Deborah Bloomfield

Viral TikTok sensation Apollo has proved he’s not a bird brain by breaking the world record of the most items identified by a parrot in 3 minutes. The 4-year-old African grey parrot broke the Guinness World Record after successfully identifying 12 items on December 18, 2023.  Advertisement Based in Florida, USA, Apollo belongs to Dalton and […]

The Beipanjiang Bridge has been described as “China’s Impossible Engineering Feat.” Evidently, though, the stunningly high crossing is very much in the realm of possibility. Elevated a dizzying 565 meters (1,854 feet) above a river valley, the Beipanjiang Bridge is the highest bridge in the world – at least for now.  Also known as the […]

A new study has explored the possible health benefits of using the milk of female horses in ice cream. The frozen treat is more traditionally made up of cow’s milk and cream, but by swapping in the milk of mares, they discovered it was possible to get more good bacteria swirled into the mix. Advertisement […]

Astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) by Boeing’s faulty Starliner may have to wait until 2025 to return to Earth. Advertisement Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore departed for the ISS on June 5, the third and final test of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, and its first launch with a crew. The mission was […]

Sex chromosomes have been in the news a lot recently thanks to speculation about Olympic athletes, but a new discovery shows how far we are from understanding how exactly they work. In particular, the findings demonstrate that the animal kingdom has found a variety of ways around a critical problem sex selection would otherwise pose […]

Sometimes genetics likes to throw an adorable spanner in the works, especially when it comes to the animal world. From albino anteaters to spotless giraffes, color is one aspect that is often at the hands of the genetic lottery – however, it seems ears are not immune to the effects either. Advertisement When four kittens […]

A study that looked at how tarantulas interact with other animals has revealed that they are actually pretty chill with a wide range of species. The eight-legged critters that get some of us humans in such a twist were found living alongside amphibians, reptiles, whip spiders, and harvestmen across the globe. In some cases, the […]

Hinging our happiness on animals known to have a significantly shorter lifespan than our own was, in hindsight, a bad idea. Saying goodbye to a pet is an incredibly painful time in a person’s life, but what if there were a way we could help our pets live longer, better lives? That’s exactly what Celine […]

Luxury Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana has created a “scented mist for dogs” – and it costs upwards of $100, making it some seriously spenny puppy perfume. Outrageous price tag aside, is it really a good idea to be dousing our dogs in this, or any other, fragrance? Advertisement Fefé – named for Domenico Dolce’s […]

In the forests of South Africa a group of snails can be found doing something a bit surprising. Tail-wagger snails do what it says on the tin, throwing around small black protrusions like little dogs in a good mood. Advertisement Exactly what purpose the tail-wagging serves isn’t known for certain, but it’s been suggested it […]

Huge chunks of Antarctica have recently been slapped with (potentially) record-breaking warm temperatures that have lingered for a worryingly long time. Advertisement New data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that large parts of the ice-covered continent experienced temperatures that were 10 to 12°C (18 to 21.6°F) above average for this time of […]

The ongoing troubles of the Boeing Starliner capsule are affecting the schedule of launches to the International Space Station (ISS). The starship is on its first crewed flight test and it has been a partial success. While it flew to orbit with no issues, it experienced delays and once on approach, thrusters malfunctioned. Since then, […]

In recent months, many people will have experimented with a chatbot like ChatGPT. Useful though they can be, there’s also no shortage of examples of them producing, ahem, erroneous information. Now, a group of scientists from the University of Oxford are asking: is there a legal pathway by which we could require these chatbots to […]

In 1947, a covert Soviet test facility carried out experiments into sleep. The researchers took several test subjects – prison inmates – and sealed them in an airtight space that was then filled with an experimental stimulant gas designed to prevent sleep. Over the next few weeks, the researchers planned to observe their hapless test […]

Just three years ago, researchers discovered a new geomagnetic phenomenon. Dubbed “space hurricanes”, scientists saw huge swirling arms of plasma in the Earth’s magnetosphere hundreds of kilometers long around a calm “eye of the storm”, just like in a regular hurricane. These events can disrupt satellites in low-Earth orbit and even cause aurorae closer to […]

Archaeology and outer space may not sound like they should mix outside of science fiction – but on board the International Space Station (ISS), the first-ever archaeological survey in space has been carried out. Advertisement The ISS is the largest and most intensely inhabited space station to exist so far, boasting over 270 visitors from […]

Pet cam footage released by the fire department in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has shown the moment a house caught on fire after the owner’s dog chewed into a lithium-ion power bank. Advertisement According to a statement from the fire department posted to social media, firefighters responded to the house fire back in May. Though the building […]

Yet another study has poured cold water on the sensational claims surrounding Homo naledi, an extinct human relative with a puny brain that has been claimed to have buried its dead. Advertisement In 2023, archaeologists working at the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa claimed they had found evidence that Homo naledi intentionally buried their […]

If you ask citizens of wealthy English-speaking countries which moral values they consider most important, their answers vary by the time of year, according to a new study. Naturally, the variation is not enormous, or people would have noticed it before, but it is large and surprisingly consistent over many years and may shape choices […]

Learning more about inaccessible places is often time-consuming, expensive, and comes with a multitude of other challenges. While technologies can be adapted to explore Earth’s more remote environments, researchers in Australia have found a perfectly adapted ready-made tool to help them learn more about the ocean floor: sea lions.   Advertisement “Using animal-borne video and […]