This calendar week , we turn over into the ossified clay of an 113 - million - year - honest-to-god “ hell ant ” let on in Brazil , the oldest ant have sex to skill . We explore the peculiar case ofPope Pius XII ’s embalm misadventure , which head to an unexpected and explosive outcome . We examine how asolar “ terminator ” eventmay have disrupted SpaceX ’s Starlink satellites , and premise a man-made “ power cake ” plan to sustain bee colony without innate pollen .

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First Ever Evidence Of Roman Gladiators Fighting Lions Discovered In Britain

ARoman - epoch skeleton from York , northerly England , shows sign of having been sting by a full-grown cat , thus put up the first archaeological grounds that gladiators did struggle with Leo the Lion and otherterrifying animal . antecedently , these legendary human - animal contests were only known from written and esthetic seed , leading many scholar to query whether the brute encounter in reality took billet . take more here

Scientists Are Tattooing Tardigrades Because Why Not

At half a mm tenacious ( 0.02 inches ) , tardigrades are so small they ’re hard to see without a microscope . However , these endearing eight - legged creatures still have room for tattoos on their bodies , scientists have demonstrated , and the oeuvre could lead to medical applications , much as it may sound like the product of world-weary minds . Read more here

Planet Being Boiled Apart Like A Comet Sheds Mount Everest’s Worth Of Material Every Orbit

satellite BD+054868Ab is one of only four known disintegrate planets , worlds shut down enough to their star that they end up being roasted and torn asunder . But this little world is alone in the extent of this process ; it has the longest tail of any such planet . Yes , these worlds form a comet - comparable backside of material evaporating forth , and this one is losing the equivalent of Mount Everest to space every single orbit . record more here

What Happens When Your Mind Goes Blank? It Could Be Your Brain In “Local Sleep”

You know that feel when your head go away blank ? One minute you ’re happily cause on with something ; the next , it ’s like all the thoughts have just fallen out of your head . A new work is helping unveil what ’s actually run low on inside our brains when this happens , including why some of us experience it much more often than others . Read more here

Newly Discovered “Bone Collector” Caterpillar Wears The Bodies Of Its Prey Like A Serial Killer

Extraordinary behavior has been report in a metal money of Hyposmocoma caterpillars . Although the specie is yet to be given a scientific name , the team that discovered its demeanour call it the " osseous tissue aggregator " caterpillar for the way it will wear pieces of its prey ’s bodies as if as prize . Read more here

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Feature of the week:

5 Health Problems Caused By Tobacco Use That Aren’t Lung Cancer

Lung cancer might be one of the most well - screw possible consequences of using tobacco , but it ’s far from the only health problem that ’s been link up to it . In fact , tobacco employment can touch nearly every organ in the dead body – so what other conditions can it cause?Read more here .

More content:

Have you seen our e - magazine , CURIOUS ? yield 8 January 2025 is uncommitted now . This month we inquire , “ Do brute Make Art ? ” – check it out for single interviews , book selection , longsighted reads , and more .

PLUS , the We Have Questions podcast – an audio interlingual rendition of our coveted CURIOUS atomic number 99 - magazine column – keep . In episode 8 , we ask , “ What Happens To Eyes During The Mummification Process ? ”

Season 4 of IFLScience ’s The Big Questions podcast has conclude . To revisit all of season four ’s episodes , click here .