Deborah Bloomfield

Somehow, Sunspot AR 3664 has returned. OK, not somehow. It simply moved around the Sun as the Sun orbits on its axis – but we wanted to do a Star Wars reference. Because, just like Palpatine, AR 3664 has put on a light show. It was responsible for the solar flares and coronal mass ejections […]

Surgeons in ancient Egypt may have attempted to treat cancer by cutting away tumors on patients’ skulls, new research shows. While observing the cancer-ridden crania of two Egyptian corpses, the study authors noticed cut marks that are likely to have been made by doctors who tried to remove the growths thousands of years ago. Advertisement […]

A great rule of thumb for the universe is accepting that everything is a lot more complicated than you expect. Take, for example, asteroid Dinkinesh, the first target of the NASA mission Lucy. As the spacecraft approached, the team were surprised to see an unexpected moon appear around the small asteroid. And they weren’t ready […]

The world record for the largest number of electrodes placed onto a human brain was just broken by brain-computer interface developers Precision Neuroscience. They successfully placed four arrays, each containing 1,024 tiny electrodes, onto the surface of a living patient’s brain, doubling the previous total record of 2,048. Advertisement Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) combine implanted electrodes […]

If there’s one thing we can say for Moon landing conspiracy theorists, it’s that they’ve really got some stamina. Even 55 years after the first Moon landing, and with all the evidence we have that they happened, people are still clinging to the belief that they were faked. Advertisement Though conspiracy theorists tend to focus […]

Among the countless cicadas emerging across the eastern US this spring as part of a rare double-brood emergence, a kid from Illinois stumbled across one extraordinary individual: a blue-eyed mutant. Advertisement Experts consider the special cicada to be “one in a million” as these cicadas’ eyes are usually red, and it’s already been snapped up […]

You go walking in a glorious field of flowers, you take in a deep breath… and immediately the idyllic peace and tranquility is ruined by a sneeze attack. You, my friend, are allergic to plant sperm – also known as pollen. Plant scientists across the globe are continuously researching all aspects of our pretty floral […]

The planet confusingly known as 40 Eridani Ab has been confirmed not to exist. After previous studies had raised questions about whether activity on the star 40 Eridani A had been misinterpreted as the influence of a planet, a new paper provides proof. Under ordinary circumstances, this might be of interest only to specialists, but […]

An aerospace engineer and YouTuber has captured footage of several unidentified objects whizzing past the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Advertisement Destin Sandlin, like many others, traveled to the path of totality in order to attempt to video and photograph the eclipse. When he looked at the footage, he noticed a few odd […]

The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is one of the ocean’s biggest mysteries. There are no photographs and no footage of a living colossal squid in its natural habitat. What we do know about this ocean beast is learnt from the few specimens that have been found in fishing nets or washed up on beaches.  Advertisement […]

The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain that’s been spreading among poultry, wild birds, and a number of mammal species across the globe has been detected for the first time in beef from a US cow. The meat did not enter the food supply – but after the recent detection of virus fragments in milk, […]

The length of the primary cycle for solar activity has been attributed to the combined gravitational effects of Venus, Earth, and Jupiter. Advertisement The spectacular auroral show of May 10 has made millions of people familiar with solar activity who had not been aware of it before. Inevitably, many want to know why sunspots and […]

Ancient graffiti of battling gladiators has been found among the ruins of the Roman city Pompeii. Archaeologists on the project believe these scribbles reveal an insight into the mindset of ancient Romans and their often-bloody ways. Advertisement The charcoal doodles were recently revealed among the remains of a courtyard belonging to Casa del Secondo Cenacolo […]

The magnetic field of our planet protects us from many cosmic threats and, for centuries, it has been instrumental in navigation. Decades of studies have unlocked incredible insights into what goes on deep beneath our feet, but there are still new things to consider – such as some peculiar results scientists have been getting. Advertisement […]

In certain places in Japan, there are gigantic slabs of stone, erected centuries ago, that warn of environmental catastrophe. Advertisement “High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants,” one reads. “Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point.” Advertisement Some of the tsunami stones were placed […]

Visitors to the northern Oregon and southern Washington coastline are being told to avoid touching balls and patties of an oily, tar-like substance that’s been washing up on the shore and affecting wildlife. Advertisement The substance was first reported on May 19, and in the days that followed, was found along a roughly 240-kilometer (150-mile) […]

Tarantulas might be an arachnophobe’s greatest fear – but who could resist the power of an electric blue tarantula? Three species are particularly famous for having an electric blue hue, and while they might be the stuff of nightmares for some, they are pretty dreamy to behold.  The Cobalt Blue Tarantula Our first blue species […]

New research has challenged one of the most widely accepted theories about the function of sleep: that it allows the brain’s waste clearance system to take out the trash in the form of harmful toxins that build up while we’re awake.  Advertisement It’s something we all absolutely have to do, yet scientists know surprisingly little […]

One of the most prominent features of supermassive black holes that are actively feeding is a jet of plasma. The jet can move at almost the speed of light and extend for many millions of light-years in some cases. New research shows that the jets are not stuck in place, but they can in fact […]

Along with bonobos, chimpanzees are humanity’s closest living relatives, with a genome that is strikingly similar to our own. Yet chimps don’t drive cars, speak Danish, or play the clarinet, so if we’re so genetically alike, how can we be so different in our appearance and behavior? How similar are we really? Humans and chimpanzees […]