Deborah Bloomfield

Had you been in Cleveland 360 million years ago, you’d be swimming for your life. Not only would you have found yourself bobbing in a shallow sea, but there’d be something monstrous in the water: Dunkleosteus terrelli, a 4.2-meter (14-foot) apex predator unlike any fish alive today. The rest of this article is behind a […]

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the foremost public health authority in the United States, is at time of writing openly stating on its website that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”. Against all scientific consensus on the matter, the agency instead spotlights the idea that […]

It’s a great shame that Tyrannosaurus rex and Otodus megalodon never got the chance to meet. Arguably two of the greatest predators the Earth’s ever seen, they were separated by time and territory as megalodon didn’t appear for over 40 million years after T. rex’s extinction and, well, it was a giant fish (that said, […]

What’s the riskiest decision you ever made? If the results of a new study are to be believed, there’s a pretty good chance you just answered either “quit my job” or “accept a new one” – or perhaps you’re one of the few whose anxieties just revolve around the rise of 5G. Whatever your definition of […]

More than 40 percent of all known chameleon species live on the island of Madagascar. Among those species is a group called the Calumma gallus species complex, which contains the “Pinocchio” chameleons, featuring males with all sorts of funky nose appendages. These fancy extras have been the main way of telling different species apart for […]

In October 2018, a man named Ippolit Bodounov boarded a plane from Russia to Toronto, Canada. Although we do not know how he felt as he made his way through the terminal and eventually took his seat for the long intercontinental flight, we can easily imagine he was at least a little nervous. That’s because […]

Fresh from finding potential biosignatures on the Bright Angel formation in Cheyava Falls, announced in September, NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered a highly unusual and out of place rock on Mars. Every now and then, the rovers exploring the Red Planet send back an image of an unusual rock on our neighbor planet. These can […]

Have you ever heard of Jesus being called Jesus H. Christ? This is, in fact, not a little-known middle name like Howard, but a relic of the Greek alphabet and Christian symbolism. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. Dr Dan McClellan, Biblical […]

Have you ever noticed how life during the Ice Age just seemed to be much, much bigger? As Apple TV’s new series Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age demonstrates, everything from bears to sloths, birds, and armadillos was far bigger than anything we’ve seen since, but might I point you to one small fact that might’ve escaped […]

Parts of the tectonic boundary between Africa and Asia may be creeping away from each other, as fresh evidence shows that a rift near the border of the two continents is slowly pulling apart at the pace of a very, very slow snail.  The movement is occurring in the Gulf of Suez Rift, a deep […]

Owls, God bless them, are pretty weird and wonderful creatures, with some strange and impressive adaptations to their environments. Though it’s a fact you know well, it’s still astonishing that they can spin their head through 270 degrees, like a flying tribute to The Exorcist. Their concave facial disks, for example, as well as being […]

With dinosaur-like scowls and spiked spines, sailfin dragons look like relics from a primordial world or a mythical beast – but they are very much real and here to stay. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. Also known as sailfin lizards, they […]

The giant structures that sit where Earth’s core meets the mantle and slow seismic waves as they pass through could be key to the planet hosting life, at least in the abundance we see. If the newly presented idea is right, it would provide yet another way in which the world we take for granted […]

According to the original Artemis plan, we should have already put people on the Moon. Artemis III should have gone and come back by now. Instead, it is currently tentatively scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027. However, the mission is almost certain to be delayed again. The reason for the delay lies with SpaceX’s Starship […]

Female geladas, an African baboon, will pretend to be fertile and have sex with males to prevent attacks on their young. The deception is not just behavioral – the mothers experience estrogen surges that change their bodies to make the males think they are ready to bear new young. There is an energy price to […]

On the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, scientists have discovered a new species of wolf snake. This latest member of the gang is a shiny, dark black, and has been named in honor of Australian TV personality, zookeeper, and conservationist Steve Irwin. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign […]

The use of wild beasts in gladiatorial contests is well-documented in ancient Roman texts, yet until now it was thought that these animal adversaries were only deployed in the Colosseum in Rome. However, the discovery of a leopard bone at a Roman arena in Serbia rewrites this script, indicating that fierce felines were transported throughout […]

According to the standard model of cosmology, the universe should be the same everywhere and look the same in every direction. A little caveat on this last part is that it’s the same in every direction if the observer is not moving, but the Solar System is. This creates an effect, known as a dipole, […]

Of all the psychedelic drugs, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin (the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms“, with all the odd experiences they can induce in the user, one drug has a reputation amongst “psychonauts” who take them for causing particularly odd experiences. N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), sometimes referred to as the “spirit molecule,” has […]

One of the most famous symptoms of Alzheimer’s – and definitely one of the most devastating – is when patients start to forget their friends, family, and loved ones. Thanks to a new study from researchers at the University of Virginia, though, we may now know why that happens – and perhaps one day, we’ll […]