Deborah Bloomfield

After a significant outbreak of measles that began last year, Canadian health officials have confirmed that the country has lost its measles elimination status, ending a streak that had been intact since 1998. “The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has notified the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer holds measles elimination […]

A team of researchers studying the pyramids of Giza using non-invasive techniques believes they have identified two new “anomalies” in the Menkaure Pyramid. The Menkaure Pyramid, built for Pharaoh Menkaure, who ruled between 2490 and 2472 BCE, is the smallest of the pyramids at the Giza site in Egypt. It is also the least-disturbed of […]

Scientists are upping their game in the fight against a “double invasion” that’s currently sweeping across Virginia in the US. Here, the invasive “tree of heaven” is providing prime real estate for another invader: the spotted lanternfly. The tree of heaven, known to science as Ailanthus altissima, was brought to the United States back in […]

Sneezing is not an activity you’d deem particularly risky. This semi-autonomous mechanism of expelling irritants and pathogens is generally just a fairly irritating thing you have to do whilst alive, like tax returns and pretending to enjoy baseball. But sneezing can go a little wrong, and occasionally land the sneezer in hospital.  One review, which […]

Despite the wealth of evidence supporting it, its obvious sense as an explanation, and its endorsement by many and varied religious institutions, there are some people out there who still don’t accept the theory of evolution. Sure, they sometimes say, fossils might be real; there are animals that once existed that no longer do – […]

It makes for some pretty dramatic footage, but why does it happen? The magic of microwaves Unlike your stove top that applies heat directly to a pan, microwaves heat food by generating kinetic energy. It starts out with electromagnetic radiation that’s used to shift water molecules, creating vibrations that spread through the food as the […]

For the first time ever, scientists have monitored the effects of microdosing with LSD at home as a treatment for major depressive disorder. Over the course of eight weeks, 19 people took regular tiny amounts of the psychedelic drug, resulting in a pronounced reduction in symptom severity that persisted for up to six months. The […]

While many of us might associate turkeys with Thanksgiving or Christmas meals, they are actually remarkable birds capable of high-speed runs, possessing over 5,000 feathers, and a whole repertoire of noises beyond gobbling. But do you know what a baby turkey is called? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in […]

Heat is escaping from Saturn’s moon Enceladus at its north pole, as well as the south, a reanalysis of data from the Cassini spacecraft reveals. This discovery suggests the moon is in rough energy balance, which in turn increases the chance that its subsurface ocean is a long-term feature, not a temporary aberration. If so, […]

Could learning multiple languages be a secret weapon against the ravages of old age? C’est une possibilité. In a new study, researchers show how people who speak two or more languages have a decreased risk of accelerated aging – and the benefits of being multilingual increase with the number of languages spoken. An international team […]

Wander into the wrong bit of forest in Gabon’s Lopé National Park and you could find yourself surrounded by a troop of over 800 primates. Here, mandrills are known to roam the forest in enormous groups called “hordes,” and suffice to say, it’s not a party you want to crash with your puny human teeth. […]

In the age of wireless technology and streaming services, CDs could be considered an obsolete medium, primarily used by 21st-century Luddites clinging to a way to play their tragically untrendy music. However, for an invention that’s over 40 years old, compact discs are pleasantly sophisticated technology (if you look closely). The rest of this article […]

A team studying the spectra of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has found evidence of “galactic cosmic ray processing”. While interesting and certainly worth knowing, it really isn’t the best news that astronomers have ever received. It may be very disappointing indeed. In case you’re just catching up, on July 1, 2025, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact […]

Chameleons have spiral optic nerves, CT scans and 3D modelling reveal. The discovery explains how the lizards can literally keep an eye out for prey in almost every direction, moving their eyeballs as if each has a mind of its own. Chameleons are most famous for their capacity to mimic the colors of their environment, […]

Blue Origin, the private space firm headed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is set to launch its New Glenn rocket on Wednesday, sending two NASA orbiters to Mars. While traditionally NASA has launched its own spacecraft, satellites, and orbiters into space, since President Ronald Reagan signed the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, the space agency […]

In 1989, an employee at CERN made a decision that would change the world. Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working at the intergovernmental organization, had developed a system that would allow scientists to quickly share information via hypertext that linked documents across a network. This system was the blueprint for what would become the […]

Maybe Neanderthals were not wiped out in a catastrophic event some 40,000 years ago. In fact, perhaps they never truly disappeared in a definite sense. New research has examined the flow of genes between prehistoric human populations using mathematical models, concluding that Neanderthals were effectively absorbed into Homo sapiens through frequent bouts of interbreeding.  The […]

Conferences represent an important component of the scientific and wider academic landscape. They’re a great opportunity to showcase work, rub shoulders with individuals from all career levels, and engage in the latest debates and discussions. These events have historically been marquee showplaces for academia and industry, but they are increasingly important for young and early-career […]

A case report tells the story of a family who shared their Kansas home with 2,055 brown recluse spiders over five and a half years. Spiders have a pretty bad reputation amongst humans for a group of species that is so good at pest control. But while most species are harmless, there are a few […]

Our high school years were, many of us may have been told, the best days of our lives. But that’s no longer the case, according to the work of Dartmouth University Professor David Blanchflower and colleagues – and the formerly inescapable “U curve” of well-being is now more of an uphill struggle towards happiness. “There […]