Deborah Bloomfield

The more we search among the stars, the more we find potentially habitable planets. And yet to date, we have not found any conclusive signs of intelligent civilizations out there in the cosmos, begging the question: Where is everybody? Advertisement This is the basic question of the Fermi Paradox, to which scientists, philosophers, and science […]

Television dramas often thrive on families where siblings have personalities much more different from each other than people would assume. The same may be true for stars, at least giant ones, and the results could make scientific research on many aspects of astronomy more convoluted than the plot of a long-running series. Advertisement Occasionally a […]

The deepest blue hole in the world has been confirmed in Chetumal Bay, Mexico. Researchers estimate the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole has a depth of at least 420 meters (1,380 feet), but have yet to reach the bottom of the world’s deepest blue hole. What are blue holes? Blue holes like Taam Ja’ formed during […]

The Northern Hemisphere has reached that special time of year. Sun shining, flowers blooming, birds singing… and people sneezing. Pollen season, aka spring, is well and truly upon us. If you’re a hay fever sufferer, depending on the particular types of pollen that really get up your nose, you can now look forward to several […]

Blood transfusions are lifesaving. Every donation of blood will help someone, but because of blood types not all blood can help everyone. Universal donor types are sought-after, but the rest of the donations need to go to specific receivers. At least, for now. Thanks to a new discovery, in the near future all blood might […]

In 2006, off the coast of Iceland, a giant ocean quahog clam (Arctica islandica) was dredged from the ocean floor. Like how you can count the rings in a tree to determine its age, it’s possible to count growth rings on these clams to roughly determine their age. In 2007, scientists did just this. Advertisement […]

July 28, 1973 may not be a famous date for human history, but the same is not true for fish. This was the day two minnows blasted off into space on a quest to learn the cause of motion sickness, or more specifically: do fish get spacesick? Advertisement Spacesickness doesn’t feature much in fiction set […]

A new report details how cats from at least one dairy farm in Texas have died after catching H5N1 avian flu – not from birds, but from drinking raw cow’s milk.   Advertisement Only recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that a dairy farm worker had tested positive for H5N1 avian […]

Dog breeder Carole DeBruler, who is the co-owner of Golden Treasures Kennel, took to social media to share the arrival of her latest litter of golden retriever puppies. However, one among the litter was clearly different to their siblings, being born with a strange green tint to their fur.  Advertisement Shamrock, as the pup has […]

The most complete and well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton discovered since the turn of the millennium has been used to reconstruct the face of its owner – a female member of the extinct human lineage who lived around 75,000 years ago. Found within the iconic yet controversial Shanidar Cave – where Neanderthals repeatedly buried their dead, possibly […]

A ringed planet is a thing of beauty. Saturn is iconic – and let’s be honest, it’s 90 percent due to the rings because the planet itself does not have many other distinctive features. Earth’s beauty is very different, but it’s fun to wonder if it could be enhanced by the presence of rings. The […]

Since the demise of the dinosaurs, mammals have thrived. Without their scaly peers around, their numbers exploded, they diversified, and they got bigger – but just how big? Advertisement We know that the blue whale is the largest mammal ever – heck, it’s also the most massive animal to ever live – measuring around 30 […]

The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) has officially opened, giving astronomers an infrared eye on the universe that will last when JWST runs out of fuel. At 5,640 meters (18,500 feet) above sea level, the location is the highest for a ground-based telescope. The challenges of getting it built, however, reveal why no one […]

The daddy long legs, or grandaddy long legs, depending on your tastes, is a perplexing creature, not least because there isn’t a great consensus on what one is. Several species have been given the nickname that reads like the naming scientist was feeling frisky that day, but despite all the confusion, one curious question has […]

In 2016, the sea ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea developed an enormous hole twice the size of Wales – the country, not a pod of giant mammals. The following year it returned, but the reasons remained unknown. Now they have been explained as a result of previously understood factors and a rare form of salt […]

You can have soft or hard-boiled eggs pretty much everywhere on the planet, but you cannot make them at the highest point on Earth above sea level. This might not be a pressing concern of yours, but the laws behind this fact affect the preparation of both food and drinks in many places around the […]

Birds of prey are some of the most impressive species to fly across Earth’s habitats. From the super speedy peregrine falcon to silent owls and majestic eagles, these birds have captured imaginations across the world. But do you actually know the difference between a falcon and a hawk?  Advertisement What is a falcon? Falcons are […]

A new mRNA vaccine candidate for aggressive brain cancer has shown promise in a small clinical trial – but it was a clinical trial with a twist. As well as testing the vaccine in a handful of human cancer patients, the researchers are also leveraging results from 10 pet dogs. Advertisement It’s very typical for […]

When it comes to the question of which species of bear is the largest on the planet, the answer may seem obvious to some. The polar bear is clearly the winner of this competition if we are going by a species-to-species comparison, but the situation becomes less clear if we expand the category to include […]

Earth is currently experiencing one of its top three meteor showers in terms of activity. May is the month of the Eta Aquariids, leftover pieces from the passage of Halley’s comet. Earth gets as close to 9.7 million kilometers (6 million miles) from the comet’s orbit during this time, close enough to capture some stray […]