Deborah Bloomfield

For the first time since 1970, members of the endangered Southern Resident population of orcas have been spotted in Penn Cove, a region off the coast of Washington State that was the site of a notorious capture incident involving the whales.  Non-profit organization Ocean Conservancy, which is based in Washington, announced the news on social […]

The world’s first wooden satellite has been successfully launched into space and arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). Soon, it will be released into an orbit around 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the Earth. Space around our planet is getting quite full. We are a messy species, and low-Earth orbit is apparently no exception […]

When giant ice sheets that once covered the tropics melted, they produced what paleoclimatologists call a “plumeworld ocean”, for which we now have direct evidence. The plumeworld was relatively brief, as carbon dioxide levels skyrocketed and fell again after the ice was gone. To the general public, references to “the last Ice Age” mean the […]

Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? The US military’s top secret X-37B space plane has just pulled off a bunch of fancy flight maneuvers for the first time.  In a rare display of transparency about X-37B, Boeing Space, the makers of the space plane, have recently released a video explaining how […]

When we are vulnerable, words matter, and there are few circumstances where we are more vulnerable than when it comes to our health. The last thing you’d want to hear from your doctor is some clumsy fatalistic expression like “there’s no hope” – or worse, “they’re circling the drain”. Even a single word can cause […]

At this cave in North Africa some 15,000 years ago, a human was buried alongside an “unusual and special” medicinal plant: Ephedra, a humble shrub that’s still used today in some traditional medicines. It’s the earliest known evidence of humans using this plant, and it holds the potential to cast light on the mysteries of […]

A woman depicted in the section of the Sistine Chapel relating to Noah’s flood has one healthy breast and one showing signs of disease. A forensic pathologist has teamed up with doctors and art experts to diagnose the fictitious woman five centuries after one of history’s most revered works was painted. Although modern medicine arrived […]

There’s no denying that some species are impressive thanks to certain body parts (behave). From the long neck of a giraffe to the impressive (albeit creepy) finger of an aye-aye, to simply having a very tiny body in general, the animal world covers pretty much any kind of adaptation you can think of. This makes […]

Every now and then, one of the robots on Mars sends back a picture of an unusual rock it has found on its journeys. After all, that’s one of the reasons we sent them there. These can range from the interesting (such as the donut-shaped rock which may not be from the planet) to the […]

We’ve heard it all before: getting more sleep is good for us in all sorts of ways. It’s not always easy to hit the magic eight hours that everyone seems to be striving for – but what if we told you that just 46 extra minutes could be enough to make a difference? A new […]

A robot has delved into the radioactive ruins of Fukushima to retrieve a tiny chunk of spent nuclear fuel. It’s the first time solid fuel debris has been removed from the plant – but they’ve still got a hell of a long way to go: 880 tons of the stuff to be precise.  The remotely […]

A series of ancient drawings at a Palaeolithic site in Germany appear to show fish caught in nets, suggesting that the use of this fishing technology may go back further than previously thought. Etched into stone plaquettes, the engravings have been dated to 15,800 years ago and form part of a large body of artworks […]

The undeniable face of Andean bears is the one and only Paddington, but while everyone’s favorite fictional marmalade fiend thrives, the number of his real-life counterparts remaining in the wild is on the decline. A recent conservation project taking place in Ecuador hopes to turn the tide. Classified on the IUCN Red List as a […]

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In 1987, a terrible accident unfolded in Goiânia, Brazil, where a radioactive capsule had been abandoned. People later found what they believed to be scrap metal and sold it on, beginning a sequence of events that would lead to the screening of over 112,000 residents for radioactive contamination, and the deaths of four people. The […]

Gender stereotypes can be conveyed in ways that go beyond visual and linguistic expressions, new research has shown. It seems that sound and music play a role too, as the music and soundscapes used in toy commercials can influence how children perceive masculinity and femininity. The advertising industry is extremely powerful when it comes to […]

Vampire bats might have developed a creepy reputation with all the eating blood and flapping about at night, but their ability to survive off an entirely blood-based diet is part of what makes them so remarkable. Now, new research has taken a look at just how this diet can power vampire bats, and set them […]

Who said watching movies all day can’t be educational? Scientists have just unveiled the most detailed functional map of the brain we’ve seen yet, and they got there using scans of people’s brain activity taken while they watched clips from Hollywood blockbusters and independent films. “Our work is the first attempt to get a layout […]

Have you ever noticed that new car tires are covered in rubbery, stubbly hairs? Don’t believe the rumors: they’re not for noise reduction or indicating tire wear, they are simply a by-product of the manufacturing process.  The small rubber prongs are technically known as vent spews, although they’re also called sprue nubs, tire nibs, gate […]

We tend to think of prehistoric life as hard. Brutal, even. Devoid of pleasure, outside of the odd mammoth steak or math class. But that dour picture tends to be missing something big – or rather, something small: kids. And, a recent study seems to suggest, they were having quite a bit of fun. The […]