Deborah Bloomfield

Microplastics have now become a major concern across the planet. Humans have spread plastic so far that they are impacting every aspect of the natural world. But they are also invading our bodies through inhalation and ingestion, the long-term consequences of which are still unknown. So, what can we do about it? When we say […]

The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were infested with parasites, many of which caused anemia and other debilitating conditions. According to a new meta-analysis of prior research on Egyptian mummies, around two-thirds suffered from worms of various kinds, while 22 percent had malaria and 40 percent had headlice. In the famous Valley of the Kings, for […]

Beyond the glass cabinets of natural history museums lie thousands more rare specimens, but for many people – researchers and the public included – those specimens remained behind closed doors, accessible to only a select few. Now, thanks to the completion of a six-year-long project, we finally get to see some of them in impressive […]

Crack out the celebratory balloons and get those MRI machines clanking: A giant reserve of helium has been found hundreds of meters below Earth at a drill site in Minnesota, US.  The load of helium was found in the early hours of February 28 by Pulsar Helium. While drilling their exploratory boring well, they discovered […]

NASA has opened the call for its next class of astronauts. So if you dream of traveling in space and being an advocate for the space agency, this is your chance. You will have competition; the last call saw 12,000 applicants, but do not be put off. NASA wants the widest possible range of people, […]

Spiders come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny, intelligent jumping spiders, to the extremely deadly and chonky Hercules. Giant mythical spiders have been depicted time and time again throughout history – most recently in the form of Adam Sandler’s space-therapist – but fiction aside, what is the biggest spider currently stomping around the Earth […]

The techniques a network of satellites may one day use to find life beyond the solar system have been verified by applying them to the one place we know life exists: Earth. Of course, there is a rather spectacular difference in the distance over which the observations needed to be made versus those planned for […]

Once upon a time, there was a horse called Sampson. A shire gelding born in Bedfordshire, England, in 1846, Sampson was special for one reason – he was a really big deal. Shire horses are known to be pretty large beasts. They are a British breed of draft horses that are valued for their strength, […]

This week, Florida lawmakers passed legislation banning the intentional release of balloons outside, in a bid to crack down on littering and protect wildlife. The bill, which was passed by the Florida House and Senate, will now head to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis to be signed into law. All being well, it will […]

Wind rushes around your ears as a cascading train of iridescent feathers soars over your head. Toes curled, neck extended, rear-end seemingly doomed for landing: a peacock has just taken flight, and frankly, it makes no sense at all. The elaborate ornament’s eye-like feather tips are an alluring display to the opposite sex (and other […]

Humans have been traveling around the world for as long as our species has existed, and after a while it became important to know where one is and where one can go. The oldest surviving maps are over 2,500 years old, and since then humans’ ability to create surveys of their surroundings has massively improved […]

Four hundred years after the discovery of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot a spot of a different color has been added, but its story is a bit more complicated. The first thing to know about the Great Blue Spot is that it does not emit or reflect light at around 450 nanometers, and therefore is not […]

Over the last year, IFLScience has spoken with a range of incredible women working at the forefront of many different scientific disciplines. From physicists and space lawyers to conservationists saving extinct species, meet our STEM heroes on International Women’s Day.  “Too many girls are told physics is too difficult, it’s for the boys. Rubbish! Absolute […]

Time’s up for one of the oldest oceanariums in the US. On March 7, authorities served eviction papers to the owners of Miami Seaquarium, a park steeped in controversy by damning reports into the care of its marine residents and the resulting plethora of animal deaths. In a statement posted to social media platform X, […]

It’s official: the Great Barrier Reef is being battered by yet another major coral bleaching event. This is the fifth such event in just eight years, marking a horrendous blow for the much-loved and much-troubled reef.  The ongoing bleaching event was confirmed on March 8 by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in collaboration […]

Four children exposed to HIV at birth maintained an undetectable viral load for more than a year after pausing their medication. They’re part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded clinical trial investigating the prospect of achieving true HIV remission, something that just decades ago would have seemed impossible.  The trial works under the premise […]

It has been ten years since Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. To this day it remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries globally. It’s unthinkable that a modern Boeing 777-200ER jetliner with 239 people on board can simply vanish without any explanation. Yet multiple searches in the past decade have […]

How do you view science and scientists? Are they the same thing? Would you say you have equal trust in them or do you see one as more trustworthy than the other? Since the COVID-19 pandemic, confidence in science has been in decline in the US and elsewhere, but at the same time, the institution […]

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the major health challenges facing humankind today. Recent years have seen the development of the most promising drug treatments we’ve ever seen, as well as trials of innovative therapies and tests. But debates around what actually causes the disease continue to rage in the background. Into this fray steps a […]

A new peer-reviewed study explores a controversial theory about the capabilities of nonspeaking autistic people in an innovative way. If the claims made are confirmed it could open the door to greatly expanded opportunities for the people involved. However, the small sample size and history of discredited claims in the area put it in the […]