Deborah Bloomfield

Five years before Wuhan obtained notoriety as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, a four-year-old child in central China contracted polio from an unknown source. Somewhat unexpectedly, researchers in Paris have now linked this infection to a poliovirus (PV) strain that has been used for research purposes since the 1950s, and may therefore have escaped […]

After an absent-minded guest left a bag of Cheetos deep within Carlsbad Caverns, the National Park Service (NPS) responded with a stern warning. Unsightly trash and plastic pollution aren’t the only issues, they cautioned; the garbage could have had a significant impact on the wider ecosystem of the ancient cave system. Advertisement The bag of […]

As part of ongoing efforts to tackle a population of invasive hippos first introduced into the country by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, a Colombian court has issued an order specifying that the animals can and should be hunted. Advertisement As reported by ABC News, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca told Colombia’s Ministry of Environment that […]

The last known Tasmanian tiger died 88 years ago – but now, fossil evidence of three new species of the extinct marsupial has been discovered in Australia. Among the new species are the cursed carnivore’s earliest-known ancestor and the oldest thylacine known to date, which was the proud owner of a terrifying, bone-crushing jaw. Advertisement […]

A man browsing Google Maps whilst planning a camping trip in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region has potentially discovered the site of an ancient asteroid impact. Advertisement People have discovered all sorts of oddities while browsing through Google Maps, from “aliens” and camera-hogging cats to the answer to decades old cold cases. In the latest find, Joël […]

A person in Missouri has tested positive for bird flu, reports the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The patient, who had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized on August 22 with the condition. This is the 14th bird flu in humans identified in the United States in 2024. Importantly, it’s the first case […]

A bottle of water is just a bottle of water, right? Wrong, according to some. Celebrities and wellness TikTokkers alike can be found recommending alkaline water to tackle all manner of problems, from “detoxing” your body to slowing down aging. When there’s money to be made from promoting a bottle of the stuff, it’s worth […]

Infectious viruses that can spread to humans are rampant throughout Chinese fur farms, a new study suggests. Researchers found over 100 viruses in mink, guinea pigs, and muskrat carcasses. The team warned that fur farms are a hub for infectious diseases.  Advertisement Since the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to live animals sold at markets in […]

Remember a few months back when more of us than usual were treated to a spectacular display of aurorae? If you’re one of the people who missed out, you could soon be in with another chance of seeing the show, thanks to a phenomenon known as the Russell-McPherron effect. Advertisement While aurora season is generally […]

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is evaporating like a giant puddle due to drought and water diversion. This evaporation is exposing the lake bed and, according to a new study, releasing dangerous dust that contains heavy metal elements such as arsenic and lead. Utah’s largest city and state capitol, Salt Lake City, is close to the […]

Sometimes, you have to fake it ‘til you make it. That’s the guiding principle behind Batesian Mimicry. In this evolutionary process, a harmless species evolves to resemble a more dangerous species, warding away potential predators.  For many predator-prey pairs, evolution is a multi-generational battle. The prey evolves a hard shell; the predator evolves shell-shredding fangs. […]

A rare physical state, previously only seen in electrons, has now been recreated in atoms frozen down to near absolute zero. In this “edge state”, the atoms travel along the borders of a given material, ignoring any obstacles placed in their way. Physicists hope that a better understanding of how edge states occur could lead […]

Back in 2016, a team of geologists deep down in a Canadian mine made quite the discovery – flowing water that, when tested, was found to be over 2.6 billion years old. It became the world’s oldest water, but it took over from a find made by the same team in the same mine three […]

For scientists, 1996 was far from a quiet year: two Stanford University PhD students started a project that would go on to become Google, biologists sequenced a eukaryotic genome for the first time, and astrophysicists showed the existence of something supermassive at the center of the Milky Way. But one event in particular stands out […]

This week, the asteroid Apophis could be slightly more dangerous than first thought, people in Iceland are tossing baby puffins off cliffs, an asteroid impact in the Philippines makes history (and some great videos), a python in Bangladesh took two hours to ingest another python, and a pig in Hong Kong underwent surgery from a […]

Electric eels might be the stuff of nightmares for some, but are they really electric – and do they have the power to give you a painful zap? We break down just watt makes these eels so shocking.  Advertisement What is an electric eel? Electric eels are one of three species in the genus Electrophorus. […]

The MINI plonked on top of a BMW manufacturing plant in Oxford, England is no longer the only unusual sight meeting passersby; it’s now been joined on the roof by the UK’s first “motionless” wind energy system. Designed by the company Aeromine Technologies, the unit doesn’t exactly look like your traditional wind turbine – no […]

It’s a well-established (and slightly uncomfortable) fact that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred with one another. Recent research looked into when this inter-species kanoodling occurred and now another new piece of research has investigated where exactly it happened. Advertisement Scientists took a close look at the geographical distribution of both species in Southwest Asia and Southeast […]

Over half of the world’s population speaks more than one language. However, as little as 1 percent of the planet’s people can be considered a polyglot, defined as someone who can speak five or more languages. Moreover, there are some individuals known as hyperpolyglots, linguistic maestros that master an abundance of language (although there’s no […]

Mars is a frigid desert today but it used to be a very wet world. The jury is still out on whether it was cold and wet or warm and wet, but water was abundant. Where did all that water go? Some went underground and some escaped into space, together with most of the planet’s […]