photo credit: Ralph Buckley

So here’s what went down since you logged off.

Despite the fact that it is so incredibly empty – space (hence the name) is also an unpredictable place – and it just got even more so. Scientists have discovered that the solar system bounces periodically – and those periods just happen to line up with major extinction events in the Earth’s history.

Neanderthals and humans co-existed – so why are we here now, and they aren’t? One theory asserts that Neanderthals and humans are offshoots of the same species, and thus could have produced children – meaning that the two blended into one. A new study from Argentina says nope - we probably killed them off.

Despite the fact that it sits on top of 10% of the world’s oil reserves, Abu Dhabi has built the first carbon-neutral city. It seems they’ve realized that no matter how much oil you have – someday, it’s gonna run out.

Brian Cox, a physicist at CERN, explains what really happens inside the Large Hadron Collider.

Scientists have spotted a space tornado - which might be the first step in the creation of stars.