Deborah Bloomfield

For such an unbelievably mighty force, the Sun seems to be awfully quiet from Earth. However, we only perceive it as a silent ball of white heat because sound can’t travel through space. If it could, the noise of our Solar System’s centerpiece would be very, very annoying.  The Sun is essentially a giant nuclear […]

A sunspot four times the size of the Earth is making its way across the Sun at the moment. The spot is so large you can see it without a telescope, though of course you should use protective equipment. Sunspot AR3310 should be visible to you using solar viewing glasses, those cool disposable shades you […]

If you’ve ever taken a walk around a petting zoo, chances are you’ve come across llamas or alpacas, or even both in the same trip. But can you tell these four-legged fluffy creatures apart? Can you sort your camelids from your camels? Let’s start with alpacas Alpacas are the smallest member of the camel family. […]

The remains of a long-lost medieval church that sunk over 600 years ago have been found beneath the mud of northern Germany’s coast.  The submerged site of Rungholt is located in the Wadden Sea, the world’s largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats, running from the Netherlands to Germany.  Advertisement Sometimes known as […]

If, in the depths of winter, when the nights draw in and the temperature drops all the way down to “screw this” degrees, you’ve ever found yourself wondering why humans can’t just make like so many chomnky bears and spend the whole season snuggled up in bed, then believe us: you’re not alone. So, a […]

Stem cell transplants have been used to cure two monkeys of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), the HIV-relative that infects 45 primate species. Although some human cures have already been achieved, the technique has had far too many side effects for widespread application. In the monkey cases, however, the researchers responsible think they understand why the […]

The JWST is hundreds of thousands of times further from Enceladus than the Cassini spacecraft once got, but that hasn’t stopped it from revealing things about the small but fascinating moon the probe missed. Indeed, scientists have revealed at a conference that Cassini failed to take in the full scale of Enceladus’s water plume, spotting […]

Rejoice, all ye free WinRAR trial users, for Windows has finally caved. According to a new blog post outlining new features for Windows 11, Microsoft stated that Windows will soon natively support RAR and 7-zip files without the need for third-party apps, making it much easier to unpack downloaded content.   If you’ve been downloading files […]

Gender identity isn’t always based on the binary model of biological sex, and new research indicates that this fluidity may have existed since prehistoric times. After analyzing the contents of over 1,200 ancient graves from seven sites in central Europe, the authors of the new study determined that up to 10 percent may have belonged […]

Are you someone who likes to rise with the morning sun – a lark – or are you a night owl who prefers to stay up late? Or perhaps you are like most of the population who fall somewhere between the two. Well, new research suggests that there may be a relationship between morning people, […]

If you want to know what receiving an alien message would be like, you are in luck. A team of artists and scientists used a spacecraft around Mars to send a complex message to Earth, simulating what an alien message would be like. And now, it is up to everyone to decode it. The project, A […]

It‘s still debated whether lightning provided the energy needed to get life started. Either way, bolts were crucial to the emergence of life on Earth by converting nitrogen into a form the first living things could use. However, new research indicates this dependence didn’t last long; microbes evolved the capacity to break molecular nitrogen’s bonds […]

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may have a biological mechanism that could, at least in part, help explain the condition’s cause. Researchers have identified a brainstem abnormality affecting serotonin receptors, which they believe, alongside other biological and environmental factors, may increase an infant’s risk of SIDS. Also known as “cot death”, SIDS is the sudden, […]

Archaeologists working in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China have discovered what may well be the oldest known saddle for horse riding – and we’re betting its ancient owner isn’t who you’re expecting. Made from cow leather and filled with a mix of straw and hair from deer and camels, the saddle was made […]

Krubera Cave is a special and terrifying cave, one that is so deep and expansive, we still haven’t reached the bottom. Cave exploring doesn’t usually go hand-in-hand with claustrophobia, but this is one cave where that won’t be a problem – some of the steep vertical pits are so large, the Statue of Liberty wouldn’t […]

Humanity has never observed the very first stars that shone in the universe. They lived fast and died young, but they were the ones that created the heavier elements that eventually ended up making us. Astronomers now suggest that some recent observations of very distant galaxies can only be explained by the presence of enormous […]

A direct connection between levels of nitric oxide in the brain and autism has been established for the first time in a new study. The breakthrough findings, from a team led by Dr Haitham Amal at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, offer an insight into a previously undiscovered mechanism underlying the development of autism, which […]

Yellowstone National Park law enforcement officers are appealing for more information after an encounter between an unidentified man and a newborn bison calf led to the animal’s death.  On the evening of May 20, a man in his 40s or 50s approached a calf that had been separated from the herd while crossing the Lamar […]

A woman in Washington state is continuing to wander around with untreated tuberculous, evading a warrant out for her arrest. The anonymous woman, known only as “VN” in court documents, has been defying court orders for over a year that demands she stays in her home and seeks treatment for TB, which is both contagious […]

A new study has found that you create your own echo chamber, not algorithms from Google Search. The research found that individuals actively sought out information that fits their beliefs, not search engine algorithms, bursting the idea that Google is actively exacerbating a specific belief system.  Since the rapid emergence of social media and search […]