Deborah Bloomfield

Growing up in the animal world is no easy feat. Not only do you have to survive in harsh climatic conditions, hide from predators, or even learn to fly, but sometimes you need to learn to hunt as well. Fortunately for the orca calves of Monterey Bay, California, they had some adults on hand to […]

In the latest move towards more sustainable construction, engineers at MIT have come up with an ingenious way of producing 3D-printed, reusable bricks – but the material they’ve chosen might just surprise you. They’re made of glass, but their clever construction means they’re every bit as good as concrete, with better green credentials.  Advertisement “Glass […]

Americans, we have good and bad news. The good news? A new report from the Commonwealth Fund has concluded that your healthcare system is, and we quote, “in a class by itself” among wealthy nations. The bad news? It’s… not exactly the AP class they’re talking about. Advertisement “The U.S. is failing one of its […]

When chemists had an idea for a better catalyst to make ammonia, they decided to try nine variations at the same time. That turned out to be just as well, because the version they expected to work didn’t – but one of the long-shot alternatives proved so successful the work could end up cutting carbon […]

Veterinary medicine is a difficult field at the best of times, considering that the majority (but not all) of their patients can’t talk. It becomes even more difficult when serious health issues require surgery, and the complications only compound when the animal that needs surgery is a southern white rhinoceros.  Advertisement Amara the southern white […]

Several hundred million years ago, a smallish elliptical galaxy passed through a larger spiral one. The result of that collision is the Arp 107 system. The spiral galaxy had its arms completely altered. One is still mostly there but the others present are now tendrils stretching around the galaxy. Now, new observations by JWST have […]

The entire human genome – all 3 billion or so base pairs – has been stored on a tiny, 5D memory crystal built to last for billions of years. In theory, should humans go extinct, this little chip could provide a blueprint to bring us back – providing the technology to do so has materialized […]

A 60-year-old woman has sustained thermal burns after going off-trail at Yellowstone National Park. Advertisement The incident took place on the afternoon of Monday September 16, 2024, when the woman, her husband, and their leashed dog wandered into the thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead, at Old Faithful. The woman then stepped through a thin […]

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s and struggled with picky eating, chances are you have some painful memories of mealtime battles and stressed-out parents. Thankfully, knowledge and understanding of these issues has moved on somewhat, but there’s still stigma attached to the label of “fussy” or “picky” – both for kids and […]

Scientists examining the teeth of ancient pandas discovered at a fossil site in southern Germany have identified evidence that rewrites our understanding of their evolutionary history. Unlike modern pandas, these extinct bears were omnivorous. Advertisement Existing giant pandas are famous for their laziness and their fastidious diet of bamboo shoots, leaves and stems. In fact, […]

Members of the San and Khoe Indigenous populations of southern Africa can still trace much of their genetic ancestry back to prehistoric hunter-gatherers who lived in the region 10,000 years ago. According to the authors of a new study, this degree of genetic continuity over multiple millennia is “exceptional in the global archaeogenetic record.” Advertisement […]

Supplementary materials don’t get any better than those of a recent preprint that dives into the dancing skills of crested gibbons. Armed with ridiculously long limbs, these primates were already primed to throw some serious shapes – but nobody at IFLScience was quite expecting the scenes that would unfold in “Dance displays in gibbons: Biological […]

The highest peak of the Great Smoky Mountains, formerly known as Clingmans Dome, has officially returned to its Cherokee name: Kuwohi (pronounced koo-WHOA-hee).  Advertisement The decision comes after the US Board of Geographic Names voted in favor of a request put forward by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. “The Great Smoky National Park team […]

Cats appear to know (or at least consider) whether they can fit through a gap that is wide but not very high, indicating an understanding of their own dimensions. However, this only seems to work one way, as they will tackle a tall but narrow gap with confidence, even if it’s far too thin to […]

The not-so-sensual courting behavior of sharks has been captured on camera at an aquarium in Australia. The rare footage reveals how grey nurse sharks let each other know they’re interested, in a spectacle that, frankly, makes you kind of relieved not to be a shark. Advertisement Famous for their jaws, sharks don’t hold back in […]

This week in Break It Down: Earth’s about to get a new mini-moon (if only for a while), ancient rock art may have been based on an extinct fossil, a “third state” identified between life and death, a truly supermassive black hole with jets spanning 23 million light-years, there’s a new blood group, and the […]

With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), spy satellite images from the Cold War are revealing the engineering mastery of ancient civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa.  Advertisement In a new study, researchers at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology have tested out a creative way to search for qanats, a system that […]

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is just a day away from its closest encounter with the Sun and it is getting brighter. It has now crossed the brightness threshold to be visible to the naked eye. While from Earth it is still just a fuzzy dot without help, with a modest magnification you can see its […]

Ask a child to draw water and, armed with crayons, they will make it blue. However, many adults would consider water to be colorless. The blue hue that large bodies of water have is not simply a reflection of the sky or light scattering on the surface – the kids are right, water is ever […]

The Ocean Photographer Of The Year winners have been announced, and among the many categories you can spot some truly wild animal behavior. The jack fish in the above photo hasn’t been eaten, and nor has the jellyfish become its dinner.  In the deep and dangerous sea, these two animals have formed a curious symbiosis […]