Deborah Bloomfield

Newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the 2024-25 flu season was a tough one for the nation’s children, with 280 pediatric deaths recorded. This marks the worst season for child mortality since records of pediatric flu deaths began in 2004 – except, that is, for the H1N1 […]

Consider taking on a mammoth – an animal easily more than twice your height and perhaps 150 times your weight, which roamed in herds and came armed, or rather, toothed, with 3 or 4 meters (10-13 feet) of heavy facial weaponry with which to defend themselves – and you’d be forgiven for thinking twice about the […]

The winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi, “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”. The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (around $1,170,000 USD at the time of publishing), which will be shared equally between the winners.  The rest of this article is behind a […]

A team of astronomers has attempted to track the path of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS back into the past, tracing its path through the galaxy in simulations involving over 13 million stars. On July 1, astronomers spotted an unusual object speeding through the Solar System at nearly twice the velocity of previous interstellar visitors ‘Oumuamua and […]

A new study of over 9,900 people with restless leg syndrome (RLS) has suggested that the condition appears to increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD). RLS is a neurological condition characterized by an irresistible urge to move the legs, often spurred on uncomfortable sensations in the legs when at rest, leg twitching during […]

Do you ever stop and think about how wonderful it is that it’s so easy for you to scratch your butt? No? Well, perhaps a first-of-its-kind fossil can inspire you to practice a little more gratitude, as it reveals the butt-drag of a rock hyrax committed to the fossil record 126,000 years ago. The rest […]

Cruise ships and gastrointestinal (GI) illness seem to go hand in hand, especially this year. Microbes like norovirus are causing more cruise ship outbreaks off US waters than we’ve seen in almost 20 years, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The rest of this article is behind a […]

Two new species have been discovered swimming off the coast of Western Australia and, like all deep-sea beasties, they are pretty unusual. Say hello to a brand new species of lanternshark that glows in the dark, and a tiny porcelain crab that wouldn’t look out of place next to your fancy crockery.  The rest of […]

The vicious claws of the hairy frog were first noted around 1900, but it wasn’t until after the turn of the millennium that scientists discovered how these strange amphibians produce them — or rather, snap them. When threatened, the hairy frog (Trichobatrachus robustus) deliberately breaks its own toe bones, which then pierce through the skin […]

If your first thought upon seeing the header for this article was “what the f**k is that?!”, don’t worry – we thought the same, and we see a lot of weird stuff in this job. The deep-sea demon that is the telescopefish might just be the most bizarre though, but frankly, that makes it all […]

Magnets are probably the coolest “everyday” object you are introduced to as a child, and they don’t get any less awesome when you learn they can generate electricity, and magnetism and electricity are both components of a single electromagnetic force. Every macro object, from actual magnets to Danny DeVito, is a little magnetic thanks to […]

Money doesn’t grow on trees, so the old saying goes, but gold just might on the Christmas trees of Lapland. In a new study, scientists have uncovered a clear link between bacteria living in Norway spruce needles and the formation of gold nanoparticles. If harnessed correctly, this knowledge could help guide gold hunters to hidden […]

Spiders are remarkable creatures. Resilient, innovative, and packed full of biological engineering that makes biomimeticists hot under the collar (and occasionally create grim “necrobots”). For some, however, they trigger the heebie-jeebies, and unfortunately, I don’t think the fish-eating spiders will help here. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or […]

We have known about Comet 3I/ATLAS for just over four months, and astronomers across the world have been giddy with excitement. This is only the third known interstellar object to have crossed the Solar System, among the thousands that should be here every day. Researchers have been using many different observatories to study this comet, […]

Perhaps we should not be surprised by the strange ideas of conspiracy theorists, but we have recently come across a particularly odd belief that has stuck around for decades; musical instruments are tuned to the wrong frequency, and it is affecting human behavior. According to the conspiracy theory, it all goes back to the Nazis.  […]

Life that has been frozen in Alaskan permafrost for up to 40,000 years has been “woken up” by scientists. In a recent mission to study our ever-changing world, scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder headed to the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility, a 106-meter (350-foot) tunnel that burrows deeper into the frozen ground beneath central […]

In May 2025, China began the construction of a new satellite constellation for what will eventually be a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer array in space. The first satellites of the Three-Body Computing Constellation were released in June, set to test the capabilities of an in-orbit data processing center. This could be the first dozen […]

The winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics are John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis, for the discovery of “Macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.” The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (around $1,170,000 USD at the time of publishing), which will be shared equally between the […]

It’s obvious the Sun is the source of both almost all the light by which we see, and most of heat that makes the Earth a warm oasis in the deep cold of interstellar space. In recent centuries we’ve learned the Sun releases other sorts of energy: high frequency radiation such as ultraviolet light and […]

Drinking alcohol, even in small amounts, likely increases dementia risk – that is the conclusion of a huge new study, based on data from over half a million people.  Previous research, based on observational studies, hinted that light drinking may have a protective effect on the brain; some have suggested there may even be an […]