Deborah Bloomfield

Palaeontology is currently experiencing something of a “golden age”, with a wealth of new, weird, and wonderful dinosaurs discovered each year. The question is just how long that golden age will last. Only a finite number of dinosaur species existed – so how many are there left to find? Advertisement There’s no exact answer to […]

Thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions are some of Earth’s most powerful natural phenomena. Combine the two and the result is truly dazzling. Onlookers at Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala were wowed to see lighting seemingly strike the edge of the erupting crater earlier this month. Advertisement Volcán de Fuego, a 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) tall stratovolcano, is Guatemala’s […]

For a group of animals that went extinct 60 million years ago, we know a remarkable amount about how dinosaurs lived, but what about how fast they could run? We’ve all seen the depictions in Jurassic Park of velociraptors chasing down humans with ease, but what was the fastest dinosaur? Advertisement Ascertaining dinosaur behavior generally […]

Scientists have detected “significant concentrations” of microplastics in the testicles of both humans and dogs. Worryingly, they also found some evidence that certain forms of microplastic might be having a damaging impact on sperm count.  Advertisement Researchers at the University of New Mexico looked for microplastics in 47 canine and 23 human testes taken during […]

This leggy, spiny fella is Douglassarachne acanthopoda, whom we’ll call Doug for short (only kidding). You might look at this fossilized specimen and confidently declare, “That there’s a spider.” But wait! While D. acanthopoda certainly shares many of the characteristics of modern arachnids, it has enough unique features to give palaentologists a headache when it comes […]

Large congregations of animals can be positive or negative. Large groups of whales seen for the first time may represent an important conservation milestone, while the upcoming cicadapocaplypse might not be everyone’s idea of a good time. Underneath the waves off the coast of California, however, a gathering of tuna crabs is causing a stir. […]

An oral antidote to acute alcohol intoxication has been developed and tested successfully on mice. The hydrogel is engineered using a milk protein that’s a by-product of cheese manufacturing, and it breaks down alcohol in the body without generating the usual toxic waste products. Advertisement In many communities, alcohol has historically played an important part […]

While not as well known as its alligator cousins, the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is a fascinating and fearsome inhabitant of the Amazon rainforest that will essentially eat anything it can get its jaws around. However, its place at the top of the food chain is constantly under threat from other large predators that share […]

Looking at the universe, we know that the Earth and the whole solar system are not in a special position. This has been extended too to the existence of alien life – if we are here, we are probably not special, and the universe must be teeming with life. To which, we ought to agree […]

Landmarks on Europa’s surface suggest the icy crust is at the mercy of the waters below. Most important, a recent visit by Juno reveals what might be plume activity, which if real would allow future missions to take a sample of the internal ocean without needing to land. Advertisement It’s been almost two years since […]

An unfortunate fox that lodged its head in a sink drain has been successfully rescued in the UK.  Advertisement South Essex Wildlife Hospital in the southeast of England responded to a call last week regarding a curious cub that had become stuck in an unusual place. Advertisement Tom Linsel, a Slovakia-born veterinarian who works at […]

Astronomers are reporting the discovery of SPECULOOS-3b, an Earth-sized planet that orbits an ultracool dwarf, a star not much bigger than Jupiter. This is the only second known system such as this. The other one is the well-known TRAPPIST-1, which sports seven Earth-sized planets. The new system is 55 light-years away. Advertisement The star has […]

It takes a lot of energy to make a baby, whatever species you are. Biologists studying animal energy expenditure have been underestimating the requirements of reproduction for decades by focusing on the direct costs and ignoring or underestimating the indirect costs, which a new assessment indicates are much larger. Advertisement When a baby (or an […]

Why are dozens of Egypt’s ancient pyramids found in an unremarkable strip of barren desert, far from the shores of the modern River Nile? Perhaps, new research suggests, it’s because they were built along a branch of the river system that’s since been lost to time. Not only does this theory explain the obscure location […]

A study into men living with obesity in the UK has concluded that combining financial incentives with behavioral text messages can aid people who are trying to lose weight. Participants receiving the promise of money and encouraging messages saw a 5 percent reduction in weight over 12 months, but receiving texts alone wasn’t enough to […]

While some people might be less-than-pleased to share the planet with the eight-legged arachnids, spiders actually evolved way before Homo sapiens were roaming around being afraid of them. Now there are around 50,000 spider species but what did the first spiders look like, and how long ago were they crawling and climbing on planet Earth? […]

Quantum internet would allow for sending hacker-proof information around the world. Its secret is quantum mechanics and it is seen as an important development for the future of telecommunications. There are challenges to overcome, but progress has also been made – such as a new record set by researchers at Harvard University. The team was […]

Recently, we reported on the new family of COVID-19 variants that looked set to start overtaking the pack to become the most widespread. Now, surveillance data from both the US and UK show that the FLiRT variants, as they’re called, seem to be living up to these predictions, as UK COVID cases tick up by […]

According to one London-based cosmetic surgery clinic, approximately nine percent of people have a Roman nose, while a further three percent have a Greek one. Now, we’re not going to speculate as to where those statistics came from, but we will say this: if you’re one of that 12 percent, please give the nose back. […]

From pizza rat to highway sloths, there’s something about seeing a cute little critter in the wild that just can’t be beat. Unfortunately, these chance meetings between humans and animals don’t always work out great for the animal – which may be why some of the more canny ones prefer to avoid us at all […]