Deborah Bloomfield

Long ago, but not that long ago, the English alphabet had 27 letters, rather than the current 26. In fact, it even had a starring role in the singsong nursery rhymes used to teach children their ABCs. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full […]

What’s the most valuable thing in your kitchen? That Himalayan pink salt, perhaps? Something gluten free? No: according to generations of chefs and Italians alike, the answer is in your saucepan – and chances are, you’ve been throwing this so-called “liquid gold” down the plughole for years. “Don’t throw the water out after your pasta […]

A pair of woolly mammoth vertebrae in Alaska have been dated to around 2,000 years old, making them by far the most recent evidence for the existence of this extinct beast ever recorded. However, upon further analysis, researchers discovered that the fossils are not in fact of proboscidean origin, and instead belong to a couple […]

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has announced the participants on its next space tourist flight, the 37th launch for the New Shepard rocket configuration, and one crew member is of particular note. Engineer Michi Benthaus will become the first wheelchair user to fly above the edge of space. The date of the flight has not been […]

A mosasaur tooth has been found at one of the most famous Late Cretaceous fossil sites in the world. That means the famous marine predators adapted to a freshwater environment, and it seems they didn’t lose any of their size in the process. In 2022, Trissa Ford was digging in the famous Hell Creek, North […]

The first documented case of cooperative hunting between killer whales and dolphins has been observed in the waters off British Columbia, Canada. Incredible aerial footage shows the two species sharing fish scraps after a kill, and scientists have some theories as to why they’re teaming up. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. […]

Do you ever find that chocolate from an Advent calendar just doesn’t hit the same as a regular chocolate bar? Or perhaps you’re one of those oddballs who actually prefer the taste of Advent calendar chocolate. Either way, fear not – the festive cheer hasn’t gone to your head, you’re not imagining things. The rest […]

Stare deep into the eyes of a sheep and you’ll probably upset a farmer, but before the guns start waving you might notice something strange. Rather than a bouncy round pupil like our own, sheep have a rectangular black blob in the middle of their eyes. So, what gives? The rest of this article is […]

In 2004, scientists digging in China discovered a fossil that changed the way we saw dinosaurs. It was a Psittacosaurus, a horned herbivore that lived around 120 million years ago. It wasn’t alone in death, however, as scientists found the fossils of 34 offspring huddled around it. It was one of the earliest pieces of […]

A timelapse has been released showing the newly discovered Tatooine-like planet HD 143811 AB b making part of its journey around the two stars that give it light. The planet can be seen directly because it is both very large and very young, so the observations provide insight into how systems like this form and […]

Astronomers using the JWST have traced the source of a long-duration gamma-ray burst back to a supernova that exploded around 13.07 billion years in the universe’s past. The explosion is now the earliest known supernova event that we have seen, taking place when the universe was just 730 million years old. On March 14, 2025, […]

Take yourself back in time to the year 1758. We are in Germany and it’s winter, so we can confidently assume that it is cold, with possible snow covering the fields and roofs of houses. Here we meet the protagonist of this story, farmer and astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch. He is scanning the sky as […]

What did dinosaurs look like? It’s not easy to figure out when all you have to go on is scant fossil evidence, but every now and then a rare find gives us a fresh glimpse into the past. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the […]

NASA’s Voyager spacecraft (1 and 2), launched in 1977, are both on a trajectory that will take them out of the Solar System, and into interstellar space.  It’s a slow journey. For an obvious example, in November 2026 Voyager 1 will reach one full light-day from Earth, or the amount of time it takes light […]

Hold onto your hats folks – this one is a wild ride. As we romp though Earth’s fastest species, we must bear in mind the spheres in which they operate. That’s why we’ve broken down our categories into Earth, Sea, and Sky, with a few honorable mentions along the way. On your marks, get set, […]

Home Alone, it’s a Christmas classic. There’s not a year that’s gone by where I’ve not returned to the McCallister’s mansion-esque home during the festive period (did you hear the theory his dad was some kind of mobster boss?). I love it, one of my top 10 favorite movies easily, but recently it’s had me […]

The origins of the Celtic languages are cloaked in mystery. With desperately few written records, its story survives only in scattered fragments and faint traces. That’s why linguists at Aberystwyth University in Wales are striving to build the world’s first dictionary of the ancient Celtic languages. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. […]

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter is no longer communicating with Earth, after an unknown “anomaly” put it out of contact with NASA’s Deep Space Network. In November 2013, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft launched into space, beginning its long journey to Mars. In September 2014, it entered Mars’s orbit, and began its mission to […]

It’s not just the “superflu” getting people sick right now. Norovirus, scourge of cruise ships and ruiner of holiday plans, is coming back with a vengeance in some US states, with reports of a newer, highly contagious variant driving the spread. Wastewater data from across the country is currently showing high levels of norovirus, with […]

If you’ve been on the Internet for long enough, you’ve probably come across the meme that – sooner or later – everything turns into crabs. According to the meme, sooner or later – be you a fish or Danny DeVito – you are to become a crab. While this is, of course, just a fun […]