Deborah Bloomfield

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The pyramids in Egypt attract a lot of conspiracy theories. We sort of get it – they are ancient structures covered in hieroglyphics, containing the mummified bodies of pharaohs, as well as various long-lost chambers that are only just now being discovered thanks to new imaging techniques. It is perhaps not surprising that there are […]

A major planetary mystery appears to have a solution. The so-called “cotton candy planets” are worlds with such an extremely low density that they were challenging our theories of planet formation. Now astronomers seem to have worked out how they came to be, and it was made possible by observing what goes on inside one […]

In 1936, Albert Einstein published what he described as a “little calculation”, showing how the Sun could one day be used as a gigantic telescope. Incredible as it may sound, the concept is not so far out of our reach, and one idea for how to practically achieve it is at phase III of NASA’s […]

A new fossil of the partially feathered dinosaur Psittacosaurus has revealed that these animals had bizarre skin that included both bird-like feathers and reptile-like scales. The first-of-its-kind fossil provides new insights into the evolution from scales to feathers, demonstrating that these animals exhibited “zoned development” in their skin. The first Psittacosaurus fossil was discovered in 1922, […]

A single brain implant has been used to help recover the speech of a paralyzed man in both his native Spanish and English. Even though he learned English much later in life, the brain-computer interface (BCI) was able to pick up which language he was trying to speak without having to program it in advance […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI has removed a new voice from their latest product, after actor Scarlett Johansson noted it was “eerily similar” to her own. Advertisement Earlier this month, OpenAI announced they were releasing a new model, dubbed GPT-4o. The product allows for text, audio, and image outputs, and can respond using image, text, […]

COVID-19 is very much still with us – and if you’re anything like us, you’ll have noticed more and more people complaining that they’re getting sick over the last couple of weeks. We know that there are some new COVID variants doing the rounds, but what are the symptoms to look out for? Advertisement The […]

The only lungless frog in the world has been exposed as a fraud, in fact being the secret owner of a tiny pair of lungs and glottis – respiratory organs that had previously been declared as absent in the rare Bornean flat-headed frog. New research looked at museum specimens using a high-resolution micro-CT scanner and […]

When Janet and Stephen Boxall saw a sea turtle on Campwin Beach in Queensland, Australia, they realized this was not a species they had seen before. Months later, they learned it was an olive ridley turtle, never known to nest on Australia’s east coast despite decades of observations. In the process, they may have rescued […]

Nightmares and “daymares” could be an early warning sign of an autoimmune disease according to a new study. Troubling dreams and daytime hallucinations could provide advance warning of the arrival of diseases like lupus, and a greater awareness of them both from patients and doctors could lead to improved management of a person’s autoimmune conditions. […]

Freshly released images show a bird’s eye view of the colossal craters that scar the surface of Mars. Not only do they make for a pretty sight, but the images provide clues about whether life has ever lived on our closest planetary neighbor. The images were captured by the Trace Gas Orbiter of ExoMars, an […]

Once upon a time, humans were just one of quite a few hominid species roaming the planet, just trying to eke out a survival with nothing but an overgrown frontal lobe and a stubborn attitude to their name. Advertisement Today, we’re alone – and those evolutionary cousins are a mystery. But here’s the thing: we […]

Healthy ecosystems are known to require diversity, but a study from the forests of Maine reveals there’s an aspect of this ecologists have been overlooking: the personality of pollinators and seed dispersers. If the work proves applicable to other environments, it suggests that the richness and sustainability of the planet depends on having some animals […]

Ed Dwight is truly a modern-day Renaissance man. At the age of 90 years 8 months and 10 days, he was able to add another achievement to his illustrious and varied CV. He got to space, traveling on a suborbital spaceflight, Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-25. He beat actor William Shatner to the record of […]

The impact of war on the migration of an endangered species has been revealed for the first time. The study looked at the migration of the greater spotted eagle through Ukraine, before and after it was invaded by Russia back in 2022. The investigation into the effects of war came about unexpectedly, as the team […]

Google, perhaps feeling it has been left behind in the artificial intelligence (AI) arena, has made a number of updates in the last year in attempt to compete with smaller firms like OpenAI.  Advertisement The latest move has been a rollout of “AI overviews” to topics you are searching for. Instead of the usual list […]

Sarcasm is so easy to convey via text. Nothing’s easier. If this sarcastic statement wasn’t apparent, then perhaps there’s a reason why researchers are trying to develop new algorithms to better detect it. Advertisement Even in person, some sarcastic verbal statements can be tricky to pick up on. That’s because sarcasm is used to convey […]

In 1982, an ancient burial site was discovered by accident during the construction of a new road. The operator of a digger noticed skulls collecting in the machinery, triggering an excavation and investigation, uncovering over 177 human remains that date back 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. The peat-bottomed pond in what’s now known as Florida […]

If you’re wondering what health and disease might look like in 30 years time – what conditions might be dominating and how that will affect our lives – then wonder no more. According to the latest findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD), the landscape will look quite different by […]