Deborah Bloomfield

Behold: one of the rarest gems on Earth. This is the Winston Red, a mind-blowingly coveted and deeply mysterious “Fancy red diamond” that’s recently been given the scientific treatment for the first time, offering new clues about its geological origins and story-filled history.  Natural red diamonds are among the rarest gemstones on Earth – and […]

The organization of life on Earth – from the tiniest flora to colossal fauna, from the oceans to the desert to the frozen tundra – may be governed by one simple rule. That’s the conclusion of a recent study investigating how species are dispersed across the floating rock we call home. In every corner of […]

Around 35,000 years ago, the remote islands of the Philippines were colonized by a group of expert sailors, hunters, and fishermen, who were culturally and economically connected to other populations thousands of miles away. Based on archaeological discoveries on the island of Mindoro, a team of researchers has reconstructed aspects of these ancient seafarers’ lives, […]

Neanderthals managed to survive in Eurasia until around 40,000 years ago, but research indicates their population began collapsing nearly 70,000 years before their eventual extinction. This dramatic decline caused a sharp drop in both genetic and physical diversity, leaving the last generations of Neanderthals with strikingly uniform traits. Understanding how prehistoric hominids became Neanderthalized is […]

You’ve just checked into your hotel room. Passport? Safe. Sunscreen? On. Suitcase… in the bathtub? Wait what? It might sound bizarre, but placing your luggage in the bathtub when you travel is actually a smart move. Why? Because no one loves hanging out in hotel rooms more than parasites and this trick helps keep them […]

As one of the Earth’s largest animals, it should come as no surprise that the gray whale is also equipped with one of the planet’s largest penises. In the case of gray whales, size also comes with skill. Cetacean penises are incredibly agile and impessively maneuverable, allowing male whales to adapt to female anatomy, changing […]

This week on Break It Down: A great big explosion in space is the most energetic since the Big Bang, AI reveals the Dead Sea Scrolls could share the same authors as the Bible, it looks like the Milky Way and Andromeda will not collide in 5 billion years after all, pregnant female mice with […]

It’s easy to lose sight of your place in the universe when you’re caught up in bills, breakups, and bumper-to-bumper traffic, but this NASA image offers a gentle reminder: cut the nonsense, you’re riding on a breathtaking, ocean-covered rock hurtling through the vastness of space. Titled The Day the Earth Smiled, the image shows Saturn’s […]

Bubbles are surprisingly important to a wide range of cetaceans. Different species use them for play, to help capture prey, and even in aggressive encounters. Now, researchers are looking at bubble rings made by humpback whales to learn more about why the species makes such a specific shape.  Humpback whales have a wide range of […]

With remnants of their DNA living on in us, the lives of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and humans (Homo sapiens) are intrinsically intertwined – but exactly how long were the lives of our extinct relatives? It’s not like birth and death certificates were a thing 40,000 years ago, so how can we figure it out? According […]

Why are dice cubes? Okay, nerds, yes, some are tetrahedra, or dodecahedra, or icosahedra, or whatever else your TTRPG calls for – but the point is, they’re all regular, symmetrical, perfectly balanced… in a word: boring. Why is that? The obvious answer is “to make them fair”. Ever since we figured out that dice obey […]

It is arguable that the discovery of fire is one of the most important developments in the history of our species, if not the most important one. Our mastery over this elemental force has shaped so much of our world, allowing us to prepare food, extend daylight hours, warm homes in the cold, and manufacture […]

If aliens really are out there, interacting with them is going to be difficult. It’s not that they’ll just speak a different language – it’s more that the very building blocks of communication themselves will probably be different. The sounds; the relationships between ideas; heck, the conceptual basis of words themselves – without a real-life […]

Want to watch a meteor shower, but your evenings usually involve conking out on the sofa by 9 pm? We come bearing great news – it’s the peak of the Arietids this weekend, the most active daytime meteor shower of the year. When can I watch the Arietids? We say daytime – most of the […]

The final resting place of HMS Endeavour – the first European ship to reach the east coast of Australia – has been confirmed by the Australian National Maritime Museum. In a new report, 26 years of historical and archaeological research has concluded that the shipwreck is located at a site called RI 2394, located on […]

At some point in our future, if sci-fi has any say in it, humanity will venture into space to mine asteroids for precious metals to bring back to Earth for our benefit/to help fight our robot overlords (delete as applicable). But according to a new study, we could make things a lot easier for ourselves […]

Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, summiting at an air-thinning 8,848 meters (29,029 feet). It’s a place few of us will ever stand upon, and even fewer still attempt to get down any other way than scrambling on your feet. French snowboarder and mountaineer Marco Siffredi had a different idea. In 2001, Siffredi […]

Dozens of the busiest cities in the US are sinking into the ground. A bunch of them are subsiding by a few millimeters every single year, with certain localized spots sinking to a degree of several centimeters. The culprit is water – or rather, the removal of it. Dense urban areas, packed full of humans, […]

Ever wondered what a nearly 200-year-old condom might look like? Probably not, but thanks to a rare specimen now on display at a museum in Amsterdam, you’re about to find out anyway. Curators from the Rijksmuseum were at an auction six months ago when they spotted an unusual lot – a condom dating all the […]

The animal world is full of an impressive array of sounds, from singing whales, to those capable of mimicking humans. One species in particular is named after the noise it makes – but have you ever stopped to consider how a rattlesnake’s rattle actually works? First of all, rattlesnakes are venomous reptiles with a segmented […]