Deborah Bloomfield

Eating spicy food can spark a variety of reactions: a euphoric buzz, a racing heart, a tingling tongue, gastrointestinal apocalypse, existential dread, and tears of pain/joy. A gullet full of chili-loaded foods can also, unusually, cause a runny nose. What makes food spicy? A chemical called capsaicin is usually the culprit when we feel the […]

Africa is home to a rich array of carnivorous animals, from ferocious felids like lions and cheetahs to smaller creatures like foxes and mongoose. However, many such predators are also some of the continent’s most endangered – perhaps none more so than the highland-dwelling Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis). An ancient African species… You’d be forgiven […]

A stash of 15 marine fossils has been found in a Neanderthal cave in northern Spain, indicating that the extinct hominids may have developed a passion for accumulating stuff in the same way that modern humans collect baseball cards, stamps, and memorabilia. Reporting the discovery, researchers say they currently have “no valid hypothesis” to explain […]

Geese are famously aggressive animals whose sassy attitude appears to be crucial to their social rank. Large in size with peculiar “geese teeth“, they can be scary, and yet despite this, 45 percent of Britons reckon they could take on a goose. It’s a curious question that got two naturalists wondering: isn’t it time someone […]

It’s been a record year for dengue infections, and amidst the surge in cases, researchers have been trying to pinpoint the causes. Now, a new study suggests that climate change is responsible for 19 percent of the current global dengue burden – and could soar as high as 60 percent if nothing is done to […]

The era of human-induced extinctions has a new victim: a migratory shorebird called the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) has been declared almost certainly deceased. Although 164 avian species are recognized to have gone extinct by the IUCN Red List, the curlew’s previous wide range makes its loss particularly disturbing. Like many migratory birds, the Slender-billed Curlew once […]

Sometimes, it’s the everyday things that are most confusing. Things like, what are those weird dots on your windshield? Why is pink salt more expensive than the regular stuff? Does blowing on your soup actually do anything? And here’s another one you’ve probably thought about every cold day since you were about six. Why does […]

There’s nowhere on Earth quite like the Atacama Desert. Literally: it exists in a basically unique meteorological void, rendering it all but devoid of water and home to almost no life at all.  But “almost no life” is not the same thing as “no life” – and increasingly, science is turning up ever-more bizarre and […]

This week, Ice Age Amazonian rock art has been interpreted and appears to depict shamans spiritually transforming into animals, a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed cub has been found mummified in permafrost, and the first amber fragments have been recovered from Antarctica, providing information about the continent’s ancient forests. Finally, we ask if animal testing is entirely necessary […]

Vast amounts of money and brainpower in the effort to achieve sustained, controlled, nuclear fusion. Many designs have been proposed, and even tried, but tokamaks are comfortably the most popular. The name may be familiar, but not everyone knows what they are.  What Is A Tokamak? Stars heat matter to such high temperatures that electrons […]

Like all beautiful things, the Mediterranean Sea isn’t going to be around forever. As two of Earth’s great tectonic plates crash together in super slow motion, there’s a strong chance the Mediterranean Sea could be literally wiped off the face of the planet in the distant future. The continents of our planet are in a […]

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. Why does Jupiter look like it has a surface – even though it doesn’t have one? – Sejal, age 7, Bangalore, India The planet Jupiter has no solid ground – […]

Kimchi, kefir, kombucha – fermented foods aren’t new, but now you can find them everywhere. Sure, more people could be catching on to how delicious they are, but there’s something else at play too: fermented foods are often touted as being good for your gut. But how true are such claims? What do we mean […]

Have you ever felt that snow only seems to fall in certain places? Perhaps you missed out on snow days as a kid, while your friend always seemed to be snowed in. Did your pal happen to live near a factory? Because new research suggests that might explain why. The study, which was conducted by […]

While most of us will have heard of gray wolves – and the political rollercoaster that is their protection status in the US – they aren’t the only wolf species in the country. In a tiny pocket of North Carolina can be found the red wolf (Canis rufus), and it’s one of the most endangered […]

It might sound far-fetched, but recent research suggests that dogs’ and humans’ brains synchronise when they look at each other. This research, conducted by researchers in China, is the first time that “neural coupling” between different species has been witnessed. Neural coupling is when the brain activity of two or more individuals aligns during an […]

The Moon was volcanically active for a long time, but if we look at its mysterious far side, we now know exactly how long that was the case. Thanks to samples collected by the Chinese Chang’e-6 probe, researchers have been able to estimate that this volcanic period lasted for at least 1.4 billion years. Chang’e-6 […]

We’ve all been there: you wake up one morning, the sun is shining; you open your mouth to greet the world and out comes a glorious… croak? Losing your voice is a pretty common predicament – but what’s going on, physiologically, to cause your sudden silence? And should you ever be worried about it? Where […]

What will you take away? When choosing the best scientific event to attend each year, people shouldn’t just look at the list of exhibitors and featured topics, but at the added value a person can gain once the show is over. Not simply what the convention provides, but what the tradeshow promises you will take […]

Fraud might be a crime, but it’s hard to deny it inspires some creativity – and in the case of an alleged insurance fraud scheme that took place in California earlier this year, “creativity” can mean dressing up in a bear costume, ruining your own car, and ending up in handcuffs. That’s according to the […]