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PODCAST

IFLScience - Break It Down

iflsciencebreakitdown

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…

science news commentary

All Episodes

34:27

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

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/10/24

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

en

32:34

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

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/10/10

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

en

38:57

Mummified Cheetahs, Skin Cells Turn Into Eggs, And...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/10/03

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

en

34:26

Neanderthal Noises, Dome-Headed Dinosaurs, And...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/09/19

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

en

42:06

Tropical Mammoths, Dazzling Brain Map, And Perfectly...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/09/05

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

en

43:55

Glowing Plants, Punk Ankylosaur, And Has The Wow!...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/08/29

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

en

35:10

Shaman Training Cave, Uranus's New Moon, And A Bright...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/08/22

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”,

en

39:06

Orange Crocodiles, New Human Species, And Death By...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/08/15

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

en

35:16

Dancing Cockatoos, Spider Schlongs, And Will I Be Hit...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/08/08

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

en

42:33

Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/07/11

This week on Break It Down: just a week after the discovery of our third-ever interstellar visitor we may know where it came from, ancient enamel provides a snapshot into the lives of prehistoric rhinos, the moa becomes the fifth species targeted for de-extinction, a robot performs gallbladder surgery – no human required, chimps start a new fashion trend with grass in their ears (and rears), and 100 years since The Scopes (Monkey) Trial, how much has changed?So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break

en

34:38

Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/07/04

This week on Break It Down: We’ve just seen our third-ever interstellar object whizzing though the Solar System, eating cheese really might give you nightmares (but so might dessert), cavers are rewarded with a treasure trove of blind, mummified invertebrates including the only known cave-adapted wasp, the Neanderthal fat factory is just a delicious as it sounds, orcas caught kissing out in the wild, and if the Moon gets slapped by an asteroid as NASA predicts there’s a 4.1 percent chance it might,

en

34:11

Wellness Whales, A New Blood Type, And A DJ Set From...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/06/27

This week on Break It Down: feast your eyes on the stunning first images from the world’s largest digital camera, capturing millions of galaxies and thousands of new asteroids. Why killer whales are rubbing each other luxuriously with seaweed, the world’s oldest rocks aren’t that much younger than the planet, mice born from two dads prove they’re fertile, a French woman becomes the only known person in the world with a new kind of blood type, and we celebrate 50 years of the European Space Agency

en

36:19

Artificial Eclipse, Dancing Dinosaurs, And 50 Years...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/06/20

This week on Break It Down: Two spacecraft just created the first ever artificial solar eclipse, thanks to some impressive drone photos we know now dancing dinosaurs might have been leaping around to impress females in Colorado, a child from the world's oldest burial site appears to be a Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybrid, for the first time we know what a Denisovan face looks like, a medical breakthrough means we could have a vaccine against HIV (if only anyone could buy it), and 50 years after JAWS

en

34:50

Ice Age Puppies, Sauropod’s Last Supper, And A First...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/06/13

This week on Break It Down: Seeing the Sun’s south pole for the first time ever, Ice Age puppies frozen in permafrost turn out to be wolves, a world-first fossil discovery reveals a sauropod’s final meal, “razor blade throat” and a traveling nimbus reveal what to expect from the new COVID variant, the deepest map of the universe now reaches 13.5 billion years into the past, and is giving nature a personhood a good way to get it better legal protections? Maybe.So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It

en

41:57

Space Explosions, Dead Sea Scrolls, And Why It's So...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/06/06

This week on Break It Down: A great big explosion in space is the most energetic since the Big Bang, AI reveals the Dead Sea Scrolls could share the same authors as the Bible, it looks like the Milky Way and Andromeda will not collide in 5 billion years after all, pregnant female mice with low iron levels can lead to the development of male embryos with ovaries, two smiling porpoises are released back into the wild for the first time in a win for conservation, and we take a deep dive into why it's

en

42:53

Oldest Fingerprint, AI Decoding Wolf Language, And...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/05/30

This week on Break It Down: The oldest fingerprint in the world might be left by a Neanderthal hoping to complete a face, scientists propose seeding life on Enceladus to see what would happen, we’re starting to understand more about the Incas’ mysterious string writing system, bioacoustics research could pave the way for us to chat to wolves in Yellowstone, prions prove they are just as scary as we always thought when they take over a woman's brain after 50 years, and we explore just how much memory

en

37:49

Capuchin Kidnappers, Spinosaurus Daddy, And A New...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/05/23

This week on Break It Down: the Solar System just got a new member, capuchins have started stealing howler monkey babies on a remote island, the US ran a solar storm emergency drill and it didn’t go so well, stunning new fossil evidence reveals never-before-seen feathers that indicate Archaeopteryx could fly, a deep dive into Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA turns up six alleged relatives, and what Walking With Dinosaurs has to say about Spinosaurus’s parenting skills and T. rex’s nocturnal hunting.So, sit

en

32:48

T. Rex Leather, Glow-In-The-Dark Gas Clouds, And...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/05/02

This week on Break It Down: a new kind of leather is borrowing its foundations from fossil T. rex collagen, we’ve just discovered an enormous glow-in-the-dark gas cloud surprisingly close to Earth, a musical sea lion has shown it can keep beat better than some humans, a new-to-science embalming technique has been discovered in Austria, man who let himself be envenomated by all the snakes inspires an antivenom not thought possible, and do scientists have a responsibility to fight misinformation about

en

36:06

Tattooed Tardigrades, Doomed Lava Planet, And Meet...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/04/25

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.So, sit back, relax, and let’s Break It Down… Links: Boiled-apart planet Gladiator VS lion Tattooed

en

39:01

Dire Wolves, Intersex Whales, And That Dangerous...

IFLScience - Break It Down ·

2025/04/11

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

en

80 results

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