Deborah Bloomfield

When you think “birds-of-paradise”, your mind may jump to the bright, rainbow plumage of species like Diphyllodes magnificus or Paradisornis rudolphi. But equally present in the natural world is the exact opposite – a black so deep that it reflects less than 0.5 percent of the light that touches it – and now, scientists know […]

A young man in Bulgaria was left with horrific injuries to his head and limbs after he was mauled by a lion 6,000 years ago. Amazingly, however, the unfortunate chap survived the attack thanks to the care of his Copper Age community, although he probably suffered from physical and mental disabilities for the rest of […]

In a leaked memo sent to staff on Black Friday, November 28, the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) – a branch of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – called for significant changes to vaccine policy on the basis that “at least 10 children” had allegedly been found to have […]

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy, but we will never see what it looks like from the outside. It is too big, and we are too deeply inside it. This limitation results in some large uncertainties about the detailed structure of our place in the universe. A new method to […]

Thousands of people type into Google “why does my belly button smell” each year, so we’re here to tell you: it’s most likely a buildup of bacteria, but there are a few other health problems you should look out for.  Smells are often, but not always, associated with bacteria. As they feast on organic material, […]

Chinese records of a total solar eclipse in 709 BCE have provided insight into two unrelated scientific questions we might not be able to resolve any other way, and revealed a mistake no one suspected. The orbit of the Moon is so regular that we can calculate the timing of solar eclipses back a very […]

We come to you today bearing sad news. After 30 years of chomping, chilling, and charming the public, the undisputed king of San Francisco, Claude the albino alligator, has died. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. “It is with a heavy heart […]

Nitrous oxide (N2O), also known as laughing gas, could be a game-changing treatment option for severe depression, according to a new meta-analysis. The study incorporated seven clinical trials and four protocol papers from teams across the globe, and found good reason to think that inhaling the gas at clinical concentrations could help where other treatments […]

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to be 13.6 billion years old. It began to form a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, but its distinctive spiral arms and general structure took many billions of years to assemble. So, imagine astronomers’ surprise when they looked at a JWST image and found a […]

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth this month, whizzing by at 270 million kilometers (168 million miles) away, putting on a show for anyone equipped even with a small telescope or binoculars.  By now, you have likely heard of our third confirmed interstellar visitor, but for those of you who aren’t […]

Time is relative. If you don’t believe me, get into a plank for one minute. How was that? Longest minute of your life, huh? And that’s just psychological time. Physical time, too, is relative and it’s fairly easy for two clocks to become out of sync. Differences in speed or gravity do the trick, so […]

New research is helping to demystify the Voynich Manuscript, long hailed as “the most mysterious manuscript in the world.” While the puzzle remains uncracked, some clever scientific sleuthing indicates that the unintelligible text could have been created using a cipher. If true, it means the bizarre book could potentially be deciphered.  The Voynich Manuscript is […]

Things weren’t looking good for the carnivorous plant Drosera silvicola. Scientists believed there were just two remaining populations of this “meat-eating” flower, both of which have found themselves in the middle of a mine. However, researchers have recently discovered a stronghold of the bug-dissolving beauty over 70 kilometers (43 miles) away from its currently known territory.  The […]

Every now and then, you may have noticed small worm-like structures in your vision, particularly if you are staring at a bright uniform color, such as a bright blue sky or a snowy landscape. These worm-like structures are floaters, and are caused by objects such as protein clumps, bits of tissue, or red blood cells inside […]

Do you remember the first time you saw a magic trick? Maybe it was a rabbit pulled from an empty hat, or you were asked to pick a card, any card. On the surface, magic can look like nothing more than clever props, hidden compartments, and theatrical flair – but many of the manipulations you […]

“When a tumour appears in the liver, that doesn’t mean it’s a liver cancer,” Professor Caroline Dive told me during a recent Zoom call. “It could be a liver cancer, or it could have come from somewhere else, like the lung. The treatment for lung cancer and liver cancer is not the same, but if […]

With around five years left to go before it leaves Earth’s orbit and is crashed into the ocean, NASA has announced that the International Space Station (ISS) has hit a new milestone. The ISS has been operational since the start of the millennium. Since November 2, 2000, humans have had a continuous presence in space, […]

Ancient hunter-gatherers in the Atacama Desert may have begun mummifying their dead as a form of “art therapy” to help them process their grief following the loss of a loved one. More specifically, the 7,000-year-old tradition might have been initiated by bereaved mothers struggling to come to terms with miscarriages, stillbirths or infant mortality. The […]

In February 1985, Jill Lawson went into labor at just 26 weeks pregnant, giving birth to her son Jeffrey Lawson when he weighed just 680 grams, or one-and-a-half pounds. Like many premature babies (but by no means all), Jeffrey developed patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), and was booked in for open heart surgery at a local […]