Deborah Bloomfield

Astronomers have measured the most distant magnetic field of a galaxy yet. The light of this object has traveled for 11 billion years to get to us, and it carried the information of what the magnetic field of this galaxy was like. An incredible discovery. Magnetic fields play a very important role in the evolution […]

If they didn’t already exist, octopuses might make great sci-fi creatures. They are super-smart, sometimes venomous, and let’s be honest, just the number of tentacles alone is a Doctor Who villain-level of freaky.  When it comes to more scientific explanations, why are octopuses so out-of-this-world? One reason is that they are master editors – not […]

A rare cache of Roman weapons has been discovered stashed away in a cave in the Judean Desert. There, tucked away in a rocky hiding place, researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ariel University retrieved four 1,900-year-old swords, still inside their leather scabbards. It’s thought the weapons were war booty, hidden by Judean rebels within […]

A few weeks ago, the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making India the fourth nation on Earth to land successfully on the Moon, and the first to land near the south pole.  Since then, the mission aimed at primarily examining the composition of the lunar soil has detected sulfur, […]

A global study looking at cancer diagnoses in the under 50s has found that early onset cancer has increased by 79.1 percent between 1990 and 2019.  The team, including experts from around the world, used data from the Global Burden of Disease dataset from 204 countries for their research. They found that during the studied […]

A uniquely leggy dinosaur dating back 150 million years may have adapted to swamp life by evolving to have a lower leg twice as long as its thigh. The trait has never been seen in dinosaurs before and indicates this new-to-science species was either an extremely fast runner or used to wade through swampy environments […]

There is a type of bamboo known as henon, Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis, which only flowers once every 120 years. Though this may seem like a long time to put off flowering, the bamboo dies shortly afterward, so let’s not be so quick to judge. With a gap of over a century between flowering, botanists […]

An oil pipeline megaproject is planned to carve through East Africa despite major concerns about how it will impact the climate, local communities, and biodiversity.  The East Africa Crude Oil Export Pipeline (EACOP) is a planned pipeline that’s set to run for 1,443 kilometers (896 miles) between oilfields on the shores of Lake Albert in […]

Each year, it seems like more and more environmental devastation is happening across the globe: we have seen summer heatwaves, emperor penguins failing to breed due to the lack of sea ice, and many wildfires. So, there has never been a greater need for effective sustainability practices.  As such, sustainability has been a big discussion […]

Remember the days when a long drive in high summer would make your car’s windshield look like the site of an insect massacre? If you’ve noticed that this sight is becoming increasingly uncommon, you’re not alone. Ecologists have also discovered a decline in the number of bug splatters on car windows, and some believe that […]

If you’ve ever thrown a ball, climbed a tree, or reached the cereal off the top shelf in the supermarket you could have apes to thank. Research looking into the downclimbing habitats of monkeys and apes has suggested that the shoulders and flexible elbows that evolved in apes helped our ancestors reach the ground without […]

Your fingertips remember the things you touch, and this memory affects how sensory information is relayed to the brain. Now, new research is demonstrating just how important this concept could be to our ability to perform everyday tasks that most of us hardly even think about. An action as simple as picking up your coffee […]

On the Moon, as well as several robots, some tardigrades, a family photograph, and maybe even some dinosaur remains, you will find 96 bags of human poop. On the way up to the Moon, Apollo astronauts collected their urine in tanks, while anyone who needed to poop had to strap a bag over their anus […]

In a bid to streamline the muddled story of human evolution, an international team of scientists has put forward the case for classifying a new species of extinct human, Homo bodoensis, that’s a direct ancestor of us, modern humans.  Reported in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews, their new identification is a reassessment […]

In the Jordan Rift Valley of Israel, archeologists unearthed a truly baffling archeological discovery. At a site dating to 1.4 million years ago, they discovered dozens of surprisingly spherical balls made out of limestone. In a new study, researchers put forward their evidence to argue that these enigmatic artifacts were intentionally crafted by early humans, […]

JWST can detect many interesting gases in the atmospheres of exoplanets. As those distant worlds pass in front of their stars, their atmospheres filter light, leaving an impression of its components that the telescope can detect. If an alien civilization has its own JWST, it would be able to do the same with Earth, and […]

The US Government is using the US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, to attempt to block the next trip to the wreckage of the Titanic. Many shipwrecks, such as military ships that have sunk in US waters, are off-limits to explorers, tourists, and people looking to salvage booty. The Titanic, lying in international waters, is […]

A six-month-old’s eyes turned an unusual shade of blue, in what doctors believe was a rare complication from a treatment for COVID-19. The boy was first brought to doctors following the development of a cough and fever, before an antigen test confirmed that he had COVID-19. He was prescribed favipiravir by the doctors, which is […]

Forget UFOs from faraway planets – there’s an Earth-borne type of alien we might need to be worried about. According to a major new report, invasive alien species could pose a significant global threat to nature and humans alike. Alien species are organisms that humans have introduced to areas other than their natural habitat, intentionally […]

We’ve all been there. You’re stumbling home after a few drinks on a Saturday night when a moral philosopher jumps out of a bin and hits you with a sudden hypothetical moral dilemma.  Usually, you’re ready for such devious assaults, but the drink has addled your judgment and now you find yourself spouting utilitarian answers […]