Deborah Bloomfield

Few water crossings instill more fear than the Drake Passage, the notorious body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. Its vigorous currents, freezing waters, ferocious winds, and enormous waves have endowed the passage with a reputation for being among the most treacherous in the world.  What is […]

In school, you were probably taught that to make a baby you need an egg cell and a sperm cell – and if we’re talking about human reproduction then you would be correct. However, in the wider animal kingdom, this isn’t necessarily the case. Plenty of animals reproduce asexually, and a select few experience what’s […]

Pasteurization is right up there with hand-washing and vaccines as one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. But just like the other things on that list, it has its detractors. Loud ones.  Fact-checking organization Full Fact recently responded to an Instagram post that has totted up over 70,000 likes at the time […]

People who are unable to generate any mental imagery are less capable of recalling key events from their life history, new research has revealed. After scanning the brains of volunteers with aphantasia – a condition characterized by a lack of a “mind’s eye” – the study authors found that this impaired autobiographical memory is underscored […]

New research has analyzed tattoo inks from major and small American manufacturers and has found that 90 percent contained ingredients that were not listed on the label. In some cases, the unlisted ingredients are known to be harmful to humans. Tattooing is an established industry these days, and it’s big business. Around the world, societal […]

Imagine you have just observed something that is going to revolutionize science. The first thing you’d do is probably check everything multiple times – is this correct? Is it really happening? And if you were in a big international collaboration, you might even want to ask around to check if this is a prank or […]

When you think of the loudest noises made by the animal kingdom, maybe the first thing that comes to mind is the roar of a lion or the trumpeting of an elephant. It probably isn’t the noise made by a tiny translucent fish native to the shallow waters of Myanmar – but new research has […]

Wasps, let’s face facts here, are not everybody’s favorite insect. Despite playing important roles in pollination and regulating plant pests, they still lose out heavily in the PR war to their old rivals the bee. In fact, one attitude survey in 2018 found that wasps were “universally disliked by the public”, which is unfair on […]

Record efficiency in CIGS solar cells has been independently verified, showing there is still life in the once-popular technology that has been shaded in recent years.  Today, the vast majority of photovoltaic systems are silicon-based. However, silicon cells are approaching their maximum efficiency, and require relatively high temperatures to produce, creating a floor in cost […]

The world has changed significantly since the HIV epidemic began. The development of new drugs has allowed people living with the virus to have a healthy life, and even to not pass on the infection. But for this disease to be removed from the list of the main public health threats, what is needed is […]

The US Air Force possesses a novel technology that can rapidly sink a ship before your eyes. Their research lab has even released footage of the cutting-edge weapon, aptly named QUICKSINK, showing it obliterate a vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. The Air Force Research Laboratory and Eglin’s Integrated Test Team first carried out the […]

A new paper has outlined potential problems we may face in contacting advanced alien civilizations: the potential existence of “fishbowl worlds”. If you haven’t heard of the Fermi Paradox, it goes something like this: given the vastness of the universe, the sheer amount of time it has gone on for, and the septillion stars out […]

As we’ve learned more about the SARS-CoV-2 virus over the last four years, we’ve discovered that far from being just a respiratory illness, COVID-19 can affect many different body systems, including the brain. Despite the advances that have been made, we still have a lot to learn about the damage COVID-19 can cause, particularly in […]

Meteorites that have impacted our planet over the years have brought with them a mystery: Earth’s atmosphere appears to be missing large amounts of xenon. Meteorites – some of which are older than Earth – give us insights into the early Solar System and our own planet. Rocky planets formed from these smaller bodies clumping […]

For the first time, photographers have recorded two humpback whales copulating. When they showed their footage to a marine mammal expert, she confirmed both participants were males, confirming once again that same-sex sexual behavior is widespread among animals. There are, however, questions about whether in this case, both whales were happy about the situation. Whales […]

Seeing wild elephants on safari might be high on the bucket list of many, but tour operator Theo Potgieter and his guests recently had a 1 in 10,000 experience when they witnessed an albino elephant calf playing in the water. Potgieter managed to capture video and images of the young bull, which he estimates to […]

Pythagoras is famed for the theorem that probably gave you a headache in high school, clever cup designs, and his… erm… unusual beliefs about legumes. But the “father of numbers” had his fingers in all sorts of pies, and one other area where he made great strides was in the world of music. All these centuries […]

Marlin and sailfish are some of the oceans’ top predators and some of the fastest fish on the planet. Marlin have been known to hunt in groups, taking it in turns to stun and then snatch sardines from the middle of a school. Now, using new drone technology, researchers have revealed a surprising insight into […]

Chinese carmaker BYD has unveiled its first all-electric supercar model, capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour in just 2.36 seconds. With a top speed of 309.19 kilometers (218 miles) per hour, the vehicle can rack up speeds faster than some models of Ferrari and Lamborghini – but it runs […]

Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole of exceptional proportions in the early universe. Its light comes to us from when the cosmos was just over 764 million years old. And yet this black hole is a big one, estimated to weigh 40 million times the mass of our Sun. The team was able to […]