were so weirdly dome-headed, we’ve been able to track an asteroid’s full life story for the first time, nobody knows what these mysterious larvae grow up to be, humans are in the middle of an evolutionary transition, and what did Neanderthals sound like? Probably not what you think.

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

Links:

Homo habilis

Pachycephalosaur

Asteroid

Mystery larvae

Human evolution

Neanderthal noises

We Have Questions

The Big Questions

Ned the snail

Tropical Mammoths, Dazzling Brain Map, And Perfectly Preserved Pterosaurs

This week on Break It Down: Queen ants are throwing the rules of reproduction out of the window by producing offspring of two different species, for the first time ever we have a complete map of brain activity and boy is it pretty, a new lineage of tropical mammoths have been discovered in Mexico, 150 million-year-old baby pterosaurs have been perfectly preserved thanks to some stormy weather, the controversy surrounding whether Homo naledi might have buried their dead is back, and we explore just how big the biggest egg on Earth really was.

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

Links:

Ants
Brain map
Upload your brain
Tropical mammoths
Bacteria on mammoth teeth
Perfect baby pterosaurs
Cougar submerged
Homo naledi
Biggest Egg
The Big Questions Podcast

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 Wow! Signal makes a convincing case. Turns out the oldest known ankylosaur was also ridiculously spiky with a trait we’ve never seen in any vertebrate – living or extinct – before. See the first 3D digital analysis of the only person known to have a proton beam go through their head, and why does frozen seafood glow? Why indeed.

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

Links:

Silly map
Pacific Ocean antipodes
Glowing plants
Wow! Signal
Punky ankylosaur
Proton beam to the head
Glowing seafood
The Big Questions – What Will The Fossils Of The Future Look Like?
CURIOUS Magazine