Deborah Bloomfield

There are few problems in math as stubborn as the Riemann hypothesis. First proposed in 1859, there have been dozens of attempts at solving it, by some of the sharpest mathematical minds around – but all have come up short.  Results on the hypothesis, therefore, when they do come, tend to be a bit… sideways. […]

The first Spanish city to be founded on the American mainland lasted just 14 years before it was burned to the ground amidst an Indigenous uprising. During its short existence, the settlement witnessed more than its fair share of drama and tragedy, as revealed by the findings of the first ever mapping study at the […]

Three new fossils, including part of a humerus, have been found at Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores. They indicate that Homo floresiensis, popularly known as Hobbits, were descended from Homo erectus, and became small relatively soon after arriving on Flores. Indeed, it seems at least some Hobbits from 700,000 years ago were […]

Recently, the mission team behind NASA’s Perseverance announced the detection of an exciting rock formation. Nicknamed Cheyava Falls, the arrowhead-shaped rock is the most promising find in the search for ancient life on Mars yet. There are structures visible in the rock that are consistent with being modified by microorganisms – it doesn’t mean that […]

Stumble upon a certain kind of beetle in South-East Asia’s tropical forests, and you’d be forgiven for wondering why there was a prehistoric ocean creature lurking in the leaves. But fear not, someone hasn’t been Jurassic Park-ing – it’s a trilobite beetle, and its bizarreness goes beyond looking like its namesake.  Advertisement What are trilobite […]

Ever had someone make you jump and find yourself clutching your chest? It’s like something just zapped behind your sternum, you feel a little shaky even. You lean against the wall as you recover, wondering why your friend is such a jerk, and why you can physically feel it in your chest when you get […]

Nutty Putty Cave has become synonymous with the tragic death of a caver who became trapped in its narrow tunnels in 2009. But while many people have learned about the cave through this accident, they are less familiar with the cave’s longer history. Advertisement For decades prior to the incident, the cave system was a […]

The bright purple athletics track at the Paris Olympics has fast become one of the Games’ most recognizable features (besides Muffin Man, that is) – but there’s far more to it than a pleasing appearance. Not only is it thought to be the fastest Olympic track ever, but it’s also got a surprise ingredient: shells. […]

An uncontacted tribe has attacked loggers using bows and arrows in a contested part of the Peruvian Amazon, according to a local Indigenous coalition. The organization is sharing news of the incident to highlight how the government hasn’t done enough to protect the territory of the Mashco Piro from the extraction of forest resources. Advertisement […]

As technological capabilities grow we can use different methods to learn more about the world around us, including the secret lives of the animal kingdom. In Minnesota, USA, a sassy lynx has been recorded on a camera trap, and boy does it look good.  Advertisement The Voyageurs Wolf Project studies the summer ecology of the […]

One of the oldest dinosaurs ever discovered may have just been delivered by torrential downpours in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Palaeontologists made the discovery after heavy rain sped up the process of erosion next to a reservoir dating back to the Triassic, meaning it’s estimated to be around 233 million […]

The family of Henrietta Lacks has launched a new lawsuit against two multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies for using her genetic material without her consent.  Advertisement The living relatives of Lacks are suing Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Novartis Gene Therapies, Inc., as well as Viatris, Inc. and its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals, in the US District Court for […]

In the latest step in the fight against mosquito-borne disease, scientists have sent in the drones. Field trials have seen uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying over Fiji, dropping hundreds of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that stop them from spreading diseases like dengue among the human population. Advertisement Dengue is a viral disease that is spread […]

Attached to the International Space Station (ISS) is a state-of-the-art particle detector, tasked with searching for antimatter and dark matter, and performing precise measurements of the composition of cosmic rays. Advertisement The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) has collected over 239,017,100,611 cosmic events in the decade it has been mounted to the ISS. Within this data […]

As the Earth warms, it could cross several so-called tipping points that would turn the effects of climate change from disastrous to catastrophic for most of the planet. Naturally, many scientists have put a lot of effort into trying to find out how close we are to these points, but a new study claims we […]

A beast that weighed in at around 3.5 tonnes once stomped across the grasslands of Eurasia, known as the Elasmotherium. It’s been coined the Siberian unicorn for the frankly outrageous horn atop its head, unsurprising as an ancient ancestor of the rhinoceros. Advertisement What is surprising is that this near-mythical beast may have walked the […]

There are multiple ways astronomers aim to look for aliens. One of them is to look for evidence of advanced technology. This takes a lot of forms, but one proposal that has been suggested many times is to find evidence of vast solar panel arrays on planets or around a star. New research argues that […]

The Egyptology world has had its feathers ruffled by a contentious new study that claims that a 4,500-year-old pyramid was built using jaw-droppingly sophisticated technology, including a spectacular “hydraulic elevator”. According to the authors, the mind-blowing system enabled enormous building blocks to be floated from the floor to the pyramid’s summit via a central shaft, […]

UNESCO has added 24 new and two expanded sites to its World Heritage List, ranging from areas with some of the earliest evidence of modern human behavior to regions rich in natural beauty and biodiversity. Keep reading to find out more about some of our favorites… Badain Jaran Desert – Towers of Sand and Lakes […]

Death Valley National Park, the hottest place on the planet, experienced its warmest month ever on record in July, reaching a sweltering 42.5°C (108.5°F) average 24-hour temperature. This beats the previous record of 42.3°C (108.1°F), set in 2018, the National Park Service (NPS) announced last week. Advertisement The record-breaking month also saw an average high […]