Deborah Bloomfield

In a delightful piece of information that has so far escaped our attention; a small team of mollusks are used to monitor the water in Warsaw, Poland. Monitoring the water for pollutants is of course important work. Modern-day equipment is used to do so. But for one part of the job, in part to protect […]

A recent study into strength and balance ability in relation to aging has concluded that, due to the gradual deterioration of muscle, a few simple tests that you can perform at home could accurately predict the age of your body. With roughly 14 million older US adults reporting a fall at some point the previous […]

In 1978, geophysicist Glen Penfield noticed a series of unusual features while poring over a magnetic survey map of the Gulf of Mexico, while working for Mexican oil company Pemex. To him, a particular semi-circle arc he saw on the map was suggestive of an impact crater. He was not aware of it, but another […]

Scientists are really out there making electromagnetic vortex cannons and sound waves that only travel in one direction while the general public is still struggling to realize that staplers have a second setting. To be completely fair, it is easy to miss if you haven’t had an entry-level job in an area that requires a […]

Sometimes conspiracy theorists believe they have a “gotcha” that blows apart a whole concept – apart from the fact that the most basic of searches will prove them wrong. We recently covered the unveiling of the new spacesuit that will be donned by the astronauts who will go back to the Moon in a few […]

A multidisciplinary team has proposed a process by which the wheel might have been invented that does not rely on a single moment of insight from some ancient genius. Instead, they suggest that the invention could have come in a series of steps (or perhaps we should say were made along a gradual slope). The […]

A naval hero was struck down in the Napoleonic War when Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson wound up on the receiving end of a musket ball. The ship was damaged and with no quick way of making it to England, the crew had to get creative with a way of storing his body so it would survive […]

Keeping up with your COVID-19 vaccines is a good idea for lots of reasons – not least the fact that the virus keeps throwing new variants our way. A new study may have added one more to that list by finding that receiving multiple mRNA shots could boost antibody levels in the nose, often the […]

A beloved bear, known as the world’s most famous grizzly, has died after being struck by a vehicle at Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming, part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Grizzly 399 died on Tuesday night, October 22, on a highway in Snake River Canyon south of Jackson, according to the National Park […]

A newly discovered species of mammal has provided a snapshot of terrestrial North America that goes back 70–75 million years ago, a time slice that’s typically not well known. Thankfully, Colorado preserves it well, and this is where a team of scientists retrieved fossil evidence of a Late Cretaceous “swamp dweller”. The fossil remains included […]

A small, implantable device that detects a drop in respiration that can signal an opioid overdose and automatically administers the lifesaving drug naloxone – aka Narcan – has been tested successfully in animals. It even has the ability to alert the emergency services, and the researchers say the same kind of technology could be applied […]

Climate scientists have signed an open letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers, warning of catastrophic consequences that could impact “the entire world for centuries to come” if the slowing of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is not addressed. The world’s oceans are constantly circulated by currents, with those from the surface down to […]

New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts might be home to five impressive whale skeletons, but the blue whale in particular might leave its mark on you. Literally – its skeleton is dripping oil, and it hasn’t stopped doing that for over a quarter of a century. The blue whale in question is KOBO, standing for […]

A filmmaker claims that scientists hunting the skies for signs of intelligent alien civilizations have found an alien technosignature, to be revealed to the public very shortly. So, is this the real deal? Have we found aliens? Is it time to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?  In 2019, Australia’s […]

Just when you thought eels couldn’t get any weirder, we’ve got shocking news. It turns out electric eels’ ability to generate enough electricity to “light” a Christmas tree isn’t the only thing that makes electric eels slippery freaks – once you take a look at their anatomy, they make even less sense. There are three […]

People in the United Kingdom are being urged to place bowls of salt in their windows this winter, in an attempt to prevent damp conditions and mold. But is that really good advice? When water vapor in your home or vehicle hits a cold surface, such as your windows, it changes back into a liquid […]

Releasing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases is easy, but it takes work to capture them again. Removing carbon from the air is a way to reduce the effects of the climate crisis, but a lot of the technology is still at the design stage or is not efficient enough to balance out the emissions. A […]

There are always more species to be discovered. Whether it is a bizarre-looking worm lizard or something that has been hidden in a drawer for decades, the implications for naming something new can include helping with conservation as well as other benefits. Now the king cobra has received the same treatment, with researchers putting in […]

A new USGS survey, made possible through machine learning and environmental testing, has led to the discovery of an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium reserves under southwestern Arkansas. It’s an amount that, if recoverable, would triple the US’s stockpile and make it a global leader in access to the mineral – not […]

You can stamp all you like but the ground beneath your feet still ain’t solid, not really. We all live our lives atop a complex network of puzzle pieces that, thanks to Earth’s hot gooey center, are constantly shifting, generating earthquakes, building mountains, and tearing continents apart – which, by the way, is currently happening […]