Deborah Bloomfield

A new genus of sea monster has just been officially identified, and it’s a palaeontological weirdo. The new species has been named Traskasaura sandrae, and is described as “very odd” owing to a confusing combination of seemingly primitive and comparatively modern traits. One thing’s clear, though: this thing was a killer. Its impressive name is […]

If you love spicy food but are sometimes outdone by the hot punch to your mouth, then there may be good news coming your way. Researchers have identified molecules that suppress the heat from chili peppers, which may become a new “anti-spice” capable of lowering the heat. A chili pepper’s spiciness is known as its […]

Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains is the only spot on the planet that’s known to have been lived in by Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens. By analyzing traces of DNA left behind by these three human lineages, researchers have now reconstructed the cave’s chronology, revealing exactly when each species moved into the prehistoric hotspot. […]

A tailless alligator has been attracting some double-takes in southern Louisiana this week. It may look a little unusual, but gators are incredibly tough creatures with impressive healing abilities, and experts believe there’s good reason to suggest this guy will be alright.  Ashlyn Bartholomew was driving her kids home from baseball practice in Plaquemines Parish […]

President Donald Trump has unveiled his plan to build a “Golden Dome” missile defense system to shield the US from attack, claiming it will be ready by the end of his time in office. That is, of course, if building such a system is even technically possible at the moment. Experts have questions over the […]

For most of us, “eating dirt” is more figurative than literal – and even then, it’s not presented as a good thing. Every so often, though, somebody will look at the ground, see the clay or mud or dust at their feet, and think, “yum”. It’s called geophagy – from the Greek “geo”, meaning earth, […]

NASA’s Perseverance is a phenomenal robot that has captured some stunning views of Mars, at least during the day. It’s not designed for night-time ogling despite the recent incredible observations of aurorae on Mars. Still, working at the very limit of the camera tech, the rover team has captured a rare moonlit night scape on […]

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of it, let alone seen it, but this may be one of the most ubiquitous animals on the planet.  Alicella gigantea is basically a big, pale shrimp-like creature that lives in the deepest depths of Earth’s oceans. It has the title of being the world’s largest amphipod, an […]

As advanced as science and medicine is here in the 21st century, nobody could say we know everything. Whether P = NP, for example: still up for grabs. Why Zipf’s law seems so immutable. Whatddup with dat ass. All equally mysterious, even today. And one of the most stubbornly indecipherable things out there – or […]

Infrared goggles are out, replaced by contact lenses that turn wavelengths too long for our eyes into those we can see, while letting through ordinary light at the same time. Remarkably, there’s no need for a power source, and slightly creepily, they’ve even been made for mice. Night-vision goggles rely on the fact that living […]

The first-ever encounter with a live Sulawesi coelacanth has just been reported by divers off the coast of Indonesia. However, to protect this incredibly rare species from tourists who may want to catch a glimpse, researchers have decided to keep the exact location of the sighting secret for now. Often referred to as a “living […]

The Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) at the Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife has been operating since 1988. In these four decades, it has done great work in studying the Sun, but thanks to a new camera, the best is yet to come. The setup, developed by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), can take […]

Ostriches have four kneecaps. There’s a little factoid for you. Two legs, but four kneecaps. Think it’s bananas? Rightly so, as we’ve never found knees like these in any other animal. A team at the Royal Veterinary College in London set out to find out why ostriches are packing such knobbly knees by getting up […]

Cracking open rocks can yield all kinds of surprises. Ancient water. Rare fossils. Living frogs trapped in a pocket. If that last one got your “Wait, what?” senses tingling, I don’t blame you. It seems impossible, and yet discoveries of finding amphibians locked in stone are surprisingly widespread. One such story unfolded in the Nybro […]

The Solar System has just gotten a new official member. Currently, with the name of 2017 OF201, this is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO). This means that it orbits the Sun further away than Neptune. Actually, its orbit is so big that it takes about 25,000 years to complete. The discovery of the object was officially […]

It’s time to step back inside the world of arachnids, with a spider family with a unique morphology. Some spiders have gone hard when it comes to mimicry, or manage to do without eyesight in caves, but this group have chosen a more shape-based approach to life.  The spider species Walckenaer’s studded triangular spider (Arkys […]

Somewhere around 7,000 years ago, a tsunami struck the southern edge of Tongatapu, picked up a giant boulder, and slid it 200 meters (700 feet) inland. That’s remarkable, but we’ve found other huge boulders moved by waves. This boulder, however, started off on top of a 30 meter (100 foot) high cliff, beyond the reach […]

Tiny pollen grains too small to see have revealed that flowers are at least 123 million years old, more than 2 million years older than the previous oldest example. The date signals not just the origins of the things that bring color to our gardens but the most abundant clade of land plants on the […]

This newly discovered species of octopus is a deep-sea shapeshifter with large eyes and blood-red tentacles. Sounds terrifying? Don’t fret: these strange little guys are smaller than a golf ball.  Measuring just 4 centimeters (around 1.5 inches) across, the species has been named the Carnarvon flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis carnarvonensis), a nod to its discovery in […]

Galaxy interactions can be dramatically violent. Minor mergers can cause the smaller galaxies to disappear into the larger ones. Major mergers can change the whole geometry of the galaxies involved, and even flybys are highly disruptive. For the first time ever, researchers have discovered that the interactions don’t even have to involve gravity; galaxies can […]