Deborah Bloomfield

Several meteorites collected from Henry County, Georgia, have been tentatively identified as being from a major asteroid belt collision. If correct, this would make them among the oldest Solar System fragments, quite likely dating from before the Earth formed. On June 26, a fireball was spotted over Atlanta, Georgia, despite competing with the light of […]

Modern-day Chicago is known for its gusty winds and unapologetically chunky pizza, but 300 million years ago, the region was a lush land of tropical swamps, river deltas, and shallow seas. This abundance of extinct plant life and animal life is incredibly well-preserved at the Mazon Creek fossil site – a treasure trove that’s proving […]

What is it about our screens that keeps us coming back to them? Why do we continue to scroll past the point of finding what we went on our phones for in the first place? Those are questions that researchers are still trying to answer – and marmosets armed with iPads might just help them […]

Bioluminescence is the word we use to describe animals that are capable of creating their own light. It involves a chemical reaction that releases energy as light, and it’s a big hit down in the twilight zone where light from the Sun can’t reach. We’ve found bioluminescent jellyfish, squid, and fish, but the largest luminous […]

President Trump has issued an executive order that allows commercial flights across America to fly faster than the speed of sound. The order overturns what it refers to as “outdated and overly restrictive regulations”. It comes as companies are working on quieter supersonic aircraft, and instructs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to create standards to […]

Across September 1 and 2, 1859, the Earth experienced the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. It is known as the Carrington Event and caused aurorae visible almost to the equator and damage to electrical systems, which at the time mostly consisted of telegraphs. None comparable have hit Earth since, but we came really […]

On July 26, 1959, British scientist Dennis Bell was conducting a geological survey with surveyor Jeff Stokes, meteorologist Ken Gibson, and geologist Colin Barton with the aid of two dog sleds. When the sled dogs began to struggle, Bell went ahead to encourage them forward, but fell through a hole in a crevasse bridge. Efforts […]

The world’s rhino populations face a myriad of threats, from habitat loss, poaching for the medicine trade, and even botanical threats that can limit their food supply. A new report highlights which species are slowly increasing their numbers and which, sadly, are not. Of the two broader rhino species that are found only in Africa, […]

If it weren’t necessary for living in polite society, nobody would do laundry. It’s insanely labor-intensive without modern technology, the instructions are basically written in code, and worst of all, if you do it wrong, you can end up shrinking your favorite shirt or pants into a child’s size version of their original design. But […]

Ever wanted to find a dinosaur? After all, as your favorite conspiracy theorists have asked, if they existed, then surely their bones would be everywhere – so how much work would it take to dig one up? Well, it depends where you are. In England, where the first dinosaur fossils were found and categorized, there […]

You ever noticed how a “great white” shark isn’t? White, that is – it’s grey, right? Except for its belly, of course. Why is that? It turns out that whoever named the great white shark must have been underneath one, looking up, when they did so: “The name ‘white shark’ refers to the color of […]

A study analyzing data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has uncovered evidence of a “helicity barrier” in the Sun’s atmosphere. In 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe on a trajectory that would eventually have it dive into the Sun’s atmosphere (corona), getting seven times closer to our host star than any other spacecraft so […]

Have you ever held a conversation while you slept? It’s more likely than you think. Whether it’s a stray chuckle, a word or two, or a full monologue a la Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1, somniloquy – aka talking in your sleep – is extremely common. But why does it happen? And is it dangerous? […]

The debate about whether (and, if so, how) animals think is an ancient one. Aristotle considered it important enough to write on the question extensively, and it’s a safe bet people were debating it long before we have written records. Unsurprisingly, it’s a major topic of research today, but one that tends to defy easy […]

Giraffes are one of those iconic species of the African savannah: tall-necked, with their trademark mottled coats decked out in all the colors of a slightly over-ripe banana.  In Kenya, though, there’s one giraffe who doesn’t fit in with the others. Dazzlingly white and mysteriously unnamed, he’s the only known such creature in the world: […]

This week, the miniature “hobbit” ancient humans of Flores Island may have come from the nearby island of Sulawesi, where researchers have discovered stone tools, four newly discovered tarantulas have been discovered with the longest known schlongs in the spider world, and cockatoos have at least 30 different dance moves that they love to perform. […]

Next time you’re feeling a bit peaky, better dust off your grandma’s old medical encyclopedias rather than opt for the high-tech solution – it turns out asking ChatGPT might just make things worse.  The evidence? A new case study out of Washington state, in which a seemingly healthy man ended up poisoning himself to the […]

A landmark study of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has just reported preliminary results, suggesting that the DNA of people with the condition is markedly altered in eight key regions.  ME/CFS affects an estimated 67 million people worldwide. There is no specific test or cure for the condition, and patients can experience substantial challenges when […]

States in quantum superposition are notoriously fragile, but researchers in China have reported creating such a state that lasted for a whopping 23 minutes and 20 seconds. While this record-breaking result is exciting in itself, the team believes that it could open new ways to high-precision measurements and even information processing for quantum computers – […]

The first study to conduct a thorough global estimate of the number of children born via assisted reproductive technology (ART), like in vitro fertilization (IVF), has estimated that between 9.8 million to just over 13 million babies have been born this way since the tech first came into use in 1978. ART consists of any […]