Deborah Bloomfield

Making biscuits, purring, the little headbutts, that chirping noise they sometimes make – these are just some of the many perks of having a cat in your life. Spraying their pungent-smelling pee? Not so much. But why does it smell so much worse than normal litterbox pee? You ask the questions – a new study […]

Well, the world didn’t end (yay), so let’s talk about Monday’s total solar eclipse and those strange pink spots around its periphery. If you were lucky enough to snap a pic of the eclipse yourself, or have seen some of the incredible photos taken by others, you may have noticed bright pink, red, and orange […]

In a landmark case, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that authorities in Switzerland have violated the human rights of a group of Swiss women by not doing enough to stop climate change. April 9 saw rulings on three climate change cases in the court, expedited through the process after being considered […]

Two new minerals made from titanium and oxygen have been found in lunar material brought back by the Chang’e-5 Moon mission. These are the seventh and eighth minerals to be found on the Moon and have never been seen naturally on Earth, or anywhere else.  Recent research has revealed the importance of titanium to the […]

After 130 years of absence, Tulare Lake briefly remerged from the San Joaquin Valley last year. Now, however, the indecisive “phantom lake” has disappeared into obscurity once again, leaving an uncertain future for the residents and farmers of California’s Central Valley.  Tulare Lake was once the largest lake west of the Mississippi River, holding a […]

Gelatinous blobs reportedly rained down on the timber town of Oakville back in the summer of 1994, kicking off a mystery that would come to be known as the Oakville Blobs. Exactly what the jelly rain consisted of had residents spooked, with several reporting that they became unwell and animals died as the Oakville Blobs […]

The number of deaths caused by viral hepatitis around the world is increasing, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). An estimated 3,500 people succumb to the disease each day, making it the second leading infectious cause of death in 2022, with a death toll matching that of tuberculosis. The 2024 […]

For over a century, humans have been searching for alien civilizations somewhere out there in the universe. Though we obviously have found nothing so far, we have become rather good at finding planets, confirming over 5,000 of them in the Milky Way since our first discovery in the 1990s. Analyzing the spectrum of light from […]

There have been many names given to the region of the Atlantic coast that stretches between the Kunene and Swakop rivers in Namibia, and none of them are reassuring. To the local San people, it’s known as the “land God made in anger”; to the Portuguese sailors who briefly stopped there in 1486, it was […]

Particles of dark matter could interact with the neutrons in the core of neutron stars. If so, this should heat the stars, and new calculations suggest this might happen quickly enough that we could detect it, although the authors of the idea acknowledge it won’t be easy. The universe is thought to contain almost six […]

The 2024 North American total solar eclipse has come and passed. Now the spectacle is over, you might be wondering what to do with your solar eclipse glasses. The next total solar eclipse to cross North America is predicted to occur on August 23, 2044. Unless you plan on hanging on to your protective glasses […]

Following the end of World War 2 and the devastating impacts of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings, the Cold War was looming. The immense destruction and power promised by atomic bombs pushed world superpowers into a nuclear research frenzy, with the USA prepared to drop a third on Japan if necessary, and the remaining […]

The first study to quantify the environmental impacts of toxic “forever chemicals” on a global scale has found that much of the globe’s source water, which has not been treated for drinking, is more contaminated than suspected. Toxic “forever chemicals”, which do not degrade, are otherwise known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS for short). […]

Scientists investigating a strange sea critter with an enormous set of eyes have discovered it has surprisingly advanced eyesight for such a small animal, and might even use them for a unique method of secret communication. Imagine lugging around an extra 100 kilograms (220 pounds) in the form of two gigantic eyeballs. That would probably […]

Parkfield in California is no stranger to an earthquake – it sits on the San Andreas Fault, after all. Previously, it seemed that a quake with a magnitude of 6 or greater happened here around every 22 years, but after the last one was 14 years late, scientists are now trying to figure out if […]

NASA has taken a closer look at a strange rock on Mars known as “Bunsen Peak”, named after the peak in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  When the Perseverance rover first photographed the rock, it immediately drew the attention of NASA scientists. Advertisement “This rock was intriguing because it stands tall among the surrounding terrain […]

Flocks of birds can be one of the most majestic sights in the natural world, ignoring all the squawks and chaotic flapping. Among certain species, these mesmerizing congregations of flight can reach sizes of unbelievable proportions.  One of the largest recorded flocks of birds featured over 40 million red-winged blackbirds flying over Arkansas in December […]

Veins of a blue-and-yellow banded mineral run through the Derbyshire hillside in Britain’s Peak District, a rare mineral we know today as Blue John. It’s thought to only be found in two locations across the planet, so while it’s only semi-precious, its scarcity makes it a valuable find. Blue John is a variety of fluorite, […]

A new study into the traditional medicine of Indigenous communities within the Incan heartland has revealed the plants that make up the unwritten pharmacopeia of this ancient Andean culture. After interviewing dozens of Quechua-speaking individuals in the mountains of Peru, researchers were able to identify 46 species of medicinal plants that are used to treat […]

A snake-like robot and mini drones have ventured deep inside the irradiated reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan. As shown in their new images, the clean-up operations still have some way to go 13 years after the catastrophic nuclear meltdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), the electric utility company that […]