Deborah Bloomfield

Animal rescue stories are some of the most popular on the internet, from adorable baby beavers to kittens with four ears. However, while the rescuers might have good intentions, “helping” can sometimes do more harm than good. Recent research into the UK hedgehog population has revealed the right times to step in to help our prickly […]

Our ancient ancestors were not picky about who they got into bed with, and the echoes of this prehistoric promiscuity can still be detected in human genomes from around the world today. Listed among our early romantic conquests are the Denisovans, and researchers now believe we mated with at least three distinct populations of this […]

A military spacecraft launched 55 years ago was moved from its orbit – and nobody is quite sure who did it, or why.  In 1969 the UK launched Skynet-1A, a military communications satellite placed in orbit above the east coast of Africa in order to relay information to British armed forces. It stopped working due […]

Viewed from space, the western edge of the Sahara Desert looks like another world. Its abundance of red-tinged sand turns into a sea of dunes that ebb and flow with the wind, unabated by foliage and other earthly obstacles. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station recently took this photograph while orbiting over southeastern Morocco, […]

Just when we thought we were starting to understand the mysterious object 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, it has confounded us again. Four eruptions from its ice volcanoes in quick succession led to a 289-fold brightening. This is the largest set of eruptions since 2021 – and unlike a recent, smaller outburst, we did not see it coming. Comet […]

To visit the southernmost national park in the United States, you’ll need go a lot further than Hawai’i – around 4,184 kilometers (2,600 miles) further southwest, in fact. That’s where you’ll find the National Park of American Samoa, the only US national park south of the equator. Where is the southernmost US national park? The […]

There’s a common trope in movies and TV where, to show a character is off-the-charts smart, the writers will have them solve a Rubik’s cube. The idea, obviously, is that said Platonic solid is so complex, so utterly bamboozling, that only those with a genius-level intellect would be able to wrangle it successfully. Well, it […]

See that strange rock up there? It’s a nifty trick of geology that’s captured three phases of matter, with a solid exterior, liquid middle, and even a gas bubble to boot, all contained within rock crystal quartz. Liquid-filled rocks form when minerals trap fluids, but depending on their composition they can either be classed as […]

A team of astronomers using data from the eROSITA All-Sky Survey has modeled the hot gas in our local stellar neighborhood, finding a curious “interstellar tunnel” towards the constellation of Centaurus. The “tunnel” potentially connects our own local bubble to a neighboring superbubble. Our Solar System resides in a 1,000-light-year-wide “Local Bubble“, sometimes called the […]

A cleaning station for turtles in the waters off the US Virgin Islands recently turned up three fish species that weren’t known to clean turtles. The interaction is a kind of symbiotic relationship as both the hungry fish and the grubby turtles benefit from the collaboration, but there’s growing concern it could also be a […]

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 aircraft has achieved its fastest speeds yet, blasting towards its goal of surpassing the speed of sound. During its seventh test flight on November 5, the experimental aircraft reached a new top speed of Mach 0.82, or 1,012 kilometers (629 miles) per hour. Advertisement Since its first flight in March 2024, XB-1 […]

Marineland, a zoo and amusement park in Niagara Falls, Canada, has found itself back in the spotlight after the death of five of its beluga whales in the last year. The park is the last place in Canada where whales are still kept captive, and has seen 17 of its resident belugas die since 2019.  […]

Koalas’ noses are so distinctive they can be used to tell the animals apart in the wild, even at considerable distances. The discovery could cut costs for teams trying to save the beloved creatures, and also save humans and koalas alike from stress. Despite being a major part of Australia’s tourism industry, and possibly the […]

This week, the frogs of Chernobyl no longer need to adapt to survive high radiation levels, a physicist thinks he’s found the equation for how cats move, and a new study concludes it is safe to get your COVID-19 and flu shots together. Finally, we explore the story of a DNA scientist who picked up […]

Earth is no stranger to mass extinction events – it’s had five so far, and some scientists have even claimed we’re in the midst of a sixth. The biggest one of all, however, was so hugely devastating to life on Earth that it’s been nicknamed the “Great Dying”. The Permian-Triassic extinction event If you thought […]

Whether you’re a marathon runner or have just thrown yourself into a new kind of exercise, there’s one common injury that everyone wants to avoid: shin splints. They might not be serious, but they are painful – so what causes them, and what can be done to treat or even avoid them entirely? What are […]

It’s one of the lessons that any driving instructor worth their salt will tell you early on – be mindful of the fact that objects in your side-view mirror are actually closer than they appear to be. And, if their student just so happens to be curious, the next question out of their mouths might […]

Over 3.6 million years ago, three distant human relatives went for a stroll, blissfully unaware they were making history. By sheer chance, their footsteps became imprinted in volcanic ash and lasted for millions of years, providing modern scientists with the oldest unequivocal evidence of human ancestors walking on two feet. They’re known as the Laetoli […]

What came first, the chicken or the egg? If we’re talking about eggs in general, then the latter, but a new study of an ancient single-celled organism suggests the genetic tools to “create” eggs may have been about before animals were even a thing. The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Geneva, […]

It’s been the staple of various film or TV show plots, though some might remember it more specifically as being the devious plan of Dr Evil in the first Austin Powers movie: the world is held to ransom as a megalomaniac villain threatens to trigger volcanic eruptions by detonating a nuclear weapon either on top […]