Deborah Bloomfield

The year is 1962. The place: Scarasson, a glacial cave in the French Alps. Climbing out of the abyss for the first time in more than two months is a lone man, eyes covered in dark goggles to protect them from the light of the Sun. He has no idea what the date is; he […]

People on the Internet do like to ask a ridiculous question. One such question, posed several times throughout recent Internet history, has become a meme classic; “Why does ha make hot but hoo make cold? I’m talking about mouth wind”. In less Internet-speak terms, the question is really asking why you are able to produce […]

Less than a decade ago, researchers found a peculiar phase of matter where the electrons of a particular compound would behave in two very distinct phases. Some had spins that were very well organized, while others were a complete mess. They called this the “half fire, half ice” state. Now, researchers have found that under […]

China has struck black-gold after discovering 100 million tons of oil beneath the seabed. A major oilfield, called Huizhou 19-6, was recently found in the deep and ultra-deep layers under the South China Sea, according to an announcement on Monday by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Test wells have already sucked up […]

Everyone knows about rain, snow, sleet, and hail, but don’t forget about their lesser-known cousin: freezing rain. This rare and fascinating type of precipitation occurs when liquid rain hits a cold surface and rapidly freezes, creating a slick (and often very pretty) layer of ice. Here’s everything you need to know about this stunning yet […]

Uranus has not had a whole lot of love from NASA and has been explored by a probe only once. Voyager 2 sent back spectacular pictures of the ice giant, resembling a perfect blue ball in space. But the Hubble Space Telescope has been keeping a close eye on the planet, imaging Uranus regularly as […]

A new species of plant has been discovered in eastern Peninsular Malaysia and researchers believe it is already critically endangered. The new plant has been named Thismia aliasii and is part of the Thismia genus, which contains plants that do not photosynthesize. Instead, these unusual-looking plants rely on fungi for their nutrients and are known […]

The most common lithium-ion batteries suffer a previously unknown form of degradation when they run very low on charge, making it a good idea to give them a little extra juice before they run out entirely. People under 40 might not believe it, but there was a time before lithium-ion batteries dominated the market. Back […]

A new study may have helped explain part of the enduring mystery of how animals evolved our buttholes.  We take our own anuses for granted. While they may not be able to fire out our guts as a defense like some animals we could mention, or disappear and reappear when needed like the sea walnut, […]

You wake suddenly in the night and find yourself facing a shadowy figure. It looms over you, the eery silhouette topped with what looks like a fedora. You feel as though your arms have been tethered to your body and you can’t move. Your eyes scan the room, it’s 3 am (there’s a reason why […]

Since January 20, Trump, Musk, and the other members of the administration have been constantly attacking scientific knowledge, scientific methods, and scientific institutions. A group of over 1,900 researchers is now appealing directly to the American public to stop these relentless attacks – because everyone is in danger. ADVERTISEMENT The signatories are members of the […]

If you’ve ever transported helium balloons in your car, perhaps courtesy of a small child who won’t let you store them in the trunk, you may have seen something odd. ADVERTISEMENT When you accelerate in a car, the seat you are sat in pushes you forwards, with the result that you feel like you are […]

When futurists of the past envisioned 21st-century healthcare, it often came with some loss of humanity. The Six-Million-Dollar Man, for example; Robocop; Victor Stone – all their recoveries came thanks to cybernetic implants and technological upgrades, rather than a healing of their original body. ADVERTISEMENT Turns out, we can do better. At least, in two […]

We like to think of ourselves as living in a rational, enlightened time – but when it comes to death, all bets are off. Superstitions run rampant, even if we don’t think of them as such: we “don’t speak ill of the dead”; we imagine our loved ones lingering presence in our lives even years […]

Scuba divers have supplied scientists with 13 film clips and three detailed descriptions of coral reef fish using rocks as anvils to break open hard-shelled sea creatures. The authors of a study analyzing these clips have already learned a lot about fish intelligence in the process, but plenty of questions remain unanswered, and they’d welcome […]

When a comet starts to approach the Sun or a planet is newly discovered orbiting another star, one of astronomers’ most important questions is how eccentric the orbit is. Since most non-scientists don’t know what this means, there’s always a question of whether to explain what is meant in articles about the discovery, or to […]

There are, Mark Twain was famously fond of declaring, three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. It’s a succinct summation of something we’re all kind of aware of in our bones, even if we don’t know the precise explanation for it: that statistics can’t entirely be trusted – they’re simply too easy to […]

Off the coast of Brazil, just over 96 kilometers (90 miles) from São Paulo, sits an island that could be considered heaven to some, but hell to most. Teeming with some of the deadliest snakes in the world, Ilha da Queimada Grande, or Snake Island, is strictly off-limits for visitors – and with good reason. […]

Quantum computers have the potential to do things that not even the most powerful supercomputer can do, but the road to get there is far from easy. Still, the first applications of quantum computing are being investigated, and the first practical one might have just been performed. Researchers have recently generated random numbers in a […]

Sediments at the bottom of the Baltic Sea cut anything buried in them off from sunlight and oxygen. That’s fatal to many lifeforms, but others slip into dormancy, waiting for conditions to improve. Some scientists decided to give some of them a helping hand, exposing microorganisms from the sediments to light and air. Their work […]