Deborah Bloomfield

In our hunt for technologically advanced alien civilizations out there in the universe, it is useful to think about what sort of signs of life we ourselves give off, such as radio signals and biosignatures.  Advertisement It’s perfectly logical to do so, but it’s not altogether ideal. As we’ve seen over the last few hundred […]

A new explanation for why we have not found dark matter proposes that it doesn’t exist. Instead, the author thinks we have been misunderstanding gravity. He’s not the first to suggest that, but the new proposal, of gravity without mass created by topological defects in space-time, is particularly novel. Advertisement Dark matter was first proposed […]

Names are universal throughout human cultures and across different languages. They form a huge part of our identity and help us communicate with each other, but personal names are considered a uniquely human thing. Now, new research has suggested that wild African elephants could address each other with individual specific calls – the equivalent of […]

Twenty years ago, astronomers used the Spitzer telescope to study Beta Pictoris, a star 63 light-years away. Researchers back then saw a significant amount of dust, shining in infrared. Using Spitzer’s successor, JWST, astronomers looked for the same dust and discovered something exciting: The dust was gone. The research team believe that the dust was […]

Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain why we respond poorly to modern conditions, despite the choices, safety and other benefits they bring, is evolutionary mismatch. Advertisement Mismatch happens when […]

In a world first, scientists have literally opened a window into the human brain. They inserted a transparent panel into the skull of a patient and were able to collect high-resolution imaging data through it while the patient was awake and performing tasks, the first time such a feat has been achieved. Advertisement The patient […]

Fresh off the back of “don’t body slam an orca” we’re back with another article about leaving wildlife alone. A rise in wildlife rescue centers taking in dyed birds from gender reveal parties and other events leads us to yet another sentence we can’t believe we have to type: DON’T DYE BIRDS. On March 28, […]

Australia’s first human case of H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in a 2.5-year-old girl, who has now recovered after being treated in intensive care. The girl is thought to have contracted the virus in India, but it’s the first human case to have been detected on Australian soil. Advertisement In a statement released June […]

A new explanation has been offered for the reflective signals that were once acclaimed as evidence for a lake of liquid water under the ice sheet at the Martian south pole. Without further data, we cannot definitively state the cause of the reflections– but given what else we know, the exciting idea of a subsurface […]

In the opening scenes of 1964’s Goldfinger, James Bond is asked why he always carries a gun. His wry and surprisingly self-deprecating answer? “I have a slight inferiority complex.”  Advertisement It’s a familiar stereotype. Guns, the popular idea says, are a stand-in for penises – and men who own them are probably just overcompensating for […]

Take a closer look at the deodorant products on the drugstore shelves and it soon becomes clear that many contain an antiperspirant too. While both of them can help to reduce body odor (although having a smell is a perfectly normal thing), they go about this in different ways. Advertisement What is deodorant? Deodorant doesn’t […]

This week, Malaysian officials have announced a plan to gift orangutans to palm oil partners in an effort to establish orangutan diplomacy, an aurora-like phenomenon called STEVE appears to have a twin, and we ask why the 4,000-year-old “Seahenge” was built. Finally, we explore the history behind the famous “March of Progress” evolution illustration, and […]

This September could see the world’s first wooden satellite launch to space, thanks to scientists in Japan. If it’s succesful, it could open doors for more environmentally friendly satellite reentries, something that is increasingly important with the rise of objects being sent to – and returning to Earth from – space.    Advertisement Researchers at […]

The world’s biggest solar plant has come online, according to Chinese media. Covering 13,333 hectares (32,947 acres) in the desert of northwest Xinjiang and capable of powering a small country on its own, the facility was reportedly connected to the grid on Monday. Advertisement Located in a desert area of Ürümqi, capital of the famously […]

For a one-cell organism with no nervous system, Lacrymaria olor is a pretty impressive predator. Extending a long, wiggling neck from its pear-shaped body, L. olor hunts down prey to chomp on in the ponds where it lives. Just how it manages this remained a bit of a mystery, but a pair of determined scientists have […]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that contaminated cucumbers could be the cause of a recent Salmonella outbreak in the US, which has seen people across 25 states become sick. Advertisement People first started getting ill back in mid-March, with investigations revealing that they had been infected with a strain of the […]

Many centuries ago, this was the pavilion of a villa where Rome’s rich and famous would relax and drink wine while they overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. As the years passed, the structure became lost to the waves and continues to lurk there to this day.  Advertisement The submerged ruins can be found on the coastline […]

Anthropologists recently identified two fossilized teeth and a single kneecap that appear to belong to a never-before-seen species of great ape: Buronius manfredschmi. Advertisement With an estimated weight of just 10 kilograms (22 pounds) – about the weight of an extremely chonky cat – the new-found species is the smallest great ape to be identified.  […]

Anthrax is a serious disease that’s rare in humans, but earlier this year an unexpected outbreak occurred when a Texas rancher picked up the bug. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have now detailed the circumstances behind the event that made it what they describe as “unusual”. Advertisement It began when a male […]

This week on Break It Down, Charlotte the stingray is back and it’s not good news, a zig-zagging snake stretching over 40 meters might be the world’s longest rock art, the irony of offering endangered orangutans as a form of diplomatic gift, the mysterious aurora STEVE gets a long-lost twin, why Seahenge was built, and […]