Deborah Bloomfield

In late September, NASA successfully returned a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth. Since then, they have begun the painstaking and delicate process of opening the sample, which the team had spent months rehearsing. Unfortunately, the team then hit a small snag: two of the 35 fasteners on the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) were […]

The oldest roof tiles ever discovered in Israel may have sat atop a fortress that played a key role in the story of Hanukkah, which today is celebrated as the Jewish festival of lights. Lasting for eight days, the religious holiday commemorates the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids, and archaeologists say the tiles were probably […]

We all have sounds that we can’t stand. Nails on a chalkboard is a classic one that sends shivers up the spines of many people, and you probably have your own personal pet peeves as well (knuckle-cracking, anyone?). But have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that we’re extra-sensitive to some sounds? And […]

Whether it’s the oldest water on Earth, lava, or the sludgy remains of an ancient corpse found inside a giant black sarcophagus, the public only has one question on their mind: what does it taste like? That question, it turns out, stretches to deadly radioactive metals. People on the Internet have apparently been wondering what […]

We hope you’ve been looking up at the sky lately, as December 13 and 14 sees the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, one of the strongest (and prettiest) meteor showers this year. Objects burn with different colors depending on their chemical composition as they fall through the atmosphere.  Advertisement “Most meteors appear to be […]

Although Rudolph and his band of flying reindeer would certainly be a sight to behold, the sad reality is that reindeer cannot fly. They do, however, have a bunch of other biological superpowers, some of which could even teach us humans a thing or two. Prancing over jet lag Some of us switch time zones […]

Along the ancient streets where Roman bigwigs once strolled, archaeologists have uncovered a vast mosaic still beaming with colors as impressive as they were 2,000 years ago. First uncovered in 2018 by archaeologists from the Colosseum archaeological park, the Italian Culture Ministry unveiled the discovery this week.  Advertisement The mosaic was found in the remains of […]

The centrifugal force is pretty cool. It could be used one day to create artificial gravity onboard space stations (saving sci-fi films a lot of budget in the process) sparing astronauts the strange effects of microgravity on their bodies. It is also responsible for the fact that the earth bulges in the middle, and as […]

The MAVEN Mars orbiter witnessed a brief restoration of the long-lost Martian magnetosphere and a temporary tripling of its ionosphere, where the Sun ionizes the upper atmosphere. The stream of charged particles known as the solar wind waxes and wanes. Mostly these are close enough to an average figure that the effects on planets are […]

Around 1,200 tonnes of fish have washed ashore along the coast of Japan. While the cause is still under investigation, authorities were keen to dampen conspiracy theories that it’s related to the recent release of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Colossal quantities of dead sardines and mackerel have washed up along a stretch […]

The height differences between Neolithic male and female people in northern Europe may have been influenced by cultural factors. That’s the findings of a new study that suggests genetics and dietary factors are not sufficient to explain the differences in height of these ancient people who lived around 8,000 to 6,000 years ago. Today, we […]

Among the menagerie of types of glowing upper atmospheric phenomena, one has been named the “green ghost”. The first spectral imaging of one such ghost reveals the presence of iron and nickel in dust falling on the planet at the right time for electrical storms to produce an other-worldly glow. Lights in the sky have […]

After spending over two decades behind bars, Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four children have now been quashed thanks to scientific evidence that suggested they died as a result of rare genetic conditions, not murder or manslaughter. Folbigg, now 56, is expected to seek one of the highest compensation payouts ever seen in Australia […]

Life is pain, highness – but not all pain is created equal. Despite being by definition a subjective experience, there are some facts about pain we all pretty much accept as true. Getting stuck by a pin is less painful than breaking your collarbone, for example, and literally anything is easier than treading on a […]

Someone on Reddit recently asked for help with the age-old question “so, if I dropped.. let’s say a pumpkin into the ocean once it reaches a certain depth… would it just implode? If so, why?” Let’s work backward, as the why is actually fairly simple. Implosions are where objects collapse in on themselves, the result […]

Picture a flow diagram of a human aging through numerous stages of their life, from baby to toddler then child and teen to adult and elderly person. Chances are, you imagined the youngest person on the left and the eldest on the right. This might seem like the “natural” way to order things, but not […]

There are crests, spines, and spikes aplenty amongst snakes and lizards, and whilst we can all agree it makes some of them look like hardcore, real-life dragons, little is known about the potential costs of having horns. A new study, however, suggests that it may come down to how snakes and lizards forage their food. […]

A few years ago, coconut oil was king, touted for its supposed health benefits, and used for everything from teeth cleaning to repelling bugs (it was even suggested as a bogus COVID treatment). Once hailed as a “superfood”, research is now suggesting that the oil may not be as good for us as the “clean […]

A Reddit user recently asked the question “what is the difference between taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen?”, revealing that a large number of other users also didn’t know the difference. While both are taken to relieve pain, paracetamol (known as acetaminophen in the USA, or the brand name Tylenol) and ibuprofen work quite differently. Paracetamol, one […]

Voyager 1 is the second-longest operating spacecraft in human history, losing out only to Voyager 2 which launched a few weeks earlier in 1977.* The spacecraft has traveled further than any human-made object, crossing the heliopause and heading into interstellar space. While doing this, it has continued to send back useful data to Earth, helping […]