Deborah Bloomfield

It’s March 14 – Pi Day as the date format used in the US and only a handful of other countries reads 3/14. And 3.14 is usually what you need to know when you are doing calculations that involve circular things. For example, working out how much more pizza you get by ordering one 18-inch […]

A new species of giant freshwater turtle has been described by scientists who discovered the aquatic beast’s enormous jaw bone in the Brazilian Amazon. Its shell would’ve been around 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) long, making it larger than any turtle alive today. Stephen King was the inspiration for the ancient turtle’s species name, Peltocephalus maturin.  […]

2024 is a pretty great year for gawping at celestial events. As well as a possible once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a nova, there is a total solar eclipse taking place across North America on April 8. While emergency officials warn that you should stock up on food, water, and fuel ahead of the eclipse, and […]

As far as astronomers studying the observable universe can tell, only around 5 percent of it is made up of matter. The rest, or the overwhelming majority of it, is made up of dark matter (around 27 percent) and dark energy (around 68 percent).  Dark matter is invisible matter that doesn’t emit its own light […]

US citizens are worryingly poor at differentiating between fact and political opinion. This may not be the news you wanted to hear in an election year, but is the finding of new research led by scholars from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Political Science.  “The capacity to differentiate between a statement of opinion […]

The clouds surrounding two protostars are rich in complex molecules including some that would not be out of place in your kitchen or behind a bar. Observations with JWST reveal the presence of ethanol, acetic acid, formic acid, and more around protostars IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. Ethanol is the alcohol found in liquors; acetic […]

Why do some families see more than their fair share of twin births? Identical twins are a random surprise, but scientists know that non-identical (or fraternal) twins have a genetic link. Finding the specific genes involved, however, has been another story. Now, new research has picked up on seven genes, and a test for them […]

Actress Olivia Munn has shared that she was diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer in April 2023 and has since undergone surgical removal of both of her breasts. “[Munn’s OBYGYN] looked at factors like my age, familial breast cancer history, and the fact that I had my first child after the age of 30. She […]

A giant volcano taller than Mount Everest has been detected on Mars – but perhaps the most extraordinary thing is that it was sitting right there in images collected by Mariner 9 in 1972. A sheet of glacier ice is suspected of lying beneath it, and the likely combination of water and heat mean that […]

The big news recently broke that gars’ genetic history reveals they are “living fossils“, evolving significantly slower than any other jawed vertebrate. The breakthrough in our understanding of living fossils revealed why they’ve remained largely unchanged for tens of millions of years, and it means they can create viable hybrids with other species – even […]

Paul Alexander, “The Man in the Iron Lung”, has passed away aged at age 78 after leading an incredible and inspiring life. Alexander, affectionately known as “Polio Paul”, died on March 11, 2024, according to an update on his GoFundMe page that was raising money for his healthcare. Advertisement “I am so grateful to everybody […]

Thursday, March 14 (Pi Day) has been set as the launch date for SpaceX Starship’s third attempt at safely launching, flying, and coming back down in one piece. A lot runs on this vehicle and this test being a success, given that Starship is going to be the landing system for the Artemis astronauts to […]

Lorain County Emergency Management (EMA) in Ohio have issued a warning to eclipse watchers and locals to the path of totality to stock up on food, water, and fuel ahead of the total eclipse on April 8, with an influx of visitors to the area expected. The last total solar eclipse over the US was […]

Just once in a while, zoologists like to combine the names of animals – something like the parrotfish or the dragonfly. This time, they’ve done it for good reason. Meet the owl monkey, also known as the night monkey, the world’s only nocturnal primate species. What is an owl monkey and where do they live? […]

We are used to space missions ending due to the challenging environments of exploration. They run out of fuel or coolant, they are covered in dust and lose power, or they are killed by the cold lunar night. But it feels almost sadder or, at least, less inevitable when the decision to end the mission […]

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) has no available vaccine or cure – but that may not be the case forever. New research has uncovered some of the virus’s vulnerabilities, opening the door to the possibility of targeted treatment. You are probably infected with EBV. It’s overwhelmingly prevalent in the human population, estimated to have infected around 95 […]

Frank Herbert’s Dune is epic sci-fi storytelling with an environmental message at its heart. The novels and movies are set on the desert planet of Arrakis, which various characters dream of transforming into a greener world – much like some envision for Mars today. We investigated Arrakis using a climate model, a computer program similar […]

The largest city state ever to exist in Mesoamerica may have drawn its power from a spine-chilling lust for shiny objects and human blood, both of which could be satisfied by the razor-sharp volcanic glass known as obsidian. According to a new analysis of a sacrificial temple within the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan, the populace’s […]

A huge hoard of dinosaur footprints, which could be up to 100 million years old, has been unearthed in northwestern Alaska.  The tracks were discovered in the Coke Basin of Alaska’s Nanushuk Formation, which dates back roughly 94 million to 113 million years. Approximately 75 track sites were found there, alongside fossilized plants, tree stumps, […]

Imagine you’re in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday November 1, 1755. It’s early morning on All Saint’s Day, a feast day that celebrates all the saints of the Catholic Church. The day should have been one of solemn commemoration with church services and visits to cemeteries to offer flowers; a blend of older traditions with standard […]