Deborah Bloomfield

Despite its freezing temperatures, Antarctica is a desert because it receives very little rain or snow. Deserts are defined as landscapes where little precipitation occurs. While there are no strict criteria for what makes a desert, it typically refers to a region that receives less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain or snow per […]

This week, the world’s oldest preserved fossil polyene pigments were found in 12-million-year-old snail shells, long before dogs, foxes may have been humans’ best friend, and we say goodbye to Polaris as we prepare to get a new north star. Finally, we ask what on Earth is a henge? Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for […]

Dozens of new species have been discovered along the Salas y Gómez Ridge off the coast of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, the remote Pacific island famous for its giant stone moai human statues. Among the never-before-seen critters found here were squid, fish, corals, mollusks, sea stars, glass sponges, sea urchins, crabs, and […]

The ancient Maya civilization is often erroneously described as an empire, when in reality it was made up of numerous disjointed polities, united by a shared culture but divided by allegiances to multiple rulers and vast swathes of impenetrable jungle. However, for a brief, glorious period in the sixth and seventh centuries CE, a group […]

This article first appeared in Issue 18 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.  At the cutting edge of theoretical physics research, physicists are trying to reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity – two of the most successful scientific theories ever put forward. They can describe so much of our universe, but they do not work well together. This becomes […]

The largest study of hospitalized COVID patients carried out in the UK to date has revealed people with long COVID may have patterns of inflammation that can be picked up in a blood sample. The patterns seem to mirror the collection of symptoms that each individual experiences, and could help doctors devise more effective treatments. […]

Bonobos have a bit of a reputation for being the chillest of all the great apes, with an attitude of peace and love rather than the violent ways of their chimpanzee cousins. But new research is set to turn that assumption on its head, with male bonobos found to be frequently more aggressive than male […]

The volcano snail may sound (and look) like something from a fantasy novel, but it is a real creature that has adapted to live in the inhospitable would at the bottom of the ocean. What is the volcano snail? Volcano snail is one of the common names for Chrysomallon squamiferum, a species of deep-sea gastropod […]

For the first time, an exotic material known as a Wigner crystal formed solely from electrons has been visualized. These impossible-sounding crystals had been claimed before, but never confirmed directly. As well as proving its existence, the images revealed unexpected aspects of the strange crystal’s nature. Materials are composed of protons and electrons, as well […]

The Toyger is a relatively new breed of domestic cat that’s been bred to resemble a mini tiger with the temperament of a family-friendly pet.  As their appearance suggests, the breed’s genome contains a touch of heritage from wild cats, although no new wild cat outcrossing was directly used in their development. Instead, this charismatic […]

Have you ever had a conversation in your dreams? Maybe it’s just everyday chatter, maybe it’s an argument with someone, but it’d be pretty cool if we were somehow able to record it. As it happens, birds also seem to get vocal in their dreams, and a new study has been able to translate what […]

This article first appeared in Issue 18 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.  The hot springs in Fjallabak Nature Reserve, Iceland, are a tourist trap for adventurous humans looking to bask in the restorative warm waters and take in an unbeatable mountain view. However, as the BBC’s new three-part series Wild Scandinavia demonstrates, it’s also a popular spot among wolf spiders.  Advertisement Reaching […]

Remember a couple of months back when people thought a stingray named Charlotte was about to pop out a shark-ray hybrid? The aquarium responsible for her care has now posted an update on her pregnancy – and sadly it doesn’t feature little baby shingrays. Sharing a video of Charlotte on social media, the Aquarium & […]

An astronomer has suggested a new solution to the Fermi Paradox, which implies that the “great filter” may still lie in our near future. First, a little background. With 200 billion trillion (ish) stars in the universe and 13.7 billion years that have elapsed since it all began, you might be wondering where all the […]

An argument has broken out on the Internet about how long it would take you to break out of a time loop if you had to remain there until you have beaten Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. “Average man has never played chess, but he knows all of the rules. Each time he loses, the […]

The gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A was so far off the charts for these events that we would only expect to see something this bright once every thousand years. Naturally, astronomers expected some phenomenal event to be responsible – but instead, they found what looks like a perfectly ordinary supernova, with few clues as to why […]

A study of white dwarf stars has some sorry news for the Earth’s future, suggesting that even if it is not consumed when the Sun is at its largest, it may one day be torn apart by the solar corpse. Despite the occasional megaflare, the Sun is a very stable star. It has to be, […]

Antarctica is an ice-capped continent with blistering cold temperatures, but it also harbors red-hot volcanic activity.  There are a dozen volcanoes in Antarctica, the majority of which are located in West Antarctica and Marie Byrd Land. One study in 2017 identified 138 volcanoes in this part of the continent alone. While most of these are […]

An experimental drone has blasted off on its near-supersonic speed test flight, zipping through the sky at speeds of Mach 0.9 – that’s 1,111 kilometers (690 miles) per hour. This is just the beginning of things, though. Venus Aerospace, the company that developed the drone, ultimately wants to achieve speeds of Mach 9, nine times […]

A small asteroid being tracked by astronomers is about to make a close approach to Earth, passing within 0.00012 Astronomical Units (AU) of Earth. The asteroid is being tracked by NASA, and is small at around 2.2 to 4.9 meters (7.2 feet to 16 feet). According to an analysis by astronomers, the asteroid will be about 0.03 Lunar […]