Deborah Bloomfield

SpaceX launched the largest rocket ever built into space yesterday with record-breaking thrust (before spectacularly blowing up). While the historic launch was heralded as a success, it wasn’t a good day for someone’s car. A remotely operated camera from a parking lot near the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, shows a flurry of debris […]

Months or years after the immediate burst of radiation put out by supernovas has passed, nearby planets face a further threat. X-rays produced by core-collapse supernovas can damage planets up to 160 light-years away, according to new evidence collected by NASA’s Chandra Observatory. Although there are no supernova candidates anything like this close to Earth […]

In late January 2022, a mass mortality event struck the long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) population of several islands in the Caribbean. By June the problem had spread to Florida, USA, Curaçao, and most of the Greater Antilles.  These sea urchins live in warm shallow waters and feed on algae. Affected urchins showed problems with […]

Having a tough time at work? Been trying to sort out a thorny problem, or push through a hard training program? For most of us, these are questions we understand instinctively – so much so that we don’t even notice the metaphorical language being used. But for people born without somatosensation – the ability to […]

When it comes to mapmaking, humans haven’t always stuck to the rules: ancient maps were riddled with inaccuracies, and covered with fantastical beasts and mythic places. Take a look at the history of mapmaking and discover what blunders early cartographers made in their attempts to depict the world’s geography.   Advertisement Credit: TED-Ed Deborah BloomfieldSource […]

Amelia Earhart is remembered today for various reasons. She is one of the most prominent figures in aviation history for her trailblazing accomplishments as a female pilot – not to mention being the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. But today Earhart is mostly remembered for her mysterious disappearance after she set […]

We love a good fluke treasure discovery here at IFLScience – and even better when it’s at the hands of somebody completely unexpected. A recent story out of Denmark is no exception, as a hoard of nearly 300 Viking coins has been discovered by a young girl using a metal detector in a cornfield last […]

The second-deepest blue hole in the world has been discovered in the bay of Chetumal in Mexico. With a depth of 274 meters (899 feet), this massive marine cavern has been named Taam ja’, which means “deep water” in the Mayan language. Scientists from the Colegio de la Frontera Sur first discovered the blue hole […]

She is one of the most iconic female figures in history. Her name and beauty were so renowned that Shakespeare described her as having “infinite variety”. But a new Netflix docudrama may have found a limit to that famed variety when it reactivated old debates over her race.   Cleopatra VII was queen of the […]

Throughout the 20th century, it was noted that the Chamorro people living on the remote Pacific island of Guam had unusually high rates of neurodegenerative diseases that had similarities to ALS, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. To this day, scientists are trying to sniff out the culprit behind this trend, but one undeniably intriguing link is […]

Researchers have created the heaviest system put into superposition yet. The crystal weighs 16 micrograms, or about one-fifth of an eyelash, and has been placed in a quantum state that has been popularized by a famous thought experiment: Schrӧdinger’s cat. In the experiment, an imaginary cat is placed in a box. Inside the box, there […]

There is only a star we are pretty sure we’ve got the right age for, and that is the Sun. Getting that value for every other star, from the very young to the very old, is a matter of clever modeling that tries to fit stars into a nice neat mold. And while it works […]

A totally new type of virus has been found living on the sunlit surface of the seas and oceans. Dubbed mirusviruses – “mirus” meaning wonderful or strange in Latin – the microbes are related to both giant viruses and herpesviruses. As such, the discovery might help to illuminate the murky evolutionary history of herpes. In […]

The most effective strategies for improving intimate relationships have been revealed by a new study, indicating the best behaviors to strengthen your feelings with your partner. Taking an array of different strategies, the research used two different studies to understand how each is perceived by the other partner, and the relationship outcomes, in an attempt […]

The butchered remains of 20 young men at a Maya pyramid in southern Mexico indicate that the site may have been a monument to the forces of death. The sacrificial victims were deposited in two distinct graves that may have been dug up to 1,200 years apart, suggesting that the macabre monument probably served the […]

Yesterday, the most powerful rocket ever built and the first to be completely reusable took to the sky and flew for almost four minutes. At that point, SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster and mega-rocket Starship were supposed to separate. Starship would have then continued to travel for another 86 minutes. Instead, it exploded – but this […]

This week, the most powerful rocket launch vehicle ever built exploded before it could reach space, a new breakthrough Parkinson’s biomarker test reaches 90 percent accuracy, and we look at the mystery surrounding the Shroud of Turin and its detailed depiction of Christ. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest science news delivered […]

An archaeological excavation in Badajoz, southwest Spain, has rewritten what we know about pre-Roman Iberian culture. With the discovery of five stone busts dating from the fifth century BCE, the previously accepted narrative on the local Tartessian culture has been turned on its head – showing clearly that the ancient inhabitants of the area were […]

A Simpsons fan has used his audio-editing skillz to process an old Simpsons clip and reveal a lost joke. Video editor Andrew “Ewzzy” Rayburn found the hidden joke in season 3 episode “The Otto Show”. In the episode, Bart is about to attend a Spinal Tap concert, when Marge declares “I hope The Spinal Taps don’t play […]

Endometriosis is a debilitating condition which affects 10 percent of women worldwide. The condition can have a serious affect on a person’s quality of life, often causing a range of symptoms including chronic pain, fatigue and pain during sex. Despite how common endometriosis is, most women wait on average 7.5 years for a diagnosis in […]