Deborah Bloomfield

Some species in the animal world are known for their sleeping habits. From sloths snoozing in the trees to octopuses dreaming, what these animals get up to at bedtime is a source of fascination. Sharks, however, probably don’t feature very highly on the list of interesting sleepers – but they have just made a pretty […]

Astronomers have announced new evidence on a bit of a controversial topic in the field: the number of bright galaxies that existed in the early universe, specifically within the first 600 million years following the Big Bang. Hubble had shown that the number was higher than expected but ground observations disagreed with this assessment. Now, […]

Humans have drilled a record-breaking 1,268 meters (4,160 feet) into Earth’s mantle, gifting scientists with an extraordinary glimpse into the planet’s deep geology – and possibly the origins of life. The drill hole was made in a volcanically active region of the mid-Atlantic ridge located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Advertisement The mantle […]

From the edges of the Arctic to the hottest deserts, humans have eked out survival – flourished, even – in pretty much every corner of the globe. Mapping out exactly how that happened, however, is an ambition that has long evaded researchers – particularly those studying the history of human dispersals across the Pacific Ocean. […]

The minerals left behind when the Chicxulub Crater was created, ending the Cretaceous Era and the dinosaurs’ reign, indicate it was an asteroid, not a comet. However, the same analysis indicates it came from the outer Solar System, rather than the main asteroid belt, knowledge that is useful, if disheartening, in trying to prevent the […]

A patient with ALS has been given his voice back thanks to a revolutionary brain-computer interface (BCI) that can decode his intended speech with about 97 percent accuracy – and with its inbuilt AI technology, it reads that speech aloud in his actual voice. Advertisement Casey Harrell, a 45-year-old man with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, […]

New research suggests that around one in four patients who become unresponsive following a brain injury may in fact remain conscious, with the ability to understand and remember what is being said around them. While this phenomenon – known as cognitive motor dissociation – has been documented in the past, the latest study indicates that […]

Solar flares are dramatic releases of energy from the Sun. They are associated with sunspots and their magnetic fields, and when the Sun is at its most active during its 11-year-long cycle, we get a lot of them at high energy. The emission of powerful solar flares can create radio blackouts and damage satellites and […]

The US has the lowest life expectancy of high-income English-speaking nations, while Australia continues to lead the pack with the highest. Poverty and poor health are big influences on the differing outcomes, but a major factor is also the number of young Americans dying from drug abuse, car accidents, and guns, researchers say. Advertisement Researchers […]

A man has turned to Facebook for answers after noticing that his neighbor’s house was projected upside-down onto his bedroom wall. It’s not a sight you expect to wake up to – for one, neighbors’ houses are generally not upside-down, and rarely on the inside of your own house. So, sharing photos of the incident, […]

A worm larva dating back half a billion years has got a group of scientists very excited, and with good reason. Sitting right at the beginning of the arthropods, its body may contain insights into the evolution of a vast range of animal groups, including insects, arachnids, crabs, and centipedes. The fossil has been named […]

A study on the movement of molecules within glass has found something pretty astonishing, assuming that the results can be replicated. Processes within glass, as well as a few other materials with similar properties, appear to be time-reversible, potentially telling us something interesting about the second law of thermodynamics. Advertisement Have you ever noticed, while […]

The mpox outbreak that is sweeping through at least 13 countries in Africa has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Just days after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) made a similar, first-of-its-kind declaration for the continent of Africa, the WHO […]

I was recently lucky enough to attend a choir performance inspired by The Kinks that was even attended by Ray Davies himself. It was a hoot, it was a treat, and it has haunted me every day since. I could not for love nor money get the chorus to The Village Green Preservation Society out […]

Bright meteors are sometimes followed by two effects, known respectively as trails and trains. Trails are well understood, but trains are a different matter. Most trains disappear within seconds, but a rare few can last for up to an hour. Advances in photography have allowed scientists to study this phenomenon is much greater depth, proving […]

Good news, conspiracy theorists: Atlanteans are real after all. There’s just one catch: they’re actually not a heroic race of people from an ancient and mythical land lost to Poseidon’s wrath. Turns out, they’re volcanoes. Advertisement Discovered in the oceans north of the Canary Islands, the three underwater volcanoes have been named “Los Atlantes” – […]

The Altar Stone at Stonehenge may have been sourced from northeast Scotland, at least 700 kilometers (434 miles) away from its final placement in southwest England. It’s not clear how prehistoric humans managed to transport the 6-ton rock to the other side of the British Isles, but the new research adds further intrigue to the […]

Sometimes, it can be hard to comprehend the enormity of climate change without seeing any immediate effects. That shouldn’t be a problem for much longer: in a grim sign of the planet’s current condition, last year wasn’t only the hottest on record – it also likely caused more heat-related deaths in Europe than any other […]

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) just declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), a first in the agency’s history. The announcement comes as suspected cases of the disease across the continent in 2024 have risen past 17,000, a massive increase on the 2022 and 2023 figures. Advertisement […]

The discovery of a rare Neanderthal rock shelter from the period before Homo sapiens arrived in Western Europe has provided some surprising new insights into how these extinct humans lived when they were the only hominids in town. Located in the Spanish Pyrenees, the site contains a wealth of animal bones and stone tools, revealing […]