Deborah Bloomfield

The human body is an elegantly evolved machine, though it does retain several superfluous features that are no longer essential for survival, from male nipples and floating ribs to wisdom teeth and butt hair. Speaking of which, what’s the point of toenails? Advertisement Arguably among the grossest parts of the human body, it’s easy to […]

Along the coasts of Chile and Peru you may find a “living rock” that looks like it bleeds. Known to science as Pyura chilensis, it’s a filter feeder related to sea squirts, but you might not know that for looking at it. At a push you might say it looked like a sea urchin, but […]

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is expected to become brighter than Venus next week, and will probably be the brightest comet of 2025. It has already achieved a brightness similar to famously bright stars like Antares and Spica – however, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to see, nor will it become so.  Advertisement Whereas Venus is […]

The mystery surrounding one of the largest megalithic monuments in the Middle East has deepened significantly, as new research has just shattered the popular theory that the circular Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights functioned as an astronomical observatory. Also known as the Wheel of Ghosts and the Levantine Stonehenge, this enigmatic labyrinthine structure is […]

It’s the “Bleak Midwinter” in the Northern Hemisphere – so, in case you’ve been living under a well-insulated rock, cold weather and snowfalls are hardly unexpected in many parts of the world. However, the especially low temperatures seen in parts of the US this month can be partially attributed to another phenomenon: the polar vortex.  […]

One of Yellowstone National Park’s oldest gray wolves, a one-eyed matriarch dubbed 907F, has died after sustaining wounds in a fight with a rival pack. Advertisement Affectionately named “queen of the wolves”, 907F lived to the grand age of 11 – exceptionally long for a wild canid – and birthed an astonishing 10 litters in […]

Newly compiled records are spilling the beans on one of the CIA’s most notorious and shadowy programs: MKUltra, a wild attempt to develop mind control techniques through drugs, hypnosis, and psychological manipulation. Advertisement The collection was published by the Digital National Security Archive of The George Washington University in December 2024, detailing more than 1,200 […]

When you die on Earth, you generally know what will happen to your body, even if you’d rather not. But what happens to it if you die in space, on the Moon, or on the way to the Moon? Advertisement Though it’s not something NASA likely wants to think about, the space agency does have […]

In the animal kingdom, it is often the case that males are bigger, louder, and more visually impressive to look at. All this posturing shows off how fit they are to a prospective mate and might lead to better chances of breeding. However, in the world of the dusky pipefish, it is actually the smaller […]

We modern humans love a long hot soak but linger too long and something a bit gross happens: the skin on your hands wrinkles up making them look like fleshy prunes. It’s often assumed that we’re just absorbing water, but skin is waterproof and – actually – not everybody gets pruny in the bath. So, […]

Have you ever wondered how it is that plants avoid pollinating themselves? Walnut trees have evolved to avoid this by separating their male and female flowers in time, with the flowers of one sex blooming first, and the other coming second. Advertisement Walnut trees can differ in whether they lead with female flowers or male […]

The Magyars – or Hungarians – were among the most feared warriors of the medieval world, and were particularly renowned for their deadly skill as mounted archers. Male skeletons dating back to the 10th century are regularly found alongside bows, arrows, and other weapons, yet the authors of a new study report the surprising discovery […]

Early Cambrian fossils reveal how a small, shelled animal evolved to deal with attacks from a predator. The finds confirm a popular hypothesis, until now lacking in clear evidence, about what drove the greatest expansion in biological diversity in Earth’s history. Advertisement The Cambrian explosion saw life take on a staggering array of forms around […]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced new draft recommendations to improve the accuracy of pulse oximeters – devices used to estimate blood oxygen levels – across the whole range of skin tones, after a wealth of studies identified inaccuracies in readings taken for people with darker skin. Advertisement Pulse oximeters: what they […]

The horseshoe crab is a living fossil that’s been scuttling along shorelines virtually unchanged for 445 million years, long before dinosaurs ever stomped across the Earth. They have very strange blue blood, and of all the species that have come to be since these marine oddities first emerged, it just might be the most valuable […]

A team of physicists has outlined a possible way of sending probes deep into interstellar space within a reasonable timescale, using relativistic electron beams. Advertisement Space is that annoying combination of “really cool” and “really big”. We can see really awesome stuff going on out there, but unless we come up with ways to significantly […]

Our Moon is surprisingly massive compared to Earth, but that ratio is dwarfed if we consider Pluto and Charon. The latter is about 12 percent of the mass of Pluto and technically doesn’t orbit it. The pair of them orbit around a common center of mass outside of Pluto. They are dancing – and this […]

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the first light that was able to freely move across the Universe. Released around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, it is a map that has been used by astronomers to understand the cosmos. To see it in full you have to go to space, measuring it all across […]

January is a good month for interesting planetary alignment. You will have a lot going on in the night sky. For most of the month, six out of the eight planets will be visible in the heavens. Mercury is currently on the other side of the Sun and you are standing on number eight (unless […]

Saturn is one of the nicer objects to gawp at when you have access to a telescope or binoculars, being large enough to get a good look at, and having a pleasing ring structure around it. In early 2025, you will get a chance to have an even more unusual view: Saturn, without its rings […]