Deborah Bloomfield

A study analyzing data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has uncovered evidence of a “helicity barrier” in the Sun’s atmosphere. In 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe on a trajectory that would eventually have it dive into the Sun’s atmosphere (corona), getting seven times closer to our host star than any other spacecraft so […]

Have you ever held a conversation while you slept? It’s more likely than you think. Whether it’s a stray chuckle, a word or two, or a full monologue a la Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1, somniloquy – aka talking in your sleep – is extremely common. But why does it happen? And is it dangerous? […]

The debate about whether (and, if so, how) animals think is an ancient one. Aristotle considered it important enough to write on the question extensively, and it’s a safe bet people were debating it long before we have written records. Unsurprisingly, it’s a major topic of research today, but one that tends to defy easy […]

Giraffes are one of those iconic species of the African savannah: tall-necked, with their trademark mottled coats decked out in all the colors of a slightly over-ripe banana.  In Kenya, though, there’s one giraffe who doesn’t fit in with the others. Dazzlingly white and mysteriously unnamed, he’s the only known such creature in the world: […]

This week, the miniature “hobbit” ancient humans of Flores Island may have come from the nearby island of Sulawesi, where researchers have discovered stone tools, four newly discovered tarantulas have been discovered with the longest known schlongs in the spider world, and cockatoos have at least 30 different dance moves that they love to perform. […]

Next time you’re feeling a bit peaky, better dust off your grandma’s old medical encyclopedias rather than opt for the high-tech solution – it turns out asking ChatGPT might just make things worse.  The evidence? A new case study out of Washington state, in which a seemingly healthy man ended up poisoning himself to the […]

A landmark study of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has just reported preliminary results, suggesting that the DNA of people with the condition is markedly altered in eight key regions.  ME/CFS affects an estimated 67 million people worldwide. There is no specific test or cure for the condition, and patients can experience substantial challenges when […]

States in quantum superposition are notoriously fragile, but researchers in China have reported creating such a state that lasted for a whopping 23 minutes and 20 seconds. While this record-breaking result is exciting in itself, the team believes that it could open new ways to high-precision measurements and even information processing for quantum computers – […]

The first study to conduct a thorough global estimate of the number of children born via assisted reproductive technology (ART), like in vitro fertilization (IVF), has estimated that between 9.8 million to just over 13 million babies have been born this way since the tech first came into use in 1978. ART consists of any […]

Californian authorities are warning people to avoid the meat of wild pigs in Monterey County as something strange and deeply worrying is happening to them: their flesh and fat are turning blue. And this is not just a little blue, like a cold person, but bright, almost neon blue. The phenomenon was first brought to […]

This week on Break It Down: cockatoos have added 17 new dance moves to their official tally, we may finally know where the ancient “hobbit” humans came from, four new species of tarantulas have been discovered with one key difference to other species, science has the answer as to whether you’re more likely to be […]

NASA had a special Christmas gift last year. On December 24, the Parker Solar Probe reached the closest it will ever get to the Sun. As it flew just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from its surface, it snapped a picture of the solar wind, the stream of particles that is released from the […]

You might remember The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, that gloriously ’70s movie and TV drama about a bearded frontiersman who buddies up with bears and roams the untamed American West. This larger-than-life character is based on a real person – James Capen Adams – and while the on-screen version made him look like […]

On May 18, 1991, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev departed Earth for the Soviet space station Mir. While he was up there, the country that had sent him ceased to exist, making Krikalev – for a few months at least – the “last Soviet citizen”.  Krikalev grew up in Leningrad (which he effectively watched become St Petersburg […]

Great white sharks are magnificent creatures and an icon among sea predators. But despite their fame across the world, inspiring stories, books, films, games, and more, there’s still a great deal we do not know about them. In an effort to answer a long-running question surrounding their populations, scientists have stumbled into a deeper mystery […]

Sharks, rays, and chimaeras are collectively known as cartilaginous fish, because instead of bones, they have cartilage material like humans have in our noses and ears. That certainly seems to work out well for them, given their long reign and the diverse niches they occupy, but it’s not so great for humans wanting to draw […]

The peak of the Perseids is almost here, but the run-up to it is going to be a bit dampened by the pesky Moon. Our natural satellite reaches its fullness tonight, which means if you were planning to go meteor hunting this weekend, you will have to contend with its glaring light for most of […]

For several decades, scientists have been seeing weirdly bright areas of the Antarctic oceans on satellite images. The mystery has been extremely difficult to investigate due to the harsh conditions in these seas, but now we know what’s going on. The water appears to be filled with silica-rich diatoms, a unicellular organism, and coccolithophores, a […]

There are lots of mysterious animal species on planet Earth; some are widespread and easy to find, while others hide away in tiny pockets of habitat rarely seen by humans. One such species, the Foa’s red colobus monkey, has recently been spotted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Kabobo Wildlife Reserve, where it […]

The advent of JWST has revolutionized our understanding of the earliest universe. Its keen infrared eye has pushed the boundaries of how far we can see into the universe, and due to the finiteness of the speed of light, that means how far we can look into the past. We are now studying the earliest […]