Deborah Bloomfield

This article first appeared in Issue 15 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  Boxing and cheerleading collide in the case of the pom-pom crab (Lybia edmondsoni). Also known as the boxer crab, it has evolved to use the stinging power of anemones to its advantage by holding the venomous species Triactis producta in each claw. Advertisement […]

Papua New Guinea might account for less than 1 percent of Earth’s land area, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in biodiversity. The latest discovery to be made in its remote forests comes in the form of nine new species of land snail with a small size but a […]

Two teams of astronomers have found direct evidence that when a star goes supernova, it leaves behind a neutron star or a black hole. These are compact objects of extreme density; a teaspoon of neutron star material has the weight of a mountain, and nothing can escape a black hole. Their formation has long been […]

By meshing together real heart tissue and sophisticated soft robotic technology, scientists have created a biorobotic heart that beats like a living organ. The model captures the complexity of a human heart in a way that has not been possible until now, and could be a game-changer when it comes to trying out new treatments […]

A new gland-like strand has been discovered in the curious jaws of saber-toothed frogs. These anurans are nicknamed for the bony protrusions that sit on their lower jaws, and new research suggests they may be packing a surprising form of chemical communication that gets under the frogs’ skin. There are five species of saber-toothed frogs […]

Standing over 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) tall, Gigantopithecus blacki was the largest species of primate to ever walk the Earth (at least that we know of). This elusive beast stomped around modern-day China until it fell into extinction between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago under mysterious circumstances. In a new study, scientists investigate why […]

WASP-69b is an exoplanet that has just 30 percent of Jupiter’s mass, but is 10 percent larger. This world is dramatically puffed-up because it orbits very close to its star, completing an orbit in just 3.9 days. And its inflated layers are not staying put – the stellar wind is eroding them, creating a comet-like […]

If you’ve ever watched Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, you will have seen the pop pop boat in action. The children’s toy uses the heat from a candle to power an engine that propels the boat forward. They’re pretty neat as children’s toys, but what is far cooler, of course, is creating pop pop boat so large […]

The incredible entries for Close-Up Photographer Of The Year (CUPOTY) have been judged and the winners are just as incredible as you’d expect them to be. While Hungarian photographer Csaba Daróczi scooped the £2,500 ($3,000) cash prize and the CUPOTY 05 title, the runners-up are equally impressive. We take a close-up look (see what we […]

It’s official: 2023 was the hottest year on Earth since records began, overtaking the previous record-breaking year by a significant margin. The global average temperature of 2023 was 1.48°C (2.6°F) warmer than pre-industrial levels in the 19th century and 0.60°C (1.08°F) warmer than the 1991-2020 average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.  Advertisement These […]

Brown dwarfs are very peculiar celestial objects. They form like stars, but they are not massive enough to start nuclear fusion in their core, so they don’t quite make it as stars. Some of them are the size of planets, with clouds and turbulent atmospheres, although they are not really planet-like. Some of them have […]

A new paper has attempted to answer the question of whether Earth, and our artificial constructions, are visible to advanced alien civilizations out there also on the search for life. The hunt for alien life, as it is at the moment on Earth, is fairly elegant in its simplicity. As well as looking out for […]

Although awareness when under general anesthetic is, thankfully, pretty rare, it’s a phenomenon that appears to affect one group more than others: females. Until now, scientists haven’t been sure quite why this happens, but a new study suggests sex hormones could be a contributing factor. General anesthesia works in part by changing the activity of […]

New research reveals that magic mushrooms have existed since before the dinosaurs became extinct, although exactly why fungi developed the ability to produce psychedelic compounds remains a mystery. Tracing the history of the genes that give rise to the mind-altering substance psilocybin, the study authors found that the mushroom genus Psilocybe first evolved the enzymes […]

Over half a century since NASA left the Moon, the space agency surprised everybody in November 2023 when it announced it was placing scientific equipment on the lunar surface once more, hitching a lift on American space company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander. After a successful launch on January 8, the world has been watching the first-ever […]

A huge, Bronze Age fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis in the North Arabian Desert has been discovered by archaeologists. The walls would have once stretched over 14.5 kilometers (9 miles), making this one of the two largest walled oases ever unearthed in Saudi Arabia. What remains of the vast rampart has been dated to between […]

Captured in JWST images, a bizarre feature of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A that was named the “Green Monster” has been revealed to be made of material that existed before the explosion. A team of astronomers has found it is composed of concentrated filaments of gas within broader sheets that differ from the rest of […]

In today’s world, modern camera technology is used in so many ways, from taking snaps during a poolside holiday to surveying the grounds of a vital business. Despite these important uses, not all cameras are made the same, and some are not as weather-resilient as others.  Although there are many extreme conditions that affect the […]

NASA has confirmed that humans will not be landing on the Moon again until at least 2026, nor circling it until September 2025. Coming the same day the Peregrine Mission One uncrewed mission to the Moon was abandoned, the announcement is further confirmation that spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit remains hard, and exploration of the […]

You might remember back in 2017 when one particularly mind-blowing GIF went viral after baffling the Internet with its strange ability to evoke auditory hallucinations. The GIF itself was silent, and yet 70 percent of people reported being able to hear it. What on Earth was going on? We’re referring to this skip-jumping pylon, which, […]