Deborah Bloomfield

Pieces of Mercury may have been found on Earth, potentially allowing scientists to study the Solar System’s innermost planet. While we have sent two spacecraft to Mercury – Mariner 10 and MESSENGER – we have not sent any probe down to the planet’s surface, other than in a controlled impact. A mission to do so […]

Cooling buildings in the summer months is a necessary priority to keep people safe, especially as extreme temperatures and heatwaves are becoming more common. This has led many researchers to work on different approaches to passively cool buildings without the use of air conditioning. An intriguing new approach uses a bioplastic to dramatically reduce temperatures. […]

There’s an old “fact” that is regularly passed around the internet, which says that no non-human animal (and in particular the ape) has ever asked a question. This is less clear than the internet posts make out, but there is a reasonable case for the idea that only two animals that we know of have […]

A forensic scientist crouches down on a dirty factory floor. There’s a pool of blood, and they delicately dip a swab into it before placing it carefully into a labeled sample bag. This swab will soon make its way to a sterile laboratory, where it will be processed, and from it, a face will emerge. […]

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are among the most commonly diagnosed cancers around the globe, with an estimated 2-3 million cases each year. Sadly, this number has been creeping up over the past few years and is projected to continue growing within Sun-exposed aging populations. Innovative technologies are increasingly being used to treat cancers, and one […]

We typically think of evolution as progressing in one direction, with a species getting “better” and “better” as it goes. But evolution is far more complex than that, as has recently been illustrated by an unusual organism: Galápagos tomatoes. These wild-growing fruits are shedding millions of years of evolution in order to reproduce long-lost chemical […]

Starfish are beautiful organisms, but if you think about it a little deeper, they’re also really strange. As echinoderms, they’re relatives of sea cucumbers and urchins, meaning at one point they shared a similarly symmetrical body plan split down the middle (like us). Now, they have a unique and bizarre fivefold symmetry. So, when did […]

From the very beginning, JWST was shown to be a revolutionary instrument for the study of exoplanets, detecting intriguing gases and evidence of photochemistry in the atmospheres of distant worlds. Now, the telescope adds a new feather to its cap: it has directly observed a brand new planet, its very first. The candidate exoplanet is […]

From wearing salmon hats to sinking yachts and some impressive marine tool use, orcas can really do it all. Now it seems that they are also taking over the dance world, with some impressive moonwalking abilities.  While dancers around the world might be surprised to learn you can moonwalk without feet, videos have emerged of […]

New research from physicists at Peking University, China, suggests that some pulsars may have massive mountains on them, measuring up to 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) tall. At the end of a giant star’s life, the core collapses and the outer layers are blown away in a supernova explosion. After this, what is left behind is […]

Around 42,000 years ago, Homo sapiens in Europe ushered in a type of prehistoric Renaissance known as the Aurignacian, characterized by the appearance of artistic creations and aesthetically refined tools in the archaeological record. Among the most striking finds from this cultural movement is the probable world’s oldest boomerang, exquisitely carved from a mammoth tusk […]

Around 99 million years ago, some insects got trapped in tree sap that later fossilized to form what we call amber. Sounds miserable, right? But these insects had already met a far grimmer fate before that sap came along. It was the age of dinosaurs, but it wasn’t something big and scaly with sharp teeth […]

Quantum computers have the capability to revolutionize how we model and compute things in the world. They can do things that not even the most advanced supercomputers can do. We do not have such a quantum computer yet, because we cannot have the million qubits needed to make that processing happen. A new breakthrough has […]

Geologists have attributed age-dependent variations in the chemistry of Ethiopian volcanic rocks to rhythmic pulses like a “heartbeat” in the Afar mantle plume. The plume drives volcanic activity in the area and is leading to the breakup of the African continent. At various points around the Earth, unusually hot mantle material is rising, sometimes from […]

Moles – most of us have at least one, and let’s be honest, a lot of the time, we get so used to them that it’s easy to forget that they’re there. However, they’re worth paying attention to – but when should we do so, and how do we know when they’re a problem? What […]

Intrepid microbe hunters have discovered 20 new viruses lurking in the bat populations of the orchards of southwestern China. Along with new species of bacteria and protozoan parasites, the find has sparked concerns about the potential risks to humans, as two of the viruses are in the same genus as the deadly Hendra and Nipah […]

The Earth is predicted to increase its rotation speed in July and August, once again bucking the trend of a slower rotation over time. Though there are clear reasons for the increased rotational speed this summer, the cause of the recent increase in speed is a little puzzling to scientists. The Earth’s rotation has altered […]

Tens of millions of people in the US are still up to their necks in an intensifying heatwave. This week, a “heat dome” parked over central and eastern regions is driving possible triple-digit temperatures and oppressive humidity, set to turn half of the country into a sweltering, sauna-like oven. The Midwest and eastern US are […]

Many species are facing threats to their population sizes, from climate change and habitat loss to illegal poaching and the wildlife trade. While protections are put in place to help species, sometimes these fall short of the mark. A new study has looked at almost 10,000 bird species and come to the worrying conclusion that […]

In a world first, scientists have created mice with two fathers, capable of having offspring of their own. It’s a huge step forward for our understanding of mammalian reproduction, and could, in theory, have implications for us humans – though this is still a long way off becoming reality. Led by Yanchang Wei of Shanghai […]