Deborah Bloomfield

A bunch of fishermen in the Dmanisi region of Georgia picked up an unexpected catch recently when they hauled in a stone tablet bearing an ancient inscription in a language that has never been seen before. Researchers aren’t entirely sure when the mysterious text was engraved or by whom, but suspect it probably dates back […]

It can be tricky to see sponges as animals, stationary and plant-like as they are, but they represent some of the longest-living animals on the planet. Arguably the most impressive can be found in Antarctica, where scientists estimate one specimen may be as old as 11,000 years. The sponge in question belongs to the species […]

On April 14, 1986, the Gopalganj district in Bangladesh was hit by a deadly hailstorm that would kill 92 people. According to the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather and Climate Extremes Archive, the hailstones that fell from the sky that day weighed as much as 1.02 kilograms (2.2 pounds), earning the giant balls of ice […]

There are a lot of areas of physics that appear counterintuitive, with some of the most famous examples including wave-particle duality and time dilation. But you may feel like you have a pretty intuitive understanding of fairly simple macro objects, for instance, a pole. So here’s a question; when you take a long metal pole […]

From 1990 to 2020 the world got hotter and most of it also got drier. “Most” here not including the oceans. Areas meeting the definition of drylands have expanded by an area equal to almost three times that of India. The trend has been described in a United Nations report as revealing; “A global, existential […]

Scientists from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) are ready to say that 2024 is going to be the hottest year our planet has experienced since records began. This is both surprising and concerning. Surprising because these records are usually awarded after the period has ended. Concerning because even without including data from December, […]

The expression “it’s like learning to ride a bike” is often used in situations where you never really forget the lesson. Once you know how to ride a bike, that’s it, you just know. But while you may know instinctively how to ride a bike, you probably don’t know the physics of it. For instance, […]

Ancient humans came together 35,000 years ago in the deepest, darkest part of a cave in what is now western Galilee, Israel, to hold ritualistic gatherings. This appears to be the earliest known example of such gatherings on the Asian continent. Discovered in 2008, Manot cave has a long history of associations with both humans […]

Ever noticed the appearance of mysterious and jelly-like green blobs or mats on your lawn or driveway after a rainy day? No, it’s not aliens, nor has someone done a very big sneeze near your house – it might just be Nostoc. What is Nostoc? Also known as troll’s butter or star jelly, Nostoc is […]

The Main Asteroid Belt is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The largest objects there have been known for hundreds of years, but new smaller rocks orbiting in this region are discovered all the time. A team has now pushed the discovery limit to smaller sizes, delivering the smallest asteroids known in the […]

Amid its colossal chunks of ice sheets, Antarctica harbors a land of fiery volcanism. Although the vast majority of these volcanoes are dormant, idle, or hidden beneath the ice, there is some speculation that they could be reawakened due to the melting of surrounding ice sheets. The last major melting event on Earth occurred between […]

Are praying mantises pretty smart? Do inchworms have the highest IQ? Or is it the humble bumblebee that beats out the beetles in the quest for the smartest insect? We take a closer look at which insects are truly in the running when it comes to smarts. Measuring intelligence in a non-human animal is a […]

Neolithic archers in southern Iberia were true masters of their craft, as evidenced by the discovery of Europe’s oldest known bowstring and fletched arrows. Found in a cave near Granada, Spain, the 7,000-year-old artifacts are fashioned from a range of unexpected materials that would have enhanced the power and precision of the ancient weapons. Originally […]

Eggs can come in a variety of sizes and flavors, just ask anybody who has tasted a penguin egg (once they get the horrendous taste out of their mouth, of course). The largest eggs still being laid today come from ostriches. The biggest of those eggs on record weighed in at an impressive 2.589 kilograms […]

Construction workers have stumbled across the ruins of a large pyramid along the side of a highway in Mexico. After being alerted to the discovery, archaeologists collected dozens of other artifacts from the site that will be closely studied in the lab over the next few months. The structure was unearthed in June 2024 during […]

They say opposites attract: Magnets’ north poles are drawn to south poles; Aziraphale is best buddies with Crowley; the sweetness of caramel is complemented by a pinch of salt. Nothing exemplifies this odd couple trope better than Ancient Greek mathematicians and particle accelerators. No, we’re not kidding. Come with us through two millennia, three continents, […]

Many of us enjoy an alcoholic drink from time to time – and it’s not only we humans who indulge. You probably know that excessive alcohol consumption can cause liver disease, but what about its effects on the brain? Some are fairly obvious – when people start falling over and slurring their words, you know […]

This week, incredible footage showing a “bear’s-eye-view” of Andean bears has revealed never-before-seen behaviors, new research suggests that ancient Americans and dogs may have become best buddies 2,000 years earlier than we previously thought, and glowing wood is now an option thanks to a ghostly bioluminescent fungus. Finally, we explore the unlikely coexistence of protected […]

In the 1920s, two mathematicians working on separate continents proposed the same set of mathematical equations for describing population growth and decline in biological systems.  Alfred Lotka, a Polish-American mathematician, chemist, and statistician, was the first to come up with the equations, though in a seemingly unrelated field. In 1910, he developed a model to […]

Though it might not seem like it on a cold day in winter, the Earth is actually technically inside the atmosphere of the Sun. But evidence outlined in a recent paper suggests it hasn’t always been, and may leave its protection again. The Sun, being the perfect storm of “really far” and “really hot”, makes […]