Deborah Bloomfield

For the first time, scientists have observed the changes that occur in an expectant mother’s brain during pregnancy, revealing significant restructuring of numerous cortical areas. According to the researchers, these long-lasting alterations may serve to fine-tune the maternal brain in order to promote parental behaviors and prepare women for motherhood. Advertisement During pregnancy, the production […]

You might think that the line between life and death is clear-cut, but a growing body of research hinting at a “third state” that toes the line between the two suggests this may not be the case.  Advertisement The so-called third state – where the cells of a dead organism continue to function after the […]

A new species of fish has been described from the Red Sea, much to its misery. At less than 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long, it’s managed to pack enough fury into its tiny face to earn the common name grumpy dwarfgoby, and I’m in love. Scientists first spotted the new-to-science species while diving in the Farasan […]

Nearly three-quarters of the global population will experience significant and rapid changes in temperatures and rainfall in the next 20 years, according to a new analysis – a stark warning for many people living across the world. The only way to avoid this is to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions. Advertisement The subject of climate […]

Lettuce has a reputation for being just crunchy water, but it’s actually an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Scientists have recently found a way to add to the leafy vegetable’s nutritional profile by allowing it to brim with beta-carotene, a powerful pigment that’s converted into vitamin A in the human body. Advertisement Ultimately, the […]

New research challenges what we know of our planet’s ancient past, suggesting that a ring formed around the Earth around 466 million years ago. Not only could this hypothesis explain an unusually high period of impacts captured in the geological record, but it may have also influenced the planet’s climate. Advertisement The Earth has a […]

A galaxy seen by the JWST has confirmed the suspicion that some supermassive black holes can kill their home galaxy. The galaxy in question is around the mass of the Milky Way, but is set on a very different path. You might expect such an inside job murder to occur by the black hole consuming […]

A team of physicists have created a one-dimensional gas out of light, studying the strange properties of this strange state of matter. Advertisement When you cool certain particles to near absolute zero, some pretty interesting things can start to happen. In particular, something called “Bose Einstein Condensate” (BEC) can form, a state of matter first […]

At least 123 current members of Congress – 23 percent of 535 total members – deny or doubt the existence of human-caused climate change, according to a new report. If you want to understand this trend, it might be worth chasing the money: politicians who go against the scientific consensus on climate change have gained […]

New Zealand’s world-famous Bird Of The Year competition has announced its winner for 2024 – and yes, this time it is a bird. The hoiho yellow-eyed penguin has won Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau Bird of the Year, in what they describe as “a peng-win for the penguin.” The hoiho yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) […]

Vortex rings are pretty cool, and electromagnetism even cooler. Now, a team of physicists have found a way to combine the two phenomena, creating the electromagnetic vortex cannon. Advertisement In fluids (which includes gases) vortex rings can be created thanks to frictional forces as a jet moves through the fluid at higher velocities than the […]

A new COVID-19 variant has recently arrived on the scene, and while it hasn’t yet risen to dominance, experts suggest that XEC could be the next big variant to watch. Advertisement 2024 has seen something of a “summer of COVID”. The virus made its presence known at several of this year’s major sporting events, including […]

New research challenges what we know of our planet’s ancient past, suggesting that a ring formed around the Earth around 466 million years ago. Not only could this hypothesis explain an unusually high period of impacts captured in the geological record, but it may have also influenced the planet’s climate. Advertisement The Earth has a […]

She might only be two months old, but viral pygmy hippo sensation Moo Deng from the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand has already established herself as the “It Girl” of the zoo animal world.  Advertisement Moo Deng was born on July 10 to parents Jona and Tony and introduced to her ever-growing legions […]

Sediments deposited during the time when Mars had a large ocean cover structures whose high densities have been detected in the process of gravity-mapping the planet. Their nature and cause remain a mystery, however. The same mapping process suggests that the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, may be getting larger still, as […]

Poison-laced weaponry may have entered the arsenal of European hunter-gatherers more than five millennia ago, say the authors of a new study. If confirmed, this finding would totally upend our understanding of Stone Age hunting, suggesting that complex armaments came into play far earlier than we thought. Advertisement At present, the earliest definitive evidence for […]

An expedition exploring the marine biodiversity off the coast of Southern California recently spotted a remarkable sea slug known as the Spanish shawl. It’s just one of a host of curious sea creatures observed so far in Oceana and Blancpain’s second ocean expedition in the region. The goal? To bolster the region’s reputation as the […]

Researchers have determined that the Great Dying, the mass extinction event that occurred 252 million years ago was likely accentuated by catastrophic “mega El Niños” that devastated ecosystems. These extreme weather events caused significant swings in the climate that killed off vast amounts of life. Advertisement The Great Dying, also known as the Permian-Triassic extinction […]

Defense systems found in all complex life (eukaryotes), including us, were likely passed down from “microbial ancestors” known as Asgard archaea billions of years ago. According to recent research, these single-celled organisms are the source of two key elements of our innate immune system: viperins and argonautes. Advertisement Asgard archaea – also called Asgardarchaeota – […]

A team at ETH Zurich is pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with neurostimulation and neuronal recording technology thanks to the super-flexible electrode bundles they have developed. Rather than traditional electrodes, which can cause some damage to brain tissue when they are inserted, the fibers can seamlessly integrate into the web of dendritic […]