Deborah Bloomfield

Nature loves to break the neat little boxes we use to classify stuff. In astronomy, one of these box breakers is brown dwarfs. These objects have both stellar and planetary qualities, existing on the cusp of both. New research continues to blur the line and the latest observations are no different. Brown dwarfs in the […]

The USA is, by pretty much all metrics, the most powerful country in the world right now. It has by far the largest nominal GDP and GDP per capita; the strongest and best-funded military; a leading role in just about any international organization or process, and frankly incredible cultural cachet. It wasn’t always this way. […]

Political and scientific news at the moment can seem like they are coming from parallel worlds. On the one hand science reporting is full of coverage of the – mostly disastrous – consequences of a hotter world. What gets published to a non-scientific audience is a tiny fraction of the research reaching the same conclusions. […]

As we walked through the twisting corridors of the ancient castle, the rain continued to fall outside. It had been raining heavily since we arrived, but now a full-blown storm had rolled in. Water trickled into some rooms from cracks barely hidden behind ornate paneling, while the wind, whistling and moaning, slammed doors in distant […]

Yes, spiders do sleep (or at least enter a sleep-like state that’s very similar to our form of slumber).  Much like us, spiders need a deep rest state to keep their brains functioning and their bodies healthy. Given the vast differences in brain structure and evolutionary history between humans and arachnids, it’s no shocker to […]

In a new package of 12 detailed papers, scientists have unveiled 3D “blueprints” of multiple different tumor types, giving researchers a close look at how cancers develop and progress. “These 3D maps of tumors are important because they finally let us see what, until now, we have only been able to infer about tumor structures […]

Few can resist the appeal of an adorable animal; from diddy chameleons to cute baby cows, the world is full of species that make you go “awww”. Now, it seems the ranks of impossibly small and incredible creatures have been bolstered by one new addition: a brand-new species of flea-toad that is the world’s second […]

When we think of the Jurassic, images of giants come to mind. Giant dinosaurs, giant pterosaurs, giant frogs… If the latter had never occurred to you, might we offer up the oldest known tadpole on record? And yes, it’s an absolute giant. A fossil tadpole has been found that dates back 161 million years, an […]

Animals are even more partial to fermented fruits than had been assumed, indicating ethanol has a big attraction to a great many of the creatures with which we share the planet. In particular, species for which fruit or nectar are a big part of the diet are more likely than not to indulge in a […]

The world’s oldest mine has been discovered in southern Africa by bombarding ancient materials with neutrons inside the reactor core. Dated at around 48,000 years old, the mine shows the colossal amount of significance that prehistoric humans placed on ochre. Ochre might be one of the most important materials in human history. It’s a natural […]

Many consider voting a civic duty, even in those countries where it is not compulsory. People go to great lengths to exercise their democratic right of choosing their representatives in politics, but sometimes circumstances don’t make it easy. Imagine if you want to vote but you are in space – your nearest drop-off location for […]

Do you find spiders a bit creepy? Are you considering putting conkers on your windowsill to keep the spiders away? We laud you for your efforts to tackle the issue in a humane way, but regrettably, it won’t work. You may have heard the same said for walnuts and Osage orange, but filling your house […]

Mount Fuji is still snowless, making it the latest time in the year that the picturesque mountaintop has been bare since records began over a century ago.  The snow on Mount Fuji’s peak melts in the summertime but typically returns in early October when temperatures start to drop. On average, the volcano’s snowcap begins forming […]

Among the many perks that came with being an ancient Macedonian king was the exclusive right to dress in purple, and Alexander the Great certainly made the most of this royal entitlement. The legendary ruler is believed to have to have donned his aubergine apparel at every opportunity, and a new study suggests we may […]

This spooky season, IFLScience is taking you on a journey between science and superstition, to a dimension of imagination akin to The Twilight Zone. For the next several hundred words, we are going to ask you to believe in ghosts. We will build a case for how ghosts can work within the natural laws of […]

From the Roman wonder-drug of, uh, cabbage, to the turn-of-the-century fad of Fletcherism, to today’s preoccupation with mostly-pointless vitamin pills, what we eat and how we eat it has long been an obsession for human societies.  And few things get people worrying about what they’re putting in their bodies more than (gasp) artificial foods. Whether […]

Many across the world have witnessed the spectacle of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Some of us, due to constant clouds, were not so lucky. There was, however, hope for a second bright comet this year: Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1). It was expected to get as bright as Venus by Halloween, but the Sun is a cruel mistress, […]

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. This record-breaking result is exciting in itself but the team believes that it could open new ways to high-precision measurements and even information processing for quantum computers – […]

There are so many questions surrounding death: What happens? Where do we go? Burial vs cremation? What’s the greenest way to go? But today we’d like to tackle the perplexing issue of graveyard vs cemetery? Is there a difference? You may have heard that it all comes down to placement, with graveyards being specific to […]

Some “extremely rare” fossils that date back 450 million years have revealed a new-to-science species. They were retrieved from a famous fossil site in New York State, USA – and best of all? They’re preserved in glittering fool’s gold. The new species has been named Lomankus edgecombei, in honor of arthropod expert Greg Edgecombe of […]