Deborah Bloomfield

People over on Reddit are once again asking how we have photos of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, when we are inside of it.  “How did we [take] those fancy pictures of our own galaxy, Milky Way?” Redditor fourps asked on Friday, adding, “We cannot fly out of it to take a picture”. Fortunately, […]

In a world first, Chinese scientists have been able to find a satellite using an infrared laser during the daytime. The approach was able to find the Tiandu-1 satellite at a distance of about 130,000 kilometers (81,000 miles) from Earth, well beyond where most satellites are located. The satellite and its twin are, in fact, […]

A study of 724 ancient poems has revealed how far the Yangtze finless porpoise once roamed within the mighty river, allowing scientists to see how far its range has contracted and when that occurred. This may help identify how much threat the porpoise is under, and provide a stretch goal for restoring its ecosystem’s state. […]

Dolphins might be famous for their impressive jumps or even their whistles and clicks but did you know that they also call each other by name and even have accents? These sounds are known as name-like signature whistles and have been known to researchers for quite some time. Now, new research has looked into whether […]

The prospect of immortality may not be off the table for us humans, as life expectancies across the world continue to rise and defy all claims that they’ve already peaked. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new, not yet peer-reviewed study which suggests that our years may not be numbered by any natural limit. […]

If you’ve hankering to read the earliest-known English book on cheese, you’re in luck. The University of Leeds’ Cultural Collections have announced that they’ve transcribed the curious book’s contents, revealing some rules about cheese consumption that we didn’t see coming. Titled, “A pamflyt compiled of Cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodnes, of the […]

This week, one of the closest large gas clouds ever was detected near Earth, just 300 light-years away, and it takes up as much sky as a typical constellation. An exceptionally well-preserved Austrian mummy has been embalmed using previously unknown methods, and a snake collector has inspired an antivenom previously thought impossible by letting himself […]

Human trash is wreaking all sorts of havoc on the natural world, including, according to recent research, accelerating rock formation in some parts of the globe.  Thanks to a coin and a drinks can tab, researchers from the University of Glasgow’s School of Geographical and Earth Sciences discovered a new type of rock in West […]

Yosemite National Park has just put out a reminder that tourists to the site should steer well clear of what it calls one of the park’s “most dangerous animals”. That’s gotta be something teethy, or with big claws, right? Nope – it’s a mule deer. Yep – these literally doe-eyed, adorably large-eared cutie patooties are […]

Some good news from the Palmyra Atoll: following its successful release back into the wild in 2024, the sihek – also known as the Guam kingfisher – has laid its first eggs in the wild in almost 40 years. These endangered birds went extinct from the wild back in 1988, but a few birds under […]

Narwhals are up there with the most fascinating creatures on the planet. These curious cetaceans have been compared by some to unicorns of the sea for the famous (and somewhat mysterious) tusk that sticks out from the center of their heads like a giant horn. Thing is, sometimes narwhals sprout two of them. Double-tusked narwhals […]

As red-hot volcanic rocks rained down on the ancient city of Pompeii in 79 CE, the inhabitants of one house made the fatal decision to barricade themselves inside a bedroom. Two millennia later, the remains of these four sorry individuals have been discovered, along with a series of other items which help to tell the […]

In the ultimate case of “don’t try this at home” the efforts of a man who exposed himself to the venom of some of the world’s most dangerous snakes has led to a broad-spectrum antivenom. So far, the antivenom has only been tested in mice (most human subjects being more risk-averse than the original donor). […]

Have you ever heard of a baculum? No? What about the penis bone? It’s okay if all of this is sounding made up to you, because even the most celebrated houses of the natural world seem to have a strange habit of skipping over this particular part of mammalian anatomy. The penis bone is found […]

Human wounds heal around three times slower than those sustained by other primates, which may be a result of our specific evolutionary history that traded our fur for sweat glands. The research that determined this was initiated by Akiko Matsumoto-Oda, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Japan, who observed Kenyan baboons as […]

Anyone who has watched the dazzling displays produced by lightning in a thunderstorm can appreciate why it has inspired awe and fear across our history. Even in our modern world, lightning strikes represent one of the most destructive natural phenomena impacting human society. Knowing where and when lightning may strike is a significant challenge, and […]

A team of scientists have measured electrical activity in a spruce forest during a partial solar eclipse. They report that signals within and between trees appear to synchronize in the course of the eclipse, indicating communication and probably cooperation under these unusual circumstances. If true, this would force a complete re-evaluation of how we see […]

This week on Break It Down: a new kind of leather is borrowing its foundations from fossil T. rex collagen, we’ve just discovered an enormous glow-in-the-dark gas cloud surprisingly close to Earth, a musical sea lion has shown it can keep beat better than some humans, a new-to-science embalming technique has been discovered in Austria, […]

The political divide between the left and the right in the US has become particularly stark in recent years, and it seems this gap is even apparent in how the two major political parties use science in their policies. According to a new analysis of a massive database of policy documents, there are systematic differences […]

Researchers have discovered a brand-new species of electricity-conducting bacteria, and not only might it help them figure out more about how this unique branch of life evolved, but it could also set us on a new path in bioelectronics and environmental cleanup. The new species was discovered from an intertidal mudflat in Yaquina Bay, Oregon, […]