Deborah Bloomfield

The luxurious textile that sparked the first global trade network may have been seen as more than just a material object in ancient China. Having discovered silk residues in a Bronze-Age sacrificial pit in Sichuan province, the authors of a new study suggest that the opulent larvae-derived fiber was revered as much for its elegance […]

When we talk about “The Age Of Dinosaurs,” we think of an era where these enormous beasts ruled the land, but that wasn’t always the case. Like all animals that have lived to taste the upper echelons of the food chain, dinosaurs had to work their way to the top by outcompeting those that came […]

For a long time, interstellar objects were considered theoretical, with no observations to back them up. Then in a matter of a few years, we had two: ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. This has opened the door on the study of these interstellar objects (ISOs) and researchers have begun to simulate how they move in the […]

It’s amazing just how impactful our behavior can be. Even small acts, like using the taps in our homes, can contribute to significant changes across the planet. This may sound trivial, but over the last 20 years alone, the pumping of groundwater – mostly for drinking – has caused Earth’s rotation to tilt eastwards by […]

While scanning the frozen surface of northwestern Greenland this year, NASA scientists stumbled across a “city under the ice” from the paranoid years of the Cold War. The structure was Camp Century, an abandoned Arctic military research base run by the US between 1959 and 1967 during the Cold War. It was the hub of […]

An astrophotographer attempting to create a timelapse of trails of stars behind Mount Xiannairi in Sichuan, China, ended up capturing a strange blue light being emitted during an avalanche. Shengyu Li set up the timelapse on October 27, when a block of ice broke free from the mountain and sparked a small avalanche. Avalanches happen […]

The Great Red Spot is not the only Earth-sized atmospheric disturbance seen on Jupiter. That dramatic storm remains number one for size and power in the Solar System, but ultraviolet (UV) observations from Hubble have now revealed that Earth-size ovals of haze are being stirred up over Jupiter’s polar regions. The culprit is believed to […]

The stunning specimen you can see above was the first documented instance of a tarantula with gynandromorphic characteristics: one side of its body is female, while the other is male. The case first came to light in 2014 at a lab at the University of the Republic in Uruguay when a team of bug experts […]

For the first time, astronomers have found a likely explanation for a type of repeating radio signal first identified two years ago but now found popping up in many places. In a new case, the emissions are coming from the direction of a red dwarf star, believed to be in orbit around a white dwarf, […]

Those who dive frequently understand there are risks involved, from checking your equipment to the conditions of the weather and water when you dive. However, few perhaps would consider the risk that a tiger shark might steal your phone.  David Finch was diving at Tiger Beach off the west coast of Grand Bahama and was filming […]

Quantum dots can cool themselves by turning low energy light into higher-energy photons, which are radiated away. The idea, which runs against classical physics, might avoid the need to expend energy to actively reduce temperatures, although the economics are doubtful, even in a world struggling to keep its cool. Every now and then, residents of […]

In our quest to obliterate fellow humans, humans have attempted some pretty whacky and ghoulish ideas, from the pain ray and Greek Fire to firing the corpses of plague victims at the enemy using a catapult. One suitably stupid (and short-lived) invention was the flying tank, dreamed up by the Soviet Union during World War […]

It was already pretty hot by the time Donald Johanson and his graduate student, Tom Gray, arrived at the site at Hadar, Ethiopia, on the morning of November 24, 1974. The two had initially set out to map the location but decided to have a look around for any signs of fossils while they were […]

Our cosmos is 13.7 billion years old and it all started with the Big Bang. When we look for really distant objects, we can’t really see the Big Bang because the universe was so hot and dense that light was not free to move. The farthest we can see is light 400,000 years younger than […]

Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is home to an abundance of amazing wildlife, but there’s one group of animals that’s particularly special. They’re big, fluffy, and deliciously cream-colored – it’s the spirit bears. A rare black bear variant Found primarily in the aforementioned Great Bear Rainforest on Canada’s north and central coast, spirit bears – also […]

With increasingly more people opting for plant-based diets – whether it’s for health, environmental, or ethical concerns –  a new study has highlighted that switching to vegetarianism may entail an undesirable side effect: eating more ultra-processed foods. In a new study, scientists looked at the consumption of ultra-processed food, plus “minimally processed food” across nearly […]

Long before humans began creating nuclear reactors to fulfill our ridiculous energy needs, back when the Earth was dominated by microbes, in fact, nature beat us to it and built the first nuclear reactor on Earth. In May 1972, a physicist at a nuclear processing plant in Pierrelatte, France, was conducting analysis on uranium samples […]

Most governments around the world, especially those of high-income countries, are failing to achieve the target of the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 195 countries and the European Union. As carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, for many the solution is to develop technologies to simply remove this greenhouse gas from the air. A […]

As Thanksgiving rolls around once again, so too does an increased chance of spending the following days sitting on the toilet, fighting for your life. Not just from eating too much of your grandma’s delightfully creamy mashed potatoes (curse you, lactose intolerance), but from some pretty dodgy food handling – including the big no-no that […]

Of the five dwarf planets in the Solar System – including Eris, Ceres, Makemake, and Haumea – Pluto is easily the best-known due to its brief categorization as a regular planet. Long before it could even make one turn around the Sun, it was demoted again. A surprising number of astronomical bodies have been discovered […]