Deborah Bloomfield

Ever wondered why the people at Google spend so much time trying to calculate eleventy-billion digits of pi? Why a number like one third can be so simple to write as a fraction, but impossible to jot down in decimal form? Or why there’s a number that’s literally just called “e”? Well, we have the […]

While polar bears (Ursus maritimus) live in some of the most remote and extreme environmental conditions in the world, that does not protect them from diseases that can spread thousands of miles. The contagious Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 bird flu strain has reached the North Slope Borough near Utqiagvik, one of the northernmost […]

In an incredible two-for-one fossil find, palaeontologists have discovered a 75-million-year-old dinosaur jawbone with some surprise-laden prehistoric amber on the side. Nestled within the unusually large blob of resin were fragments of trees and the remains of an unlucky aphid. The find, which is the first of its kind in North America, according to Science, […]

At first glance, this stone recovered from the site of an ancient hillfort in northern Italy appears to be just a simple disk. But, on closer inspection, its surface is peppered with chisel marks that an archaeologist and an astronomer now believe could be the oldest celestial map ever found. “About two years ago I […]

An amateur ham radio enthusiast has made one of the coolest contacts possible, talking with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) using a homemade antenna.  The ham radio operator, Doug, made contact with the ISS as it passed overhead in July 2023.  Advertisement “I’ve made numerous voice and APRS [Automatic Packet Reporting System] […]

Another launch by China’s space agency has ended with used rocket stages showering an inhabited area after an uncontrolled re-entry. Bystanders in the Guangxi region of China managed to capture the crash-landings on their smartphones, showing a spiraling piece of space junk falling into an inhabited area and exploding in a fiery crash. The China […]

Today, the idea of microdosing potent substances such as LSD or other psychedelics has become increasingly popular in parts of the world. At present, the medical community is unsure whether microdosing psychedelics is actually beneficial, but this is not the first time people have taken small quantities of a substance for assumed health benefits. During […]

A big debate about small Tyrannosaurus rexes has been raging among the palaeontological community for decades. The debate rests on remains found in the US that are less than half the size of a full-grown T. rex: are these really juvenile T. rexes we’re looking at? Or are they a separate species? The opposing contender, […]

Life is dangerous when your prey is good at fighting back. That’s the fate of Matabele ants, which live on termites. After the struggle to overcome termite soldiers and get at the vulnerable nest, many ants carry injuries. Fortunately for them, their nestmates don’t believe in leaving a soldier on the battlefield, instead performing advanced […]

In Japan, there is a belief that a person’s personality is linked to their blood type. This may sound strange, but the idea is not too dissimilar to astrology’s popularity in the UK or the US today. However, Ketsueki-gata, as it is called, is unique and has deep cultural roots in Japan’s recent history. While […]

Ancient predatory worms dating back around 518 million years have been discovered in North Greenland, where a treasure trove of Early Cambrian fossils lay in wait in the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte. The new-to-science animals have been named Timorebestia, Latin for “terror beasts”, and their discovery reveals new insights into a curious group of predatory worms […]

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module “Eagle” and delivered one of the most iconic speeches of the 20th century. If he and Buzz Aldrin had stuck to the original schedule, at that moment he would have been saying something along the lines of “shshsh zzz honk honk […]

South Korea’s “artificial sun” machine has just been fitted with some equipment that could allow it to generate high-temperature plasma over 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) for even longer periods.  The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is an experimental device located in Daejeon, South Korea. Its job is to provide the […]

Claims of a “Return to the Moon” have been around for a while, and for some people, they won’t be justified until a human foot hits the lunar surface again. However, for those more concerned about scientific discovery, the accumulated knowledge from multiple missions may be more significant. All going well, 2024 could be a […]

From the volcanic rubble of Pompeii, archaeologists have recovered over a dozen mini-statues, some of which may depict a dark and twisted myth that speaks of love, renewal, and the changing of the seasons. The relics were recently found by researchers from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii within the remains of the House of Leda […]

Good news if your New Year’s resolutions include both exercising more and quitting smoking – researchers have found that a brisk 10-minute walk could be the key to reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms, as well as improving wellbeing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death, […]

Major cities all along the US Atlantic coast are sinking at an alarming rate, with some areas descending faster than global sea levels are rising. The combination of sinking land – or subsidence – and ascending water levels could result in catastrophic damage to urban centers in the near future, warn the authors of a […]

The video game Tetris has been completed by a human for the first time since its release. Willis “blue scuti” Gibson beat the game during a livestream, triggering the “true kill screen” on level 157. Tetris has been around for a while, so you might have assumed it would be complete by now. After all, […]

With space agencies’ sights set on increasingly long missions, beyond building resilient spacecraft, they’re also having to figure out the best way to keep astronauts well-fed. Researchers now think they’ve found the answer, and we’ve got bad news for any meat-loving space travelers: it’s a vegetarian salad. Astronauts have a unique set of needs when […]

As we move away from powering our civilizations with the ancient remains of not dinosaurs, we will have to overcome a few teething problems.  One is that renewable sources don’t necessarily generate electricity at the precise point that we need it (the wind doesn’t know – or doesn’t care – to blow extra hard when […]