Deborah Bloomfield

The ongoing outbreak of bird flu has led to the deaths of millions of egg-laying chickens in the US. The deaths that have occurred over the last three months have had significant impact on the prices of eggs, helping to raise them to their highest point in years. Advertisement Bird flu cases often surge during […]

As wildfires continue to rage across Southern California, forecasters have warned of a powerful force worsening the situation: Santa Ana winds, aka devil winds. Advertisement Santa Ana winds are extremely warm, strong, and dry winds that occur when air from a region of high pressure over the arid desert areas of the southwestern US flows […]

Greenland has once again made headlines after US President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on his interest in purchasing or gaining control over the semi-autonomous Arctic territory of Denmark. His remarks have sparked widespread curiosity, criticism, and concern. So, what exactly is driving Trump’s fascination with Greenland? The short answer: natural resources and geopolitical maneuvering. Advertisement […]

A new application of laser technology known as two-way dual-comb ranging (TWDCR) has demonstrated with unprecedented precision in measuring the distance between instruments more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) apart. Improvements in long-distance ranging could help satellites fly better in formation and enhance the accuracy of scientific instruments for gravitational wave detection and very-long-baseline astronomical […]

Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. As supermassive black holes go, it is fairly quiet. It’s not creating any galaxy-wide tantrums that should worry us. It does flare up though, and studying these flares across wavelengths has been very important to create models about the extreme environments […]

A new study investigating artificial intelligence (AI) and “cognitive offloading” by humans has found a negative correlation between frequent AI use and critical thinking abilities. Advertisement Large language models have become more freely available these days, whether it’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s AI summaries, providing (often not entirely accurate) answers at potentially huge costs to […]

Anxiety can act as a great motivator to avoid potentially uncomfortable interactions, and it seems that even rats may fall victim to it. A new study involving rats being let loose in a maze populated by food-guarding robots has revealed how their brains behaved when anticipating future threats, changing their behavior so that they could […]

A new preprint study looking at data from NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Lander has claimed to find evidence that Mars has a solid inner core, just like the Earth. Advertisement By looking at the seismic vibrations from beneath the surface, scientists can put together a picture of the […]

Thawing ice has unveiled remains of a long-lost forest in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, indicating the profound changes that have influenced the area – and perhaps what might lie ahead.  Scientists at Montana State University (MSU) studied the remains of a mature whitebark pine forest that formed nearly 6,000 years ago on the Beartooth Plateau […]

La Niña reared its head in the tropical Pacific in December 2024 and it’s likely to linger for a few more months. What does that mean? In short, colossal climatic forces are set to drive lower average temperatures, as well as noticeable changes to rainfall. Advertisement The NOAA Climate Prediction Center recently announced the emergence […]

COVID-19 appears to be associated with a substantial rise in the number of ME/CFS cases, according to a new study. Using data from a long COVID research initiative run by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the scientists calculated that the incidence of ME/CFS is now 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels, and found […]

An enormous body of water has been found in volcanic rocks below the peak of the Oregon Cascade Range. The volume is so large, the push to use it to address regional water shortages is likely to come quickly, but the solution is not that easy. Meanwhile the proximity to slumbering volcanoes could have implications […]

Supermassive black holes are not picky eaters. They placidly sit at the center of galaxies, but if material gets too close, they’ll voraciously gorge on it. Stars have been disrupted and eaten too when they got too close. Now, researchers report that they have caught a supermassive black hole in the act of eating a […]

After centuries of rumor and speculation, archaeologists have finally confirmed the existence of a colossal underground tunnel system beneath the Peruvian city of Cusco. Built by the ancient Inca, the labyrinth – or Chincana – radiates outwards from the Temple of the Sun, extending for more than a mile towards a fortress on the edge […]

Nearly 162 years ago, a visionary predicted the evolution of machines and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) with unnerving accuracy. He boldly foresaw a future where humanity’s mechanical creations might even gain consciousness and supplant us as the dominant species on Earth. Advertisement His name was Samuel Butler, a British-born writer (not to mention […]

The human Stone Age was, undeniably, the first step on a journey towards the species total technological dominance – but it didn’t have to be. After all, pick a rock that’s too soft, or too wonky, and our ancestors may never have made it past “ape with aspirations”. So how did they manage to get […]

Neutron stars are among the densest objects in the universe. Their crust is far stronger than any material on Earth and a spoonful of this matter is heavier than a mountain. Talking about mountains, if they exist on neutron stars, some have hypothesized that they might be just a few millimeters tall. New work suggests […]

New data from England and Wales has identified an increase in women seeking abortions after using “natural” birth control methods – things like menstrual cycle tracking, and systems that use body temperature fluctuations to predict fertility. These methods are known to be less effective than other options like hormonal contraceptives and condoms, so there was […]

At the center of almost every galaxy, there is a supermassive black hole. Well, astronomers think it’s every galaxy, but it is a difficult claim to confirm. Not because there might be many exceptions – the difficulty lies in the fact that many black holes are so well hidden that we wouldn’t know they are […]

Australia might be home to a large proportion of the world’s deadliest animals but it’s about to have three more. The iconic Sydney funnel-web spider, with one of the world’s deadliest bites, has been discovered to be three species instead of one, each with a separate geography to match. Considered the spider with the most […]