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