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

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

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

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

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

This week on Break It Down: Tracks left in ancient rock suggest fish crawled out of the seas 10 million years earlier than we thought, a 140,000-year-old child’s skull is the earliest evidence Neanderthals and Homo sapiens got it on yet, a bright orange nurse shark makes history as the first example of xanthism in this species and in the Caribbean Sea, JWST spots a new moon around Uranus, bringing its total up to 29, cave paintings from the French Pyrenees suggest a dangerous “shaman training cave”, and what did ancient people think when they discovered fossils? Griffins, cyclops, or something else entirely? 

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

Fossil trackways

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens

Only surviving human species

Bright orange shark

Orange crocs

Uranus’ new moon

Shaman Training Cave

Finding fossils

We Have Questions Podcast

Northern white rhinos

Giraffes are now four species

This week on Break It Down: The discovery of some fossilized human teeth reveals the oldest known members of our genus weren’t alone; their neighbors were a species we’ve never found before. A world-first study reveals that sex reversal is surprisingly common in wild Australian birds. A law of abbreviation that mysteriously fits all human languages also applies to bird song from several species. Orange crocodiles lurking deep within caves in Central Africa have the potential to become a new dwarf species. The lack of a standardized definition is holding back long COVID research. And has anybody ever died by getting hit by a meteorite? The records show: just one.

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

Links:

New human species

HUMAN with Ella Al-Shamahi

Tunnel of bones

Sex reversal in wild birds

Zipf’s law applies to birds

Orange crocodiles

Defining long COVID

Death by meteorite

Why do we feel pain? Interview with Chris Hemsworth and Dr BJ Miller

The Big Questions – Will We Ever Get A Universal Flu Vaccine?

We Have Questions

This week on Break It Down: cockatoos have added 17 new dance moves to their official tally, we may finally know where the ancient “hobbit” humans came from, four new species of tarantulas have been discovered with one key difference to other species, science has the answer as to whether you're more likely to be killed by an asteroid or an elephant, RFK Jr uses misinformation to pull millions of dollars from mRNA vaccine research, and we discuss how science fiction is helping scientists explore possible futures. 

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

Links:

Dancing cockatoos