Deborah Bloomfield

For at least 45 years, an object in our galaxy has been emitting radio waves every 21 minutes, and astronomers are very confused about what could be causing it. The cycle is too slow and too powerful to be anything we are familiar with, but too broad to be the product of a technological civilization. […]

When the prospect of World War Two was quietly looming over Europe, German scientists unveiled the possibility of nuclear fission. In the years that followed, horror over the idea of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Hitler became one of the strongest driving forces behind the US effort to build the bomb – the […]

Take a quick glance and you might assume it’s just a cavernous inlet in a cliff face, but look closer and you’ll see this is the remains of an ancient tomb adorned with pillars and once-grand carvings. Despite its beauty and uniquenesses, the stunning historical site is rapidly disappearing in the face of neglect and […]

“I should say I thought we had a 90 percent chance of getting back to Earth on that flight,” the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, said a rare interview in 2012, “but only a 50-50 chance of making a successful landing on the first attempt.” Landing a spacecraft on the Moon was always […]

As temperature records continue to be broken and scores of us across the globe are experiencing a heatwave, people in many parts of the world are likely reaching for the sunscreen. We know it helps protect our skin, but how exactly does it do this? And does it stop us from tanning while it’s at it? We’re […]

Conspiracy theories old and new have fantasized about a planet on the opposite side of the Sun sharing the same orbit with Earth. While that is nonsense, orbital mechanics allows for multiple celestial bodies to share the same orbit on specific conditions. The Trojan asteroids around Jupiter and Earth are prime examples. Now, astronomers have […]

An Australian sailor has made headlines this week, after he survived two months alone with his dog on the Pacific Ocean. Fifty-one-year-old Tim Shaddock, from Sydney, became stranded with his dog Bella after a storm hit their boat on their journey from Mexico to French Polynesia. He was able to survive by drinking rainwater and […]

We now know the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, while the planet’s core is about two years younger than that thanks to the time-dilating effects of gravity. But how did we figure that out?  Early attempts at calculating the age of the Earth using science came up a little short. In 1844, physicist William Thomson […]

Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon, went on Twitter to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 launch with a selfie on Sunday. Unfortunately, the public was distracted somewhat. Not by his breakfast (which looked excellent) but by the sheer number of watches he wears on his arms. #Apollo11 […]

A large unidentified metal object has been stranded on a beach at Green Head, Western Australia, sparking theories on social media about what it might be. The Australian Space Agency (ASA) is investigating as it is most likely space debris from part of a rocket and initially advised those close to the site 250 kilometers […]

Ever wondered how people manage their periods in space? Thankfully, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti previously came to the rescue with an explanation, which basically boiled down to, “Just like you do on the ground.” But it’s no secret that many of the legacy systems on spacecraft were very much designed without women in mind. In both […]

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the highest inhabited regions on Earth, and while life at the so-called “Roof of the World” may be harsh, new data reveals that the area once enjoyed a warmer spell, giving rise to the powerful Tibetan Empire. However, despite exerting huge influence over Asian geopolitics between the seventh and […]

In 1822, French philologist Jean-François Champollion made an announcement that would change our understanding of the ancient world. Champollion had successfully deciphered the enigmatic Rosetta Stone and provided the key to understanding ancient Egyptian text. Now 200 years have passed, and our knowledge of ancient Egypt has grown significantly, but there are still many intriguing […]

On Earth, aurorae, also known as the northern and southern lights, are produced by the interaction of charged particles from the Sun with our planet’s atmosphere. They follow the magnetic field of our planet and end up hitting oxygen and nitrogen in the air creating the spectacular colors we see. There is auroral activity in […]

Dinosaurs are often painted as predators, chasing down everything from smaller dinosaurs to Jeff Goldblum, but we often overlook their role as prey. Many dinosaurs were dinner for bigger dinosaurs, but as a fascinating new fossil reveals, some were lunch for early mammals, too. The unusual and rare fossil is 125 million years old and […]

Hairworms are noodle-like parasites in the phylum Nematomorpha that are able to manipulate the actions of their hosts. Now, a new paper has presented the first genomes for these worms, revealing that they’re even weirder than we thought. “Nothing like them has ever been sequenced before at that level,” said lead author Tauana Cunha, a […]

Ok, the last few years haven’t been the best. Whether it’s COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns, or the war taking place in Europe, or any of the resulting economic problems raging across the world, it’s fair to say that the 2020s so far haven’t been as roaring as we were hoping for. But is there […]

The story of how Oklahoma’s borders ended up looking like a cooking pot with a handle is one steeped in the state’s unique history and the legacy of slavery. Take a look at a map of the US and you’ll see the shape of Oklahoma is relatively rectangular-shaped except for a 106-kilometer (66-mile) strip of […]

As extreme heat brought on by an anticyclone in southern Europe sees temperatures reach upwards of 40°C (104°F) in places, the life-threatening conditions have been unofficially dubbed “Cerberus” after the underworld’s three-headed watchdog.  In Greek mythology, Cerberus is described as a three- (or sometimes 50-) headed dog with a serpent’s tail who stands guard at […]

Your chances of getting hit by a meteorite and incredibly slim, but never zero. Just ask Ann Hodges (figuratively speaking, she died in 1972) who became the first documented case of someone being hit by a meteorite in 1954 and survived. A fresh meteorite strike story is currently doing the rounds about a woman in […]