Deborah Bloomfield

The humble cutting board, whether plastic, wooden, or glass, is a staple of the kitchen. That being said, if they’re not looked after properly, they can quickly become much more problematic by harboring some of the pesky bacterial species that can cause food poisoning. So just how much bacteria can be found on the average […]

It’s not long now until the 2024 total solar eclipse and, weather permitting, it should be a spectacular celestial event. As exciting as it is, there are a number of safety concerns, particularly in the parts of the US that will be in the path of totality, with some now announcing the deployment of the […]

When learning a new language, it’s easy to get the impression that native speakers can churn out sentences far faster than your brain can process. Surely you don’t speak this rapidly in your mother tongue? Rest assured, this isn’t necessarily your poor language skills or linguistic relativism – some languages may indeed be “faster” than […]

This week, a CRISPR-edited pig kidney has successfully been transplanted into a living person, breeding efforts welcome ridiculous-looking hatchlings of the world’s rarest fish, and scientists simulate black holes in the lab using “quantum tornados” for the first time. Finally, we investigate the longest solar eclipse on record. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter for all the biggest […]

You may have heard people claim the longest word in the English language is “antidisestablishmentarianism,” a dusty old term that’s defined as the “opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church.” With 28 letters and 12 syllables, it is certainly a mouthful, but it isn’t necessarily the lengthiest. Bury your […]

Anyone who’s experienced a menstrual cycle knows it can often feel like you’re at the whim of your hormones, but some people believe they have a solution: seed cycling. But what exactly is it – and, most importantly, does it actually do anything to help? What is seed cycling? Cast aside the image of a […]

After the invasion of the actually pretty friendly alien pea pods, we’re back with another banger of an aquatic blob – but this one isn’t quite so harmless, according to a new study, thanks to more frequent and intense ocean heatwaves. These gelatinous sea creatures are called pyrosomes, which are made up of colonies of […]

One of the great quests in astronomy is to find the first stars. These stars lived and died within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang, but for those in very distant parts of the universe, their light may only be reaching us now, having spent 14 billion years crossing the space between. […]

A poonado of epic proportions may have saved some sperm whales from a fatal interaction with a pod of orcas off Western Australia’s southern coast. The highly scatological wildlife encounter was the first time this year that sperm whales had been seen in the area, and they put on a display nobody was expecting. The […]

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a new trojan asteroid in the orbit of Mars. This new companion of the Red Planet precedes Mars in its orbit, but unlike other trojan asteroids, this one might be in an unstable orbit, which suggests intriguing possibilities about its past. Trojan asteroids are located in the same orbit […]

Bramble sharks are incredibly camera-shy. Typically found lurking at the bottom of the seafloor, this elusive species is scarcely ever seen alive in its natural habitat. So, you can imagine the surprise when researchers from OceanX managed to stumble across an individual while exploring the deep waters off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, […]

It’s the 21st century, but conspiracy theories about a “long-lost race of giants” still live strong (honestly, you wouldn’t believe how many messages we receive about it). Rumors about one such colossus have recently emerged in South America where it’s said a huge humanoid skeleton has been uncovered. However, armchair archaeologists should take this wild […]

Regardless of your own personal views on the morality of eating meat and fish, the facts are clear: humanity’s current habits are not great for the environment, our health, or animal welfare. And if you know all this, it can be hard to justify continuing with a meat-based diet, rather than switching to full veganism. […]

Scientists researching the complex habitats of Utah’s Great Salt Lake sediments had a hunch that the nematodes also known as roundworms lived in these spaces but no one had ever found them – until now. This new discovery suggests there could be a whole web of hidden life within the Great Lake. A professor and a […]

In a world first, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a living human recipient. The patient, 62-year-old Richard “Rick” Slayman, had been living with end-stage kidney disease, relying on dialysis to survive after a previously transplanted human kidney had begun to fail. The medical team praised […]

We suspect that many icy moons in the Solar System host a liquid ocean buried deep within their crusts. Plans to get to those oceans with drilling robots have been put forward, but new research suggests something even simpler could provide information about the possibility of life in those oceans. All you need is a […]

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, but due to certain peculiarities, there is not agreement on whether it is really a sea or actually a bloody large lake. But while it may appear to be a trivial problem, the answer has significant geopolitical implications which make it a […]

When you are about to launch into space, you want to make sure everything is GO – all the more so if you have people on that rocket. Yesterday’s Soyuz launch toward the International Space Station was scrubbed just 21 seconds before lift-off. The abort was triggered by an automated system, the cause being a […]

NASA needs you! Or, more precisely, they need your phone to help study the Sun during the coming eclipse on April 8, 2024. Now we’re sure conspiracy cranks are poised at their keyboards to claim that this is some large takeover effort, or whatever, but there is actually good reason for the initiative. NASA are […]

The Amazons of ancient Greece made their first appearance in classical literature almost 3,000 years ago, yet continue to inspire feminist, lesbian, and transgender movements to this day. However, a lack of solid archaeological evidence means that historians still understand very little about these legendary warrior women, with some scholars arguing that they were purely […]