Deborah Bloomfield

This week, on Break It Down: a planet with a very rare tail is being boiled apart, the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting a lion discovered in Britain, scientists are tattooing tardigrades (for science), what’s happening in your brain during a mind blank, the grim fashion of “bone collector” caterpillars, and five health […]

For the very first time, scientists have captured live footage of the painted swellshark (Cephaloscyllium pictum) — a super-elusive, blotchy catshark that until now had only been known from unlucky specimens hauled into Indonesian fish markets. The video (below) was filmed in November 2024 during a recent project supported by the National Geographic Society that […]

The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai’i is the world’s largest solar telescope and has already taken some of the highest-resolution images of the Sun. One of its instruments has just taken its first light, and it is going to be a game-changer when it comes to studying our star. The […]

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter is studying the Sun like never before. Just two months ago, it used Venus to leave the plane of the Solar System. It is now on a slanted orbit that will allow the spacecraft to photograph and study the poles of the Sun for the very first time. Before […]

If you had to guess, how many penises are on display in the Bayeux tapestry? I am sure you were not expecting that question on an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon, but here we both are. If this is something that piqued your interest or perhaps you’ve been wondering this yourself for a long time, then […]

Ahh, the world of glowing animals. From wombats and platypuses to puffins and bats, many animals of planet Earth can rustle up not only their typical colors but a few hidden tricks in their feathers and fur that only show up under certain conditions. Joining the ranks are long-eared owls (Asio otus), which have been […]

Eight legs really seem to do something to people. Even bring up the subject of spiders and you’ll have some people shuddering, but this writer has stumbled upon something that quite honestly makes spiders look cute and cuddly compared to what’s lurking within them. Real-life Alien is already on Earth, and its name is Mermithidae. […]

Boston Harbor is sprinkled with dozens of grass mounds, peeping out of the water like half-buried eggs. Don’t be fooled by these innocuous-looking islets, these are no ordinary islands: they are sunken drumlins.  Drumlins are smoothly rounded, oval hills that are formed when glaciers move over debris made of clay, sand, gravel, cobble, and boulders […]

One hundred and eighty-nine years ago, a spectacular 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk was erected in Place de la Concorde, Paris, after it had been gifted to France by the viceroy of Egypt. Since then, the Concord (or Luxor) Obelisk has been on display to residents and visitors alike, it has been studied and scrutinized, and probably […]

Humans were shaped by Earth, molded over millions of years by its gentle gravity, its specific atmospheric cocktail, its flowing water, and the distant warmth of its Sun. Every cell in our bodies, every spark in our minds, is tuned to this world. So, how will our fragile Earth-borne bodies react if we were to […]

Head down deep enough into the ocean and you might just find the lord of the underworld – except it turns out he’s a bit more… crustacean-y than you might’ve been expecting. Ok, scientists haven’t really found the spirit of Hades lurking in a creature at the bottom of the sea. However, the name of […]

The Solar System is very tidy. You have four rocky planets near the Sun, and four gas giant planets further away. An asteroid belt with a dwarf planet separates the two groups, and many other small worlds exist beyond the orbit of Neptune. There is one kind of planet that doesn’t exist here, however: super-Earths, […]

With increasingly more measles cases cropping up across the US and vaccination rates falling amid a wave of anti-vax sentiment at the highest level, many have been left wondering what the future holds for the reemergence of once-wiped-out diseases. According to new research out of Stanford University, which has predicted the number of cases of […]

Art is everywhere you look in nature, whether it’s in the form of spiraling humpback whale bubble nets or, as a group of researchers studying snail diversity in Southeast Asia recently discovered, a new species of tiny snail with a shell reminiscent of a Cubist painting. The snail in question was found in Khao Sam […]

Antarctica is an ice-capped continent with blistering cold temperatures, but it also harbors red-hot volcanic activity.  There are dozens of volcanoes in Antarctica, the majority of which are located in West Antarctica and Marie Byrd Land. One study in 2017 identified 138 volcanoes in this part of the continent alone. While most of these are […]

It’s hard to miss the eggs of apple snails. Popped out in a curious shade of Pepto-Bismol pink, they are packed full of a neurotoxin that’s thought to be unique to these animals, and warning enough that no predators other than red fire ants dare eat them. Impressive, but unfortunately, as adults, these snails can […]

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Ming lived one hell of a life. It managed to live through the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the entire run of Seinfeld. While wars raged and empires came and went, Ming just kept on going, steadily and completely unfazed. Ming, in case you are wondering, was an ocean quahog clam (Arctica islandica). At the […]

Human funerary practices have shown some real flair over the ages, from the remarkable mummification of Ancient Egyptians (ever wondered what happened to the eyeballs?) to the eco-friendly options like composting and aquamation available today. One of the most widespread ways to treat the dead is embalming, something that can make a corpse safe for […]

The ocean may be the most common environment on the planet, but we know surprisingly little about it, particularly at its deepest, darkest depths. Scientists are now seeking to rectify that, plunging thousands of meters below the surface to explore the otherworldly environment and the unusual organisms that inhabit it. Among them is Dr Adrian […]