Deborah Bloomfield

Chinese space company Beijing Tianbing accidentally launched a rocket during a test of its first-stage power system on Sunday. The company – also known as Space Pioneer – fired up the first-stage Tianlong-3 rocket in what was supposed to be a static test. However, due to a structural failure the rocket was launched to its […]

Large parts of the Arctic are ablaze this summer with some of the worst wildfires in recent history following a spate of unusually hot and dry weather.   Advertisement Much of the activity is flaring up in Russia’s Sakha Republic, a part of Siberia with an average yearly temperature of -7.5°C (18.5°F). Even in the […]

Have you ever wondered why male mammals don’t produce milk for their young? Well, a new mathematical model may explain it, and it has a lot to do with microbes. Advertisement The absence of male lactation in mammals has perplexed scientists for years. There is currently no universally satisfying reason why males should not produce […]

Some 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) beneath the Arctic Ocean, scientists are exploring a bubbling field of hydrothermal vents along the Knipovich Ridge near Svalbard, the northernmost settlement on Earth. Advertisement The hydrothermal vent field was recently discovered on the seafloor within the triangle between Greenland, Norway, and Svalbard on the boundary of the North American […]

In a major first for a project aiming to restore the population of wildcats in Scotland, at least two females have given birth in the wild – and the footage of their kittens is as “awwww”-inducing as you’d expect. Advertisement Last year, 19 captive-bred wildcats were released into Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park by Saving Wildcats, […]

High in the upper atmosphere, from the edge of space to well within it, there is the ionosphere. Atoms and molecules there are missing electrons, so they are electrically charged. They are influenced by what is happening nearer to the surface but also by the Sun. New observations suggest that there is more understanding to […]

Beryl, the first named hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season, has made a historic start even before it’s due to reach the Caribbean this morning and, according to officials, it seems set to continue making its mark. Advertisement While the Atlantic hurricane season runs all the way from June 1 through to November 30, the […]

Researchers have identified a plant that could survive the harsh conditions on Mars, potentially helping future humans to terraform it. Advertisement If humans ever want to set up a home elsewhere in the Solar System, Mars seems like the most viable bet, beating off the competition by not being a hell world, having a surface […]

They say to do one thing every day that scares you, but can we suggest you don’t make that holding in a sneeze? From rupturing your windpipe to puffing up your face, holding in a sneeze can be dangerous to the unlucky few. Fortunately, that whole thing about your eyes popping out of your head […]

Two sticks found in a cave in southeastern Australia show signs of processing that perfectly match curse-making practices described in the 19th century. The sticks have been dated at an estimated 11,000 and 12,000 years old, which would make this the longest period over which we have evidence for the continuation of a cultural practice […]

Researchers looking for fossilized grape seeds across Colombia, Panama, and Peru, have found seeds that are between 60 and 19 million years old – and one example is from the oldest grape ever found in the Western Hemisphere. The researchers think that the proliferation of grapes might have come as a result of the changes […]

Some countries have a bounty of animal species in one particular group: Peru and Columbia, for example, have the most butterfly species of any country. By contrast, North America has only two species of venomous lizard and only one is found in the United States – the Gila monster. Advertisement Description: The Gila monster (Heloderma […]

Something rare and highly unusual was caught on camera in Bangladesh by scientists studying bird colonies. The fishing cat that quacks like a duck is famous for its aquatic hunting skills, and yet their cameras revealed – for the first time – that they also hunt in the treetops. Advertisement What are fishing cats? Fishing […]

Outside of entomology circles, bugs aren’t generally known as a romantic or particularly charming kind of animal. There are exceptions, however: fireflies, with their eerily beautiful glow, have long captured imaginations the world over, appearing in legends and lore from as far afield as Japan, Italy, and Miranda. Advertisement But as beloved as they are, […]

Despite its name, the mammoth was not the largest Pleistocene land animal. That status goes to its relative, the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), which, due to weighing up to 13 tonnes, was twice the size of a modern African elephant and lived across Asia and Europe until around 100,000 years ago. Anthropologists have sought evidence that Neanderthals hunted Palaeoloxodon, maybe […]

More than one in four people in the US have blue eyes. In the UK, it’s three out of every seven; in the Netherlands, it’s three out of five, and in Iceland, it’s three out of every four. Depending on where you live, it’s a very popular ocular color to have. Advertisement But that’s kind of weird, […]

Issue 24 (July 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 24 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

This week, freshly analyzed Neanderthal remains suggest our extinct relatives were caring and compassionate, researchers spotted the world’s largest land mammal migration ever recorded, and a robot with a face made out of lab-grown human skin became everyone’s new nightmare. Finally, we explore how some physicists once believed the explosive Tunguska event was actually caused […]

Have you ever heard of Palynomorphs, “microfossils” that are abundant pretty much everywhere? They’re microscopic fossils that appear in sedimentary rocks across the world and are invaluable for geologists and paleontologists researching the planet’s evolutionary history. However, their tiny size and sheer numbers can be a challenge to work with, so researchers have now created […]