Deborah Bloomfield

But if anywhere could escape their onslaught, it surely would be the South Pole. At least, that was the thinking of Jack Devlin, then a PhD student in entomology at the University of Kentucky, when he started investigating the situation in our planet’s most extreme continent: “I started reading about plastic’s effects on insects,” he […]

The Galileo spacecraft spotted a shape on Europa originally compared to an asterisk, but now seen more as a spider. Whatever you call it, scientists hope explaining the forces that produced this shape will help us understand the nature of Europa’s icy shell. Now some Earthly frozen lakes and experiments with liquid nitrogen might provide […]

It’s no secret that dogs used to be wolves – a once-wild species domesticated over generations until it became humanity’s best and most understanding friend. But the precise route from point A to point B has always been a mystery. Was this domestication purposeful? An accident? When, where, how did any of it happen? So far, […]

A wild Amur tigress has been filmed with five cubs in tow in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. The first-of-its-kind footage has stunned wild cat experts, as these tigers typically only give birth to between one and four cubs. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or […]

December is full to the brim with parties and celebrations, but there’s one anniversary that it’s very important not to forget – the birthday of Flossie, the world’s oldest living cat. Born on December 29, 1995, Flossie was officially recognized as the world’s oldest living cat by Guinness World Records (GWR) back in November 2022, […]

Mice that can’t make vitamin C are protected against the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, and possibly similar parasites. The finding might finally explain why deep in our evolutionary journey humans lost the ability to make one of the most important molecules for our body, forcing us to depend on our food supplies, sometimes to our cost. […]

Let’s face it, 2025 hasn’t exactly been the cheeriest of years when it comes to news. But when everything seems gloomy, it helps to look for the light where you can – so let’s do that very thing by reminiscing upon some of our favorite wholesome stories from the last year. The best birthday bash […]

The subtropical waters of New Zealand’s Northland region may have had a rare treat recently, after reported sightings of what could be the rarest subspecies of the world’s smallest marine dolphin. The species in question is Hector’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori), which is split into two subspecies: the South Island Hector’s dolphin (C. h. hectori) and […]

Gaming has become a popular pastime for many people across the world at a time when the workplace has become increasingly digital. But do employers value the types of skills, knowledge, and abilities that gamers develop from this extracurricular activity? Or, to put it another way, if you list gaming on your resume, will it […]

The Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) doesn’t look like much. Flattened and brownish, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a squashed overripe fruit, but something remarkable happens when the time comes to reproduce. Something a lot of people find pretty horrifying. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe […]

The idea that a volcano could send the planet into a long-lasting winter might feel like something that only happened in the distant past or slightly dodgy disaster movies, but in the early 19th century, that very thing happened. The culprit? Mount Tambora, and it was responsible for the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. […]

The very ancient super-Earth TOI-561 b must have a thick atmosphere, data from the JWST indicates, or its day side would be even hotter than it is. This represents the strongest evidence yet of a rocky planet beyond the Solar System with such a substantial atmosphere. There’s no chance of life here – at least […]

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared that the Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura) has been moved into the Extinct category. Once common across Christmas Island, it’s not been seen for 40 years. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full […]

The occupant of one of the most lavish Paleolithic burials ever discovered may have died one of the most agonizing deaths in all of human history. Nicknamed “Il Principe” (“The Prince”), the teenage boy found inside the grave died a few days after having his face and chest ripped apart by a large predator, which […]

The manumea, also known as the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), has been sighted for the first time since 2020. The observations, made in October and November near Uafato on Samoa’s island of Upolu, took an international collaboration and Samoan local knowledge to achieve.  There’s a reason it was the Galapagos Islands that inspired Darwin’s theory of […]

Imagine, if you will, you’re walking along the beach in the late 1890s when lo – what’s this? A great beast is sprawled across the sand, gelatinous and amorphous, stretching 5.5 meters (18 feet) long and 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide. A globular blob, and a real-life “globster” – the name given to a host […]

Stimulant drugs that are widely used in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a different mechanism of action than scientists thought. New data reveals these drugs primarily act on the brain’s reward and wakefulness areas, rather than the regions specifically focused on attention as had previously been assumed. ADHD is an increasingly common diagnosis, […]

Finding diamonds is notoriously difficult, but a recent discovery may have made the search slightly easier. Researchers have found that a far less prized gemstone can hold clues about whether diamonds are likely to be nearby, potentially speeding up the hunt for them. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in […]

In 1920, a farmer plowing a field in Grootfontein, Namibia, hit a sudden roadblock below the surface of the soil. Curious about what had stopped his plow, the farmer dug around and found a very strange sight. Beneath the soil was a giant slab of metal. In fact, at 60 tons, it turned out to be the […]

Issue 42 (January 2026) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the […]