Deborah Bloomfield

Four new tarantula species have been discovered in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. While that is remarkable in itself, what makes these four new tarantulas stand out from other known species is their surprisingly long schlongs.   Technically, tarantulas don’t have penises; instead, they possess specialized appendages called palps that are used […]

In 300 years, NASA’s Voyager spacecraft will reach a hypothetical region of space, long thought to exist but for which we do not yet have conclusive evidence. The region is so large that it will then spend the next 30,000 years passing through it.  Voyager was launched in 1977 and has been traveling ever since. […]

Wavy Dave the robot crustacean has been showing scientists how male fiddler crabs respond when they see a fellow crab waving. Famous for their enormous claws, the team made Wavy Dave blend in by giving him a huge claw of his own, only for it to get ripped off by a male crab. Before he […]

A tiny tweak in our brain chemistry may have been the secret weapon that gave Homo sapiens the edge over Neanderthals and Denisovans, a new study hints. The heart of this idea lies in an enzyme called adenylosuccinate lyase, or ADSL, which is involved in the synthesis of purine, a fundamental building block of DNA, […]

NASA has begun planning to end the mission of several important satellites at the request of the Trump administration, according to a report by NPR. In 2009, NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), an orbiting satellite designed to take precise measurements of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere and help guide our response to climate […]

For some people, seeing art can give them a kind of “art attack” known as Stendhal syndrome, or Florence syndrome. It’s a psychosomatic response to exceptional beauty, hence why Florence, Italy, the home of many great artworks, gets a hat-tip.  Symptoms of Stendhal syndrome can vary, but typically include things like increased heart rate, dizziness, […]

Tyrannosaurus rex is arguably the most infamous of the dinosaurs, renowned for its enormous teeth, teeny arms, and gargantuan size – but just how big did it get? The largest specimen ever found was discovered in Canada, weighed an astonishing 8,800 kilograms (19,400 pounds), and was nicknamed “Scotty”. Originally discovered in 1991, Scotty was trapped […]

A study of Australia’s many species of skink reveals they have evolved resistance to snake venom at least 25 times, a testimony to the continent’s dangers. Since each skink lineage had to evolve resistance from scratch through mutation, not all of them got the most effective protection, but some came back for a second round. […]

NASA’s Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012 – a date that has been marked ever since as its birthday. It was the year after, though, when the birthday celebrations took a turn that quickly became viral. The mission team made the rover sing itself Happy Birthday. Maybe saying that everybody loved it is […]

Flowering plants are a real treat for the senses, but when it comes to the biggest blooms, the talipot palm really puts on a show. With the largest branched inflorescence in the world, it can produce in the region of 24 million flowers that bloom all at once in a dazzling swan song that marks […]

If social media is to be believed, everything about our health and lifestyle needs to be optimized or “maxxed”. We’ve already seen sleepmaxxing, watermaxxing, and sunmaxxing – and now, people are maxxing out their fiber intake too. But is that really necessary? What is fiber? Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that can’t be easily […]

The complete genome of an early strain of “Spanish flu” – which killed up to 100,000 people between 1918 and 1920 – has been sequenced from the preserved lung of a young man who died of the illness. Presenting their findings in a new study, researchers say the virus displays a number of mutations that […]

NASA interim administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Trump Administration Transportation Secretary, is set to announce plans to have a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 this week. Duffy, a former Fox News host, has been placed as the temporary head of the space agency, following President Trump’s rescinding the nomination of billionaire […]

A new giant virus with “unusual” features – including an unprecedentedly long tail – has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean. At 2.3 micrometers long – that’s 0.00023 centimeters – it may not be huge by our standards, but in the viral world, it’s a whopper. In fact, it’s the longest virus appendage described to […]

A zoo in Denmark has called out to the public to donate healthy chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs to feed to its predator residents. In a translated social media post, Aalborg Zoo stated that these animals “make up an important part of the diet of our predators – especially the European lynx, which needs whole […]

Deep-sea jellyfish might not have a brain, but they don’t aimlessly drift around the world’s seas. In fact, they seem to stick within their set territory with an incredible sense of order.  In a new study, scientists at the University of Western Australia used historical records, molecular tools, and genetic analysis to study the geographical […]

Tyrannosaurus rex deserves its fearsome reputation, at least when it comes to bite force, a new analysis has concluded, but some of its fellow giant theropods were surprisingly weak in the jaw. Naturally, some of the largest predators ever to walk the Earth had a fearsome armory to bring down prey, but they apparently relied […]

A man born with Usher syndrome type 1b, a rare genetic disease that causes congenital deafness and progressive blindness, has reportedly experienced “substantial improvement” in his vision, after receiving a new type of gene therapy as part of an ongoing clinical trial. The 38-year-old man was the first patient in the world to be given […]

A giant marine reptile that lived during the age of dinosaurs has been discovered in Germany. Retrieved from the world-renowned Posidonia Shale fossil beds, the newly named Plesionectes longicollum has features unlike any other plesiosaur found to date. A new-to-science species, and the first plesiosauroid of its kind. Its name is derived from the Latin […]

Sometimes, genetics likes to throw a bit of a curveball when it comes to coloration of animals. These quirks can tip the scales in favor of all white or all black fur, feathers, or even skin and can even land somewhere in the middle in a genetic condition known as leucism.  Recently, the North Island […]