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Your bite-size guide to this week in science. Join hosts Eleanor Higgs and Rachael Funnell as they discuss the biggest news stories of the week with guests from the IFLScience team and maybe even a surprise expert or two. So, let’s Break It Down…
Episodes
Friday Jan 31, 2025
Friday Jan 31, 2025
This week on Break It Down: A CIA report says the origins of COVID being a lab leak is “likely” but what does that really mean? The Doomsday Clock ticks closer to humanity's destruction, asteroid Bennu’s sample contains the building blocks of life (but not aliens), the oldest poison arrow dates back 7,000 years, a mouse with two male parents survives to adulthood in a world first, “boomerasking” might be the social snub of 2025, and we enter The Vault to explore why people believe in the Simulation Hypothesis.
So sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
COVID lab leak
Doomsday Clock
Bennu samples
Bennu lid is stuck
Oldest poisoned arrow
Mouse with two dads
Boomerasking
Phubbing
Simulation Hypothesis
CURIOUS Magazine
Science Hoaxes
Salamander Toes
Friday Jan 24, 2025
Friday Jan 24, 2025
This week on Break It Down: a new timeline shows exactly when and how the eruption of Vesuvius spread, chimps have been observed going to the bathroom together all at the same time, trust in science remains high worldwide despite recent global events, sex differences between male and female brains are present as early as newborn babies, and did COVID lockdowns actually affect the temperature on the Moon? Finally, what’s the best dino movie of all time? We asked the experts to find out.
So sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links
Pompeii
Trust in science
Covid and the Moon
Sex differences in brains
Chimps pee together
Just in case pee
Yawning is contagious
Best dino movie
Fire melanism
Rare black king penguin
Corals on the move
Curious magazine
Subscribe to IFLS
Friday Jan 17, 2025
Friday Jan 17, 2025
This week on Break It Down: lasers revealed 1,200-year-old mummies’ sweet tats, the mission to de-extinct the thylacine takes a leap forward, video footage of a meteorite hitting someone’s garden might be a world first, China announces plans to build the solar power station equivalent of “Three Gorges Dam” in space, researchers discover an Iron Age society ruled by women, and how did dinosaurs have sex? We find out from palaeontologist Riley Black what we do (and don’t) know so far.
So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
Can you keep meteorites you find?
How did dinosaurs have sex? Podcast
Alligators’ penile jack-in-a-box
Friday Jan 10, 2025
Friday Jan 10, 2025
This week on Break It Down: unexpected and unexplained structures have been discovered hiding under the Pacific Ocean, the oldest equatorial dinosaur fossil in the world dates back a whopping 230 million years, a painted dog penis bone has been found in a ritual shaft in England (some puns write themselves), cave art from France could be the oldest 3D map in the world, Nobel Prize winners can go loopy (and start talking to raccoons) after winning, and what was Plato talking about when he described a metal "more precious than anything except gold?”
So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
Unexplained structures
Oldest equatorial dinosaur
Painted penis bone
Oldest 3D map
Nobel Disease
Orichalcum metal
Nobody’s looking for Atlantis
How do sunken cities end up underwater
CURIOUS magazine
More podcasts
Wildfires in LA
Fish that mates a lot
Face-planting frog
Friday Jan 03, 2025
Friday Jan 03, 2025
This week on Break It Down: one of the most significant mammal recoveries ever recorded (and four other wildlife wins), a once-in-a-lifetime event is about to kick off in space, spookily accurate predictions made by a “professor” 100 years ago, an undersea volcano is about to erupt, scientists achieve a world-first embryo milestone on the path to giraffe IVF, and 100 years since Hubble proved the universe is unimaginably vast, we explore how he did it.
So sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
World-first giraffe embryo breakthrough
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Friday Dec 20, 2024
This week on Break It Down: Earth’s magnetic pole is in a new position, the second most cited paper to ever be withdrawn is finally retracted, Charlotte the bubble-butted turtle gets a special swimming harness, The Blob’s legacy marks the worst single-species mortality event in modern history, a Roman solution to Mars suggests blood makes for great cement, and we send one of our writers on a mission to test out ancient hangover cures. Anyone for cabbage?
Links:
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
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 donor organs transfer memories? Transplant patients report strange personality changes.
So sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
Sequencing the oldest human genome
Friday Dec 06, 2024
Friday Dec 06, 2024
This week on Break It Down: scientists may have discovered a new ancient relative of humans, collar cameras from Andean bears reveal Paddington may have a taste for cubs, we’ve been paying the salmon tax to dogs for 2,000 years more than thought, new biohybrid wood glows green in the dark, diamond batteries could last for thousands of years, and it turns out spaceports make for remarkably good wildlife sanctuaries.
So sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down…
Links:
IFLScience - Break It Down
Your bite-size guide to this week in science. Join hosts Eleanor Higgs and Rachael Funnell as they discuss the biggest news stories of the week with guests from the IFLScience team and maybe even a surprise expert or two. So, let’s Break It Down