Deborah Bloomfield

The Earth rotates towards the east, so the Sun, the Moon, and all celestial bodies we can see always appear to rise from that direction and set in the west. But there is no reason for that to be the only possible case. Our planet might just as easily spin in the opposite direction, and […]

A woman who crushed up a whole black widow spider and injected it in an effort to get high in the 1990s ended up having a very bad time when the arachnid’s venom kicked in. The unpleasant trip saw her spend a few days in the intensive care unit (ICU) with breathing difficulties, muscle cramping, […]

The Earthly remains and the tomb of Queen Boudicca have never been found, although many theories of her final resting place have been suggested, ranging from Stonehenge and a McDonald’s to beneath London King’s Cross train station. Boudicca was the queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe known for leading a courageous – but ill-fated […]

There are treasures to be found among the sediments of abyssal plains for those willing to dive 3,000–6,000 meters (9,800–19,600 feet) to go searching. Here, vast fields of manganese nodules can be found, rich in metals that would have battery makers’ eyes turning to dollar signs. Sometimes referred to as deep-sea potatoes, or manganese tubers, […]

Nobody does slime better than hagfish. Also known as slime eels, these slippery Myxiniformes have evolved to use goo as a defense mechanism by clogging the gills of predators in less than a second. They’re considered to be the slimiest animals on the planet, capable of producing mucus that expands to 10,000 times its size […]

Nuclear waste is a serious problem. Not only is it difficult to safely dispose of, but its harmful effects can remain a threat thousands of years into the future. In that time, whole civilizations and languages may have come and gone, posing a real challenge for safeguarding future generations from a hazard we produce today. […]

An incredible picture of the Sun has been produced by two extremely talented photographers and citizen scientists. Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel have constructed a beautiful mosaic of our Sun, showing surface features and most impressively a twisty plasma filament stretching out over the limb (outer edge) of our star. The positioning allowed the duo […]

It’s no surprise exercise is one of the first things we turn to when we decide it’s time to lose weight. We readily sign up for that gym membership and commit to extra walks with the dog, believing if we exercise enough, the number on the scales will drop. Advertisement Perhaps also unsurprisingly, many of […]

History – and, more often, mythology – is replete with tales of supposed “lost cities.” Whether it’s Atlantis, the City of the Caesars, or that tiny Irish version of Brazil that everyone insisted was real for a few centuries, there’s apparently just something irresistible about the idea of a once-great civilization now totally lost to […]

Few prehistoric animals are more iconic than the woolly mammoth: gigantic tusked beasts covered in shaggy hair, wandering the steppes of Eurasia and North America, occasionally doing battle with early humans or getting annoyed with the odd ground sloth. But like any species, their looks were the result of eons of evolution – and a […]

As one of the most useful minerals on Earth, gold is favored for its conductivity, inability to tarnish, workability, and of course its good looks. But despite its seeming abundance, might our gold supplies one day run out? History has seen a number of “gold rush” periods around the world, with major deposits being found […]

This week, melting permafrost reveals a 13th-century Mongol Empire graveyard, we reveal the many ways in which we know the Moon landing clearly wasn’t faked, and we take a look at ancient Egyptian engineering methods to establish just how they built the pyramids. Giant, Stinking Blob Reaches Record-Breaking Size, Now It’s Headed For Florida Coastlines […]

The Walls of Jericho are one of the most iconic sites mentioned in the Bible. While most scholars say the Bible’s famous account of the war that took place there cannot be verified, the massive stone walls of this Neolithic settlement have been found by archaeologists, many of whom believe it’s one of the oldest […]

Before humans started heating the planet by burning fossil fuels in the 19th century, Earth had experienced centuries-long widespread cool period known as the Little Ice Age. Scientists believe this cold spell may have been triggered, in part, by volcanic eruptions which made the atmosphere hazier, blocking some incoming sunlight. Advertisement Records of these eruptions […]

If you’ve ever had the eerie sensation there’s a presence in the room when you were sure you were alone, you may be reluctant to admit it. Perhaps it was a profound experience that you are happy to share with others. Or – more likely – it was something in between the two. Unless you […]

If you believe some people, the key to a good relationship is “electricity” or “chemistry”. Listen to others, and they’ll have you believe it all comes down to biology instead. According to a new study, though, they’re all way off: the true science of friendship, it turns out, is math. “Past research has shown that […]

It might not look like it, but you’re going to have to trust us on this one: human skin is covered in stripes. Called the lines of Blaschko, or Blaschko lines, it’s thought they map the movements of cells from when the body was developing in the womb. This mysterious pattern only becomes visible under […]

Researchers claim to have bulk-produced cultivated fat tissue with tunable amounts of fat molecules, potentially allowing lab-grown meat to finally replicate that true meat taste. The lab-grown fat has the same molecular makeup as natural fat and can be produced at scale, making it have the potential to be used in the same processes currently […]

Fantasy fans rejoice, we’re here to tell you that dire wolves actually do exist! Well, existed is more accurate, since these ancient enormous predators roamed around in the Pleistocene North and South America. A specimen of one of these wolves found in Medicine Hat, Canada was never fully described, but research into the dentition of […]

Humans may be the dominant species on the planet right now, but it wasn’t all that long ago, relatively speaking, that we were little more than a bunch of apes with a tendency to fall out of trees more than their cousins. Back in those days, the biggest numbers we had to deal with were […]