Deborah Bloomfield

When the unusually alcoholic comet 46P/Wirtanen approached the Sun in 1974, it left a trail of dust behind. Five astronomers have calculated the path of this debris and predict the Earth should hit it on December 12 this year, and possibly on the same date in future years, creating a new regular meteor shower. At […]

Japan has a lot of islands. So many, in fact, that when it last did a recount in February this year, it found that it has approximately 14,125 islands, rather than the 6,852 they previously thought. That’s a lot of islands – but they still keep coming, thanks of course to volcanic activity.  On October […]

Invasive species are a problem in pretty much every habitat across Earth. Some have been accidentally introduced while others were the result of deliberate actions with unforeseen outcomes. Where problems arise, often with the destruction of habitats for the native species, there becomes the need to find a solution to curb the impacts these species […]

Gorilla suits, music videos, and Space Olympics: when it comes to passing time on the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts have shown themselves to have a good sense of humor. A good thing, too, as the latest ISS shenanigans stirred up some drama, as a missing tomato led the team to believe that one member […]

Google has released its new artificial intelligence (AI) model set to rival ChatGPT – and it looks pretty damn impressive.  Called Gemini, the model was developed by Google DeepMind, whose CEO and co-founder Demis Hassabis describes it in a blog post as “the most capable and general model we’ve ever built.” Advertisement Gemini will power […]

If you’ve ever had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, you’ll know that they have a strict “no metal” policy. This isn’t some arbitrary rule, or an ancient radiographer tradition, but a necessary safety instruction to stop you being killed by said metal, or having your metal butt plug sucked where metal butt plugs shouldn’t […]

Children in hunter-gatherer societies have a completely different experience with physical activity than we do – and we should be taking notes, according to a new study, not yet peer-reviewed, from researchers in the UK. There are many advantages to living in a developed region. TV, for example, is one; so is the internet; the […]

When you dig into the statistics behind dyslexia, several strange insights emerge. Not only do rates of dyslexia seem to vary massively between different languages, but it’s also evident that some bilingual people can be dyslexic in English but not their mother tongue. How does that make sense? Dyslexia is a condition that causes difficulties […]

You may have come across a strange, walnut-sized growth on your Christmas tree at some point and either thought “is that a pine cone?”, before fetching more eggnog, or “what is that?”, before fetching more eggnog. Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but if you do find these growths it’s something […]

The presence of a potential universal system of nonverbal communication has been hinted at in a new study that explored the age at which children develop the differences between co-speech gestures (gestures accompanying speech) and silent gestures (gesturing without speech) that adults use.  The researchers focused on children aged between 3 and 12 years old […]

Nowhere in the world has a more iconic national bird than New Zealand, so much so that the people of the island nation have adopted the nickname “the Kiwis” as their moniker. These easily recognizable flightless birds have faced countless problems with the rise of invasive species in their native home, but conservation efforts have […]

We’re all on that conveyor belt we call life, inching ever closer to our expiration date, although what happens when we finally reach the end of the line is anyone’s guess. However, over the past couple of years, researchers have gained some fascinating insights into what happens in the brain as we take our final […]

Regular or decaf? French press or Moka pot? Milk, cream, or neither? If you’re a coffee lover, you likely have a preference, and discussions about the best brewing method have sparked many a strong opinion and YouTube video essay. But have no fear, science is here! A new study brought together a coffee expert and […]

It’ll soon be easier than ever to get your hands on DNA digital data storage – although it won’t come cheaply. French startup Biomemory is selling a credit card-sized device that can store short messages encoded by DNA. DNA is essentially a natural repository of data, encoding genetic information using four nucleotide bases (A, G, […]

The plumes pushed out by Enceladus’s geysers are powerful enough that a visiting spacecraft could sample the small moon’s innards without having to land. Moreover, they’re also sufficiently gentle that if the molecules needed to get life started exist in Enceladus’s internal ocean, they won’t be destroyed by being spat out, leaving them free to […]

A bloodied booby on Wolf Island in the Galápagos tells a strange story. These birds aren’t falling victim to some sort of predatory mammal, but instead, a bird: the vampire finch. Found on Wolf and Darwin islands, these birds have adapted to a lack of resources by feeding on blood at certain times of the […]

Pain might be the first thing you associate with a shock from an electric eel, but it turns out there could be more to it than that. A new study has found that electric eels can discharge enough electricity that nearby fish larvae can end up with genetic modifications. This is thought to be the […]

The Crater Of Diamonds State Park is a treasure trove of diamonds that were forged by geologic and volcanic activity that shaped the region around 3 billion years ago. Having formed deep below the Earth’s crust, they were explosively forced to the surface and now can be found by, well, just about anyone. Don’t believe […]

Whether they give you the ick or not, snakes are amazing animals. Not only is their physiology something to marvel at, but their sheer diversity is incredible. There are nearly 4,000 species of different snakes on the planet, which accounts for over 10 percent of terrestrial vertebrates. Their evolution has given rise to an enormous […]

Planetary scientists have released evidence they claim establishes the location where an asteroid hit the Earth three-quarters of a million years ago. Although evidence for the size and timing of the event has been found far and wide, it’s been a long road to identify the likely crater in southern Laos. Southeast Asia, and even […]