Deborah Bloomfield

Delicate whorls of ice are blossoming on rotten wood in parts of the planet experiencing freezing temperatures this month. The unusual structures, known as hair ice and frost flowers, are the result of how wacky water can get when frozen in just the right way, and if you keep your eyes peeled we know just […]

A group of flat Earthers has ventured to the southernmost land of Antarctica in an attempt to “end the debate over the shape of the Earth” – although we’re pretty sure that was already achieved by astronomers from Ancient Greece, the Islamic Golden Age, the Renaissance, etc, etc. The trip was part of a project […]

Lasers are one of those things you imagine have been around for a long time, perhaps since the invention of electricity. But they are only 60 years old, and green lasers far younger than that, with the first “true” green laser being demonstrated for the first time in 2009. So, what exactly is a laser? […]

In case you’ve missed it, the Sun has been particularly active over the past year, unleashing powerful solar flares and causing radio blackouts on Earth. This is all part of an 11-year cycle of solar activity that also sees the Sun’s poles gradually reverse around its peak.  The Earth’s poles too can flip over the […]

Say you have a truckful of birds, happily sitting on the floor of your truck (or lorry, if you prefer). The doors and windows are closed for convenience, and to prevent bird escape. If these birds were to begin flying around in the back of your truck, would the overall weight of the truck go […]

An astronomer based in Japan has captured the moment when an unknown object – believed to be a meteor, and possibly one of the Geminids – struck part of the Moon. The Geminids – first observed lighting up our skies annually in the mid-1800s – are an unusual meteor shower, coming from an asteroid that […]

In Trinidad, there’s a fish that can breathe through its tail. It’s a nifty trick, and one that comes in handy when it starts leaping around on land, marking one of nature’s most epic adventures that features in the new Apple TV+ series, The Secret Lives Of Animals. Most killifish will hatch, live, and die […]

Computers found their voice in the early 1960s with the IBM 7094, the first computer that was used to program and produce a computer-synthesized voice. The pioneering ditty has recently gained a reputation for being oddly ominous, although many forget it did manage to capture the attention of the esteemed sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke […]

Hate the whine of buzzing mosquitos? Well, the slingshot spider (Theridiosoma gemmosum) has found a way to make it useful by listening out for the sound to cue its attack. These spiders pull the center of their webs back so that it’s primed to fire like a slingshot when a mosquito is in range, and […]

Snowflake obsidian is a form of volcanic glass that features white or grayish “snowflake” shapes made of embedded cristobalite. These pretty patterns are not artificially added as a cheap holiday gimmick – they’re a natural consequence of the unique geological forces that create the material. Like other igneous rocks, the glossy glass originates from molten […]

New research has found that the gap between lifespan and “healthspan” – the years of life lived in good health – in the USA is the widest in the world. Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the study authors found that the average American will live 12.4 years with disability and/or illness, up […]

Mycologists in southern Africa have discovered the closest wild relative of domesticated magic mushrooms, revealing new insights into the genetic history of psychedelic fungi. Describing the new species in an as-yet un-peer-reviewed study, the researchers say their discovery challenges the assumption that shrooms spread around the world alongside domestic cattle, suggesting that the mind-altering specimens […]

If you were raised in a Christian country or have learned anything about Christianity, you will know that on December 25 Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  You will also know that our calendar system separates the years into two eras – before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD), or “in the year of […]

The above image was taken at the Michigan Carbon Works refinery in the United States back in 1892, a time when the number of bison in the country had plummeted to just 456 individuals. A shocking statistic in itself, and even more so in the context that at the close of the 18th century, there […]

Saturn’s spectacular rings may be far older than we thought – according to a new study, they may have been there from the gas giant’s birth. Saturn is thought to be amongst the oldest bodies in the Solar System, clumping together within 10 million years of the Sun’s formation, shortly behind Jupiter. For a time, […]

We tend to think of evolution as a one-way process: simpler beings gradually advancing to become more sophisticated lifeforms with no room for a backward step. However, as new research has demonstrated, this isn’t necessarily the case. “Evolution has no finish line. There is no end goal, no final state,” writes Jacob Suissa, Assistant Professor […]

The world has taken another tentative step closer to reversible male birth control thanks to a recent Master’s graduate from South Africa. During her studies at Stellenbosch University, Kyla Raoult demonstrated the potential of using a non-hormonal hydrogel technology to reversibly block the passage of sperm through the vas deferens. “The hydrogel is designed to […]

Short of flipping a coin, it’s hard to think of a more classic representation of “random chance” than rolling dice. But does that hold up? In practice, sure – but technically speaking? Being really nit-picky about things? Nope! Lucky for you, being unnecessarily nit-picky in a way designed to get you out of family Monopoly […]

The first-ever dissection of the world’s rarest whale has enabled Indigenous people and conservation scientists in New Zealand to learn more about one of their taoka, which means treasure in the language of South Island Māori culture. The marine mammal was a spade-toothed whale, Mesoplodon traversii, the rarest species of beaked whale with only six […]

An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone, or AIPZ, has been declared across four counties in England after bird flu was detected in a number of wild and captive birds in the region.  The counties affected are the East Riding of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. These areas are home to a huge number of the UK’s […]