Deborah Bloomfield

The Namib desert is named for what it is: “an area where there is nothing,” in the local Nàmá language. And at first glance, the region lives up to the title, covering around 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) along the western coast of Africa – straddling three countries as it does so – in some of […]

Throughout the ups and downs of Earth’s climatic history, forests have moved in response to changing environmental conditions. As glaciers retreated after the last Ice Age, trees swooped in to fulfill the freed-up real estate, but climate change in the modern era is happening too rapidly for their shifts to keep up.  Enter, the DREAM […]

At first glance, this might just look like strangely symmetrical rock. However, researchers have recently taken a deeper look at the object and speculate that it may be a prehistoric sand sculpture of a stingray. If that’s true, it would make the relic the oldest known artwork of another animal.  It was discovered in 2018 […]

Prisoners held in New York are attempting to sue the state’s corrections department over a decision to lock all inmates indoors during the total solar eclipse on April 8. Ahead of the eclipse, Jeremy Zielinski, a prisoner held at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, was granted permission to view the eclipse, after he argued that the event […]

Tidal locking is such a common phenomenon in the universe that we only need to look at the Moon to notice it. Our satellite only shows us its near side face as its rotation on its axis and revolution around the Earth are synchronized. Planets too can get in this state of behavior if they […]

A person in Texas has tested positive for H5N1 bird flu after coming into contact with dairy cows that are presumed to be infected with the virus. Fortunately, the patient is recovering and their only reported symptom was red eyes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They’ve been told to […]

The ancient hominin Australopithecus anamensis is thought to be one of our oldest known relations – but what do we actually know about the species? How long ago did they live? Though arguably not the most famous of the australopiths – that title probably goes to A. afarensis, thanks to Lucy – A. anamensis is estimated […]

The US state of Arizona has taken the unusual step of naming a state planet. Even more unusually, they have chosen Pluto – which is not a planet – as their representative in the solar system. A surprising number of astronomical bodies have been discovered by observing Uranus. Observing the planet in the 19th century, […]

Megaliths, those large stone structures that point to the heavens or form larger gravity-defying arrangements, have been a source of speculation and mystery for generations of people. And while you may be able to think of one or two famous examples, such as Stonehenge, they are surprisingly common across the world. In fact, there are […]

A preprint paper has made the case that humans owe our existence to gravitational waves – and that in a purely Newtonian universe, advanced life forms might not exist. As far as we know, just a few elements are needed for life: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, with sulfur almost as ubiquitous. Some simple […]

Eclipse fever is not just for those looking forward to spectacular sights next week. NASA will launch three sounding rockets to see how the temporary blocking of sunlight affects the upper atmosphere as part of APEP (Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path, but also the name of the Egyptian Sun God’s nemesis). Starting 90 kilometers (55 […]

Despite being the last continents on Earth to be inhabited by humans (excluding Antarctica), the Americas are thought to have been home to around half of all language families ever spoken. Tracing these dialects back to their prehistoric roots, the author of a new study has revealed that every North American language can be linked […]

Interstellar space is not too far. We have already sent two probes beyond the heliosphere – the region where the Sun dominates with its solar wind. Our foray into the space between the stars has brought crucial new insights but remains too limited to provide a deep understanding of our place in the galaxy. One […]

April 1 is a great day on the internet. Suddenly, people start to apply critical thinking before sharing news, memes, and posts – after all, you do not want to be caught believing something silly, do you? It is also a day for scientists to share funny papers that can range from total BS to […]

When it comes to the biggest egg the world has ever seen, it’s a close fight between reptiles and birds. The elephant bird claims the top spot with an egg big enough to make the extant ostrich’s look average-sized, but “The Thing” discovered by scientists in Antarctica was a close second, and it came from […]

The yellow-bellied toad is sure to win the hearts of even the most hesitant of anuran appreciators, being an adorable little amphibian with heart-shaped pupils. Exactly what the pupil shape means in terms of the toad’s vision isn’t known for certain, but the staggering diversity of anuran pupil shape has taught us that previously held […]

Once declared extinct, a type of Indonesian tiger may still be around, recent DNA analysis has tentatively suggested. Much more research is needed to be certain, but conservationists say there is now a glimmer of hope the Javan tiger could still be out there, roaming the island’s forests. The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was […]

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, or KSTAR, is one of the most advanced test fusion reactors on the planet. Nicknamed the Korean artificial sun, it has now demonstrated sustained fusion temperature for almost a minute and the ability to contain extremely hot plasma for over 100 seconds. Fusion is what powers stars, but in stars, […]

Face turning red, eyes feeling squashed, a pulsing in your ears: hanging upside down is not a pleasant experience, but how dangerous can being suspended the wrong way up really be? The truth is that it is possible to die from hanging upside down because the posture puts undue pressure on certain organs. The human […]

A new species of tiny deer has been discovered in the central Andes in Peru, becoming the first new cervid species found in South America for over 60 years – though that’s not the only cool thing about this discovery. Previously, there were thought to be just two species of a group of deer known […]