Deborah Bloomfield

Since the creation of nuclear weapons, we have lived in a world where an all-out war could destroy humanity many times over. Studies have found that just 100 or so warheads could plunge the world into nuclear winter, which could claim up to 1 billion lives. As of 2023, we have an approximated 12,500 nuclear […]

The centaur Chariklo has two dense rings orbiting it. In attempting to explain their survival astronomers have proposed a yet-to-be-detected satellite, which they say may be keeping the rings in line. Saturn’s rings have been known for almost four centuries, but in the last 50 years we have learned they are only the most dramatic […]

Back in December 2020, Chang’e-5 flew to the Moon, landed, collected rocks, and brought them back to Earth. This was the first collection of lunar material in 45 years and it is delivering fascinating insights into the composition and history of the Moon. The samples have once again confirmed the presence of water on the […]

One of the deepest metal mines in Europe – the Pyhäsalmi Mine in central Finland – is to be turned into an enormous gravity battery capable of storing 2 megawatts of energy. As the planet moves towards renewable energy, we are faced with the problem of storage. The problem is that the wind doesn’t blow […]

An incredibly preserved fossilized frog, dating to over 100 million years ago, has been discovered in China. Not only is it the oldest such frog ever found, but it still has a belly full of eggs, offering palaeontologists a fascinating snapshot in time and a rare glimpse into the species’ life history. The team behind […]

Researchers are always looking for ways to make vaccines more effective, but the latest find is a bit of an unusual one. According to a new study, alternating arms when receiving the first two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine can modestly improve the body’s immune response. The potential impact of switching arms for multi-dose vaccines […]

New light has been shed on how molecules leave a solution to become part of a growing crystal. Since crystals’ properties depend on their size and shape, and these are influenced by their growth rate, the research opens the door to modifying crystal formation to improve usability. Crystals are far more common and crucial than […]

In a famous scene in X2 (of the first cinematic X-Men films), Magneto uses his magnetic powers to rip the iron out of somebody’s body, before going on a rampage using the iron like a bullet. Of course, the movie goes to great pains to show that the reason Magneto is able to do this […]

A rare, unusually-colored bottlenose dolphin has caught the eye of Australian researchers. Its unique skin pattern has been attributed to piebaldism, earning the marine mammal the nickname “Speckles”. Researchers say that Speckles is the first piebald dolphin ever seen in Australian waters. Speckles was spotted near a research vessel in Hervey Bay, Queensland, on the […]

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured an image of the Ingenuity helicopter’s final resting place, after it stopped functioning late last month. Ingenuity was an impressive little robot, becoming the first to make a powered, controlled flight on a planet other than Earth in April 2021. That’s no easy feat, given the wildly different conditions on […]

A legal battle over the safety of adding fluoride to drinking water in the US is currently in full swing, with plaintiffs arguing that the chemical poses a threat to the neurodevelopment of children. Judge Edward Chen of the US District Court for the Northern District of California has been hearing expert testimony since January […]

New species are discovered all the time – and while some fit nicely into previously created taxonomic families, others are so funky that they get a whole new naming system created just for them. Introducing the St George’s Cross Medusa (Santjordia pagesi) a brand new medusa jellyfish species from deep waters off the coast of […]

China is the undisputed world champion of dam building. Not only do they have more working large dams than every other country in the world, but they also hold the record for the largest capacity hydroelectric power station in operation: the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Now, the East Asian superpower is in […]

Sit with your own thoughts for long enough and you’ll come up with all sorts of questions. If you banged a tuning fork in space, would it vibrate forever? Is Jurassic Park possible? Does musical genre affect the flavor of cheese? And on today’s roster: why doesn’t the water in lakes just absorb into the […]

Meet the Irish elk: an enormous extinct deer with a pair of comically large antlers to boot. The ancient behemoth’s unusual appendages, which measure a whopping 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) from tip to tip, may look impressive but we’re not exactly sure why they’re quite so big. According to one new study, their size doesn’t […]

Prior to achieving their final form, gas planets take on flattened shapes technically known as oblate spheroids, a new study has found. Although the Earth today is still classified as an oblate spheroid, thanks to slight flattening at the poles, the protoplanet stage is drastically flatter, according to newly published modelling, looking more like an […]

Some people are just learning where in the kitchen you are supposed to store bananas. In a TikTok video, user @tipperk stored bananas in four different ways, apparently used by people in real life. These included wrapping a wet paper towel around the stem (or handle, according to the “monkey method”), putting plastic wrap around […]

Dwarf galaxies tend to be found around larger galaxies, having formed around them. There is a small population of dwarf galaxies that is isolated and they are known for their vigorous star formation. Astronomers didn’t think that dwarf galaxies that were both isolated and had little star formation existed. Somebody must have forgotten to tell […]

The organizers of the Vesuvius Challenge, which started in 2023, have now announced their grand prize winners who have successfully revealed ancient secrets hidden on petrified scrolls. The announcement not only marks the outcome of ingenious work but may also indicate an exciting new era of research. The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 […]

The Yakut region in Northern Siberia is one of the coldest places on Earth, and yet some hardy horses can survive, even thrive, there. With their thick winter coats, squat bodies, and stubby limbs, native Yakutian horses are adorably well adapted to their frosty climes – but they also have another handy trick up their […]