Deborah Bloomfield

Despite being almost genetically identical to modern humans, Neanderthals had much chunkier faces, with big noses, protruding brows, and large, powerful jaws. Amazingly, these striking differences in physical appearance result from just a few tiny alterations in the so-called “dark” region of our genome. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign […]

While Europe and North America might be home to bears and wolves, they are lacking in the even larger species that roam across the continent of Africa. Even Asia and Australasia, with their freaky-looking marsupials, can’t compete with the size and volume of the world’s largest land animals. But why are there so many in […]

How do you milk a spider? It’s a question you’ve probably (read: hopefully) never asked yourself, but one that the ant-mimicking spider Toxeus magnus has got us thinking about. You see, when the momma spider’s eggs hatch and she finds herself with a clutch of bouncing baby spiderlings, she does something remarkable: she produces milk. […]

The year 1972 was a long one – and not just for Richard Nixon, whose ill-fated presidency was starting its death spiral amid the Watergate scandal. The Godfather hit cinemas, humans walked on the Moon for the last time in the 20th century, and Bloody Sunday inflamed “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. But it wasn’t […]

Magic mushrooms, or specifically psilocybin, the active compound contained within these fungi, has gained a lot of attention since the mid-20th Century as a promising treatment for all sorts of conditions, from addiction to depression and anxiety. Hell, it even appears to be useful for providing relief for the existential fear of cancer patients. Given […]

During 2020, I – like many people in lockdown – was desperate for a pet. You can imagine the temptation, then, when a wee mouse voluntarily wandered into my living room day and night. An opportunity? I thought, but I stopped myself. Deep down, I knew all that would happen was I’d end up covered […]

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After a significant outbreak of measles that began last year, Canadian health officials have confirmed that the country has lost its measles elimination status, ending a streak that had been intact since 1998. “The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has notified the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer holds measles elimination […]

A team of researchers studying the pyramids of Giza using non-invasive techniques believes they have identified two new “anomalies” in the Menkaure Pyramid. The Menkaure Pyramid, built for Pharaoh Menkaure, who ruled between 2490 and 2472 BCE, is the smallest of the pyramids at the Giza site in Egypt. It is also the least-disturbed of […]

Scientists are upping their game in the fight against a “double invasion” that’s currently sweeping across Virginia in the US. Here, the invasive “tree of heaven” is providing prime real estate for another invader: the spotted lanternfly. The tree of heaven, known to science as Ailanthus altissima, was brought to the United States back in […]

Sneezing is not an activity you’d deem particularly risky. This semi-autonomous mechanism of expelling irritants and pathogens is generally just a fairly irritating thing you have to do whilst alive, like tax returns and pretending to enjoy baseball. But sneezing can go a little wrong, and occasionally land the sneezer in hospital.  One review, which […]

Despite the wealth of evidence supporting it, its obvious sense as an explanation, and its endorsement by many and varied religious institutions, there are some people out there who still don’t accept the theory of evolution. Sure, they sometimes say, fossils might be real; there are animals that once existed that no longer do – […]

It makes for some pretty dramatic footage, but why does it happen? The magic of microwaves Unlike your stove top that applies heat directly to a pan, microwaves heat food by generating kinetic energy. It starts out with electromagnetic radiation that’s used to shift water molecules, creating vibrations that spread through the food as the […]

For the first time ever, scientists have monitored the effects of microdosing with LSD at home as a treatment for major depressive disorder. Over the course of eight weeks, 19 people took regular tiny amounts of the psychedelic drug, resulting in a pronounced reduction in symptom severity that persisted for up to six months. The […]

While many of us might associate turkeys with Thanksgiving or Christmas meals, they are actually remarkable birds capable of high-speed runs, possessing over 5,000 feathers, and a whole repertoire of noises beyond gobbling. But do you know what a baby turkey is called? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in […]

Heat is escaping from Saturn’s moon Enceladus at its north pole, as well as the south, a reanalysis of data from the Cassini spacecraft reveals. This discovery suggests the moon is in rough energy balance, which in turn increases the chance that its subsurface ocean is a long-term feature, not a temporary aberration. If so, […]

Could learning multiple languages be a secret weapon against the ravages of old age? C’est une possibilité. In a new study, researchers show how people who speak two or more languages have a decreased risk of accelerated aging – and the benefits of being multilingual increase with the number of languages spoken. An international team […]

Wander into the wrong bit of forest in Gabon’s Lopé National Park and you could find yourself surrounded by a troop of over 800 primates. Here, mandrills are known to roam the forest in enormous groups called “hordes,” and suffice to say, it’s not a party you want to crash with your puny human teeth. […]

In the age of wireless technology and streaming services, CDs could be considered an obsolete medium, primarily used by 21st-century Luddites clinging to a way to play their tragically untrendy music. However, for an invention that’s over 40 years old, compact discs are pleasantly sophisticated technology (if you look closely). The rest of this article […]

A team studying the spectra of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has found evidence of “galactic cosmic ray processing”. While interesting and certainly worth knowing, it really isn’t the best news that astronomers have ever received. It may be very disappointing indeed. In case you’re just catching up, on July 1, 2025, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact […]