This week, on Break It Down: a planet with a very rare tail is being boiled apart, the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting a lion discovered in Britain, scientists are tattooing tardigrades (for science), what’s happening in your brain during a mind blank, the grim fashion of “bone collector” caterpillars, and five health risks associated with tobacco use that don’t include lung cancer.

This week on Break It Down: old skin samples have revealed the first-ever evidence for an intersex Southern right whale, a dangerous asteroid that might hit the Moon has an unusual origin, what dire wolf “de-extinction” really means and how it’s helping red wolves, a mushroom that contains one of the most bitter compounds known to humans, a promising new candidate to topple debilitating long COVID, and is time an illusion?

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

Links:

Intersex whale

Dangerous asteroid

Dire wolves and red wolves

Should we de-extinct species?

Animal cloning as a conservation tool

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A very bitter mushroom

Long COVID treatment candidate

Is time an illusion?

Octopus in a bottle

Grapefruit and medication

The Big Questions

We Have Questions

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This week on Break It Down: study uncovers the biological basis of near-death experiences, what a camera trap captured after 55 years in Loch Ness, why it’s taken humans so long to orbit over Earth’s poles, what a sediment core from the “Great Blue Hole” can tell us about the Caribbean’s climatic past and future, why you shouldn’t offer cola to isolated communities, and why are there no frozen dinosaurs? With damn good reason.

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

Links:

Near-death experiences

Loch Ness camera trap

Loch Ness holograms

Loch Ness DNA

Subscription offer

Orbiting Earth's poles

Chundering in space

Drilling the great blue hole

Don’t offer cola to isolated tribes

Why no frozen dinosaurs?

How fast to fossil

Fossil octopus

CURIOUS magazine

Keep an eye out for NHM videos

Deep sea beasties

*Terms and Conditions: 35% OFF PROMO CODE: POD35 offer for 1 billing period of an All Access Subscription: Annual, 2-Year, or Monthly paid subscriptions only on iflscience.com. Offer ends April 30, 2025, 12:00 am EST. To apply the promo code, you must enter it prior to completing checkout. Your credit card will be automatically charged upon checkout completion, and your subscription will continue until you cancel auto-renew. You can cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period, and you will not be charged upon renewal. If you choose to renew, no action is required, and the full amount will be billed at the start of the renewed term. Taxes may apply. Promo codes are not transferable/redeemable for cash or credit. Membership paid subscriptions are only available in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, and Australia. Our standard terms & conditions apply.

This week on Break It Down: a new study has become the first to document what sound a shark makes, Neptune has been confirmed to have an aurora thanks to the best telescope ever, a pipeline construction site turned up the terrifying claw of a new species of therizinosaur, why people are trying to prevent measles with Vitamin A (and why it won’t work), 400-million-year-old fossils may belong to a new branch on the tree of life, and the growing role of psilocybin in new medications inspired by magic mushrooms.

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

Links:

Shark sounds

Hear a coral reef

Sharks existed before Saturn’s rings

Neptune’s aurora

New therizinosaur

Measles and Vitamin A

Supplements and liver injury

New branch of life?

Magic mushroom medicine

We Have Questions – How do you rediscover a “lost species”?

Videos galore

Melanistic penguin

CURIOUS magazine

This week on Break It Down: An unknown lifeform has been making micro-burrows in the Namibian desert, the secret to living until 117 has been revealed, sauropods were not doing handstands in Texas 100 million years ago (boooo), should we be attempting to de-extinct animals, an Australian man achieves a double world-first with a titanium heart transplant, and would you rather go to space or the deepest part of the ocean? We speak to one of the only people on Earth to do both!

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

Unknown lifeform

Living to 117

Sauropod footprints

Sauropod handstands

De-extinction

Titanium heart 

Spacewalks and deep ocean

Cougar photo

We Have Questions

Blood Rain

This week on Break It Down: Colossal Biosciences creates the “woolly mouse” in their mission to de-extinct the mammoth, scientists 3D-print functional penises (and have the babies to prove their efficacy), that gaping hole in the ozone layer really is repairing, IFLScience asks why so few international organizations have responded to Trump and Musk’s attack on US science, humans have been making bone tools 1 million years longer than we realized, and what’s the most painful bug sting? One brave scientist penned poetic descriptions of their experiences.

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

Links:

Woolly mouse

Elephant pluripotent stem cells

Vaccine for baby elephants

3D-printed penis

Ozone hole recovering

Attack on science response

Bone tool use

4 worst insect stings

Blob-headed fish

CURIOUS magazine

This week on Break It Down: the curious tale of a lump of glass that turned out to be a human brain, the US sees its first measles death in 10 years, rats make great sommeliers, the evolutionary origins of feathers in dinosaurs, AI bots start speaking a secret language to each other, and could we get internet on Mars? Quite possible.

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

Links:

Brain glass

Brain in a bucket

Measles death

Rat sommeliers

Hamsters quaffing wine

Dinosaur feathers

AI language

Twin telepathy

Mars internet

CURIOUS

Polar bear dens

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Bobbly giraffe

This week on Break It Down: the first ancient Egyptian royal tomb has been discovered since Tutankhamun over 100 years ago, a brand new ‘dangerous animal’ scale reveals the realistic threat of different creatures, architects are operating on land and at the deepest parts of the ocean (they just don’t look how you imagine), a Paralympian becomes the first astronaut with a disability to be cleared for a space mission, the Moon is getting 4G for the first time ever, and how do you break a habit? We find out.

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

Links:

Ancient Egyptian tomb

Crespo scale

Animal architects

Termite mounds

Paralympian astronaut

Moon internet

Breaking habits

Intelligent snake

We Have Questions

Murderous turtles

Chia egg

This week on Break It Down: Amazon river dolphins are saying it with urine proudly sprayed directly into the air, an inside look at the planetary defense response to asteroid 2024 YR4 (and no, it isn’t too late), find out what mummies smell like thanks to a team of “sniffers”, whale song follows Zipf’s Law, red light therapy – does it actually work? And say hello to kama muta, the emotion we've all felt but probably don’t know the name for.

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

Links:

Dolphin pee

Asteroid 2024 YR4

Ancient mummy smell

Whale song

Blue whale whispers

Red light therapy

Kama muta

We Have Questions

Vengeful Valentine’s

This week on Break It Down: the world's oldest runestone might have been carved by a woman in a language that predates the Vikings, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.3 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032 (but we’re not panicking yet), an ancient jawbone might reveal a new branch of the hominid family tree, science in the US is under attack after a slew of executive orders from the Trump administration, a fossil from Antarctica suggests ducks have been swimming around for a lot longer than we thought and we explore whether we actually own our bodies.