Deborah Bloomfield

In addition to being an influential philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a keen observer of nature, who took exceptionally detailed notes. Those notes provide a record of the New England climate in the 1850s, at a time before weather stations collected much of the data we have today. Detailed readings of the diaries have allowed […]

The Aztecs were big fans of obsidian, and often used the razor-sharp volcanic glass to slice through the chests of human sacrifices in order to extract the still-beating heart. Such was their love of this mesmerizing and deadly material that the Aztecs – also known as the Mexica – sought out obsidian from multiple sources […]

Did you know that you’re glowing right now? Alright, it is only very, very faintly. Too faintly for the human eye, in fact, but thanks to biophotons you glow alongside every other living thing. Now, new research into mice and plants has shown how that light can alter under stress, and be extinguished by death. […]

US space agency NASA has outlined lessons that have been learned following the “Gannon storm” of May last year, the most severe geomagnetic storm in over two decades. On May 9, 2024, representatives of NASA and 30 other US government agencies were gathered at a meeting in order to simulate and workshop potential Earth-based problems […]

Anyone who has taken a flight to the other side of the planet has realized that our pale blue dot is only small in cosmic terms. For human needs, the globe is big, and even the fastest flying machine takes a long time. In the future, those flights might be a lot shorter if hypersonic […]

In 1905, a 13-year-old boy was playing in a cave in Craighead Caverns, a giant system of caves in between Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tennessee, as he often did, when he stumbled across an unexplored opening and squeezed his way through.  The caves themselves had been known about since the time of the Cherokee, the Indigenous […]

Space has dramatically changed in the last decade. It is now cheaper and easier to get stuff into space, and the consequences of this space rush are not fully understood. There are environmental effects here on Earth and the risk of increasing junk in space, and the research and regulation that underpins our understanding and […]

Creepy crawlies can get mixed reviews from even the most enthusiastic of animal lovers. From wasps annoying you during a picnic in the park to ticks spreading Lyme disease, the range of problems these smaller critters can cause is pretty remarkable. Now, an invasive species of ant is causing concern across the USA. Asian needle […]

According to a new study, the universe may decay many orders of magnitude faster than we thought. The study, which looked at the Hawking radiation of stellar remnants, predicts that the universe will end 101022 years sooner than previously predicted. According to the team, given these lifetimes of stellar objects, we may be able to […]

A new study inspired by a student’s question has found something surprising about human fingers, and how they wrinkle after being placed in water. When you put your fingers into water for a reasonable amount of time, you probably notice that they begin to go wrinkly, or “prune-like” in appearance. While you may reasonably guess […]

Sir David Attenborough’s latest film OCEAN includes chilling footage of trawling from a point-of-view never seen before: the animals in its path. Cephalopods and rays can be seen fleeing the wall of rope and metal as it charges across the seabed destroying everything in its path, a heartbreaking visual that powerfully underpins Attenborough’s message: “If […]

As part of its mission to “Make America Healthy Again”, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently put food dyes firmly in its crosshairs. Now, HHS has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted three petitions for new, natural color additives. In April 2025, HHS announced its intentions to […]

Chemicals in furniture and children’s toys could impact the quality of your sleep. New research shows that chemicals hidden in plastics can interfere with the circadian rhythm, delaying the internal body clock by up to 17 minutes. This, in turn, may increase the risk of developing sleep disorders and health problems, such as diabetes and […]

There was a significant drop in the number of babies hospitalized with RSV this year; a positive news story that can be attributed to the effectiveness of two new products. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the number one cause of hospitalizations among infants in the US, with two to three of every 100 babies under […]

It’s a chore many dread but the science suggests most of us should be washing our bedding more often. Experts advise changing the sheets once a week – or once every two weeks at the very most.   The average person spends a third of their life sleeping (or attempting to), so needless to say […]

What’s the youngest language in the world? This might sound like a straightforward question, but as with all seemingly simple questions, the answer kind of depends on what you mean. What makes a language can be somewhat subjective, depending on how you differentiate a language from a dialect or a creole (a language that developed […]

There’s a huge volcano in northwest US territory, and all signs say it’s about to blow. The result is set to be a massive eruption, with lava reaching up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) in any direction, huge and deafening implosions, and massive disruption to the surrounding ecology. Wait, what? Yellow… stone? No, never heard […]

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Deers are among the most diverse and adaptable families of mammals, existing in habitats as diverse as the frigid tundras of Svalbard and the rainforests of Borneo. There are 47 known species worldwide, including the muntjac deer (with its downright alien-like flaring scent glands) and the recently discovered Pudella carlae – but which is the […]

The common house spider – you may look at it and think “Oh, what a beauty, my lovely house companion!” Or if you are not like me and you have arachnophobia, you may run away screaming. For one group of scientists, they looked at this spider and thought of innovation and the future – and […]