Deborah Bloomfield

A study of more than 2 million children has found that autism is more common among those whose mothers were exposed to raised sulfate or ammonium pollution during pregnancy. Exposure to ozone early in life was also a factor. The rate of increase was modest, indicating none of these was the largest factor in autism […]

New observations from the Nordic Optical Telescope, in the Canary Islands, Spain, suggest that 3I/ATLAS’s unusual anti-solar tail has changed direction, becoming dominated by a tail that faces away from the Sun. On July 1, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) spotted an object speeding through the Solar System on an escape […]

Exploring the deep ocean comes with the chance to encounter all kinds of weird and wonderful species. You could come face to face (ish) with a faceless cusk eel, Chewbacca corals, dancing sea pigs – or if you’re lucky, an otherworldly-looking octopus, as scientists exploring the abyssal plains of the South Pacific recently discovered. The […]

A treasure trove of around 635 million kilograms (1.4 billion pounds) of cheese sits a few hundred feet beneath the ground in the US, having been stashed there by the government. Why? Well, it’s kind of a long story. The peculiar origins of “Government Cheese,” as The Farmlink Project reports it is known, date back […]

Going gray is an inevitable, and for many, undesirable, part of aging, but health-wise, it’s no bad thing – it could reflect the body’s natural defense against cancer, new research in mice suggests. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. The study, led […]

Where are all the aliens? For decades, armchair philosophers and the greatest minds in science have pondered the Fermi paradox, but perhaps they’ve been attacking the question from the wrong angle. Maybe the aliens are already “here,” just not in the form of little green men in flying saucers. What if extraterrestrial life exists as […]

In 1954, American psychologist James Olds and British-Canadian neuroscientist Peter Milner implanted electrodes at various positions on the brains of rats. The team placed the rats inside a “Skinner box“, a small enclosure with a lever or button inside that the animals can learn to press in order to gain a reward. In this case, […]

Ice Age (as in the movie) tells the heartwarming tale of a mammoth, sloth, and saber-toothed cat that – against the odds – work together to protect a baby human. There was, however, another star who really stole the show: Scrat, the Ice Age squirrel. We follow Scrat’s endless quest to secure some kind of […]

In 1971, the world got its first look at an arcade machine, playing the little-remembered space combat game Computer Space. A year later, we got the all-time classic Pong in arcade machine form, and the first ever home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. In the decades preceding, researchers at various institutes created several experimental games, which […]

It’s nearly been 100 years since an ancient legend became a mainstream myth. In 1933, after a spate of alleged sightings made their way into the newspapers, people across the world were introduced to the Loch Ness Monster for the first time. Sure, rumors of something strange lurking in the murky waters of the Scottish […]

The tale of Akhetaten, the ancient Egyptian city that for a brief point in the 14th century BCE was the state’s capital and home of the god-king Akhenaten, is one of tragedy. It was founded in the middle of nowhere by a pharaoh who would go on to be all but stricken from the record; […]

People recalling a familiar image use different brain mechanisms to focus on a component than those who are viewing the situation live, a new study indicates. The reasons why the brain has evolved a different process for this task are not known, but might hold the key to understanding why some people have this capacity […]

It’s that time of year again. The nights are drawing in, the leaves are changing, and – ugh, you’ve woken up with a sore throat. But is it just a symptom of that run-of-the-mill cold that’s been going around, or could it be strep throat? More than likely, it’s just your average sore throat. According […]

Do reptiles pee liquid urine? It’s not a question I thought I’d be asking myself when I woke up this morning, but life comes at you fast. A new study has proven that it’s a question worth asking, however, as the answer is both unexpected and intriguing. While yes, some reptiles do pee liquid, a […]

Researchers in the Philippines have announced an exciting first step towards a vaccine against stomach ulcers and cancer – but there’s still a lot of work and time to go before you can expect to get one. If you’ve found yourself noticeably stressed out in front of a boomer at some point – and let’s […]

There are all sorts of things that can ruin a vacation, from missed flights, to food poisoning, and even fights for sun-loungers. Mosquitoes can also cause all kinds of problems, so those looking to escape the noisy pest might choose cooler climes to avoid them. Unfortunately, Iceland might now be off that list as entomologists […]

Pleistocene humans were more than happy to get into bed with Neanderthals and Denisovans, which is why most of us now carry DNA from these extinct species. However, there’s one group of prehistoric people in Japan that appears to have missed out on all the inter-hominin debauchery, giving rise to an ancient community with strangely […]

A new study published in Scientific Reports has taken a look at transient objects captured by astronomers in the pre-Sputnik era, finding a curious correlation with nuclear tests and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Since 2017, the Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project has attempted to look for stars and other […]

Researchers have gained new insights into the Maya calendar and, in particular, the ability to predict eclipses. Like other advanced ancient civilizations, the Maya looked at the sky for auspicious signs and divine punishment, but their calendar is quite different from what we are used to, making its use an enduring mystery to modern archaeologists. […]

Elon Musk’s space firm SpaceX has settled its lawsuit brought by adult party game creators Cards Against Humanity. In 2017, Cards Against Humanity (CAH) launched a “holiday campaign” in order to protest President Donald Trump’s construction of a border wall with Mexico. In total, 150,000 people paid $15 each towards the campaign, and CAH purchased […]