Deborah Bloomfield

For the last several years, cosmologists and astronomers have been facing a major tension in our understanding of the cosmos. The expansion rate of the universe continues to be two different numbers depending on how we try and measure it. The cosmic microwave background – first free light in the universe – gives a value. […]

You’ve probably heard the 5-a-day rule intended to help us reach our nutritional needs with fruit and veg – but when diets fall short, vitamin supplements have long been used as a way to make up for the shortfall. But do they really work?  Or, as some have suggested, do vitamins just give us expensive […]

The longest river in the world is the Nile, right? Well, maybe. Maybe not, though. The question of Earth’s longest river sounds like some simple trivia that scientists should have sorted out centuries ago. However, you might be surprised to hear how much controversy and contention surrounds the geographical record-holder. Guinness World Records, as well […]

While the excitement for next month’s total solar eclipse is building for us humans, April 8 might see our animal pals acting a little bit weirder than usual. What happened during the solar eclipse in 2017? Though there had been anecdotal evidence of strange animal antics during historical solar eclipses, the last total solar eclipse […]

Signs that Martian gravity is influencing the Earth’s climate have been found in sediments on the deep ocean floor. Long climatic cycles triggered by resonance between the two planets’ orbits have been predicted by models, but geologic evidence has been sparse. The scientists who spotted this pattern are wary of leaping to conclusions, but say […]

How does a rubber witch’s finger travel from a Halloween party to the belly of a Mediterranean sea turtle? It’s anyone’s guess, but the novelty finding does provide a grim insight into how seemingly innocuous plastic products can work their way into marine environments and tragically impact the life within them.  In a new study, […]

Regional accents are not just a human thing: Bottlenose dolphins have them, and new research reveals they can be different even between two populations whose separation is not impassable. The New Zealand accent is so distinctive the national airline made its incomprehensibility a feature of its advertising. That, however, may be nothing to the dolphins, […]

A small municipality in Finland could soon be home to a big ol’ battery, and a pretty unusual one at that – it stores thermal energy in sand. It’s hoped this “sand battery” could increase the storage of renewable energy to meet year-round heating demands, and with it, help cut carbon emissions. The battery is […]

Whether it’s catching a baseball, learning to drive, or simply picking up an object, most of us are familiar with the concept of hand-eye coordination. But have you ever stopped to think about foot-eye coordination? Using virtual reality (VR) technology, new research is illuminating how the brain’s visual processing falls in step with our movements […]

This article first appeared in Issue 17 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  Ilulissat Icefjord – the sea mouth of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier – is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that boasts some pretty impressive accolades. Located on the west coast of Greenland, it’s one of only a handful of glaciers that connects the Greenland […]

Within a deep canyon that humans had not laid eyes on before, scientists discovered at least 100 new marine species, each more weird and wonderful than the last.  The ocean critters were recently found within the Bounty Trough off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island during a three-week voyage on the research vessel […]

Thanks to our orbits, Earth and Mars make relatively close passes every 26 months. Every now and then, there’s a really close approach. In 2003, for instance, we passed at a distance of 55.7 million kilometers (34.6 million miles), the closest the two planets have been to each other in 60,000 years. In 1924, the […]

Meet the Brazilian wandering spiders in the genus Phoneutria, also referred to as the armed spiders or the banana spiders. The members of this group have one of the most dangerous bites of any spider species on Earth and they have been classified as the world’s most venomous spider many times. Where Do Brazilian Wandering […]

The edge of the solar system is different and the rules that govern the formation and interaction of bodies there are likely to be different too. This region is known as the Kuiper Belt, stretching from the orbit of Neptune outward. For the first time, the surface composition of two small trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) has […]

If you haven’t seen Dune or Dune II, now is a very confusing time to be on social media, seeing posts about some guy named “Paul” and naturally assuming they’re some sort of accountant, before the post pivots hard to talking about space worms.  The films, like the cult classic 1984 version, have grown a […]

Science is tiptoeing towards a new procedure that could revolutionize fertility treatment, as researchers demonstrate the possibility of transferring DNA from skin cells into a donor egg. While we’re still years away from this being used in the clinic, it could mean a future where women without viable eggs and men in same-sex relationships are […]

Even before Homo sapiens had evolved, our ancestors had a brush with extinction. Evidence from different sources supports this theory, but provides contradictory estimates of the timing: One study claims it occurred 1.15 million years ago, while another placed it 200,000 years later. Reconsideration of the data supports the later figure – and may reveal one […]

Runglish is the unlikely hybrid “language” created by fusing elements of English and Russian. While some forms of this Frankenstein parlance have been uttered by immigrant communities for decades, perhaps even centuries, it’s most prominently associated with day-to-day chattering between English-speaking astronauts and Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS).  The ISS is a […]

The US Government has released a fresh batch of footage taken of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) around the world, as well as explanations that turn a few right back into FOs. Releasing the footage, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) stated that they had found no evidence that any investigation into UFOs – aka […]

The truth is out there – and, for many, it is going to be disappointing and mundane. After much speculation and anticipation, the US Defence Department has released its report exploring whether the government has been covering up alien encounters, and whether they have access to extra-terrestrial technology that they are reverse engineering. And the […]