Deborah Bloomfield

The Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards features thousands of entries from countries all across the world. Space correspondent Dr Alfredo Carpineti takes us to The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and speaks to Dr Ed Bloomer, one of the judges, to get some top tips and give you the edge in this incredible international competition. Entries to […]

In the wake of winter waves of COVID, flu, and RSV – the so-called “triple-demic” – another virus has reared its ugly head. It seems norovirus, also called the “winter vomiting bug”, might be back with a vengeance: while outbreak data isn’t up to date, data on positive tests suggests cases in the US may […]

In case you’ve missed the excitement, recently the US has been shooting down mysterious and suspicious objects from its airspace. So far, four objects have been downed. The first object is believed by the US to be a Chinese spy balloon, while China denied this and claimed that it was a weather balloon blown off […]

A study into the surprisingly complex mechanisms behind snakes’ ability to hear has found that, despite previous assumptions, many snakes are capable of hearing airborne sounds as well as sensing ground vibrations. As snakes lack an external ear, it’s been widely accepted that they only sense soundwaves through ground vibrations via their belly scales. While […]

Senior Vice President at Google, Prabhakar Raghavan, has warned the public about a little-known problem with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots: they “hallucinate”. Google is set to launch its own rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a language model that can answer your questions and queries. Named Bard, the chatbot will roll out to the public in the […]

As bird flu continues to decimate poultry and wild bird populations around the world, the virus – a deadly strain called H5N1 – appears to be spreading to mammals. The virus has already been confirmed in foxes and otters in the UK, and more recently in four dead seals. Bird flu refers to influenza A […]

Sex can be wonderful, but it can also be tricky. Science may be the furthest thing from your mind when you’re getting intimate with someone. But actually, there’s a lot we can learn from science when it comes to sex. The science of sex is a broad field of research that encompasses many aspects of […]

A 19-year-old man from China has become the world’s youngest patient to be diagnosed with probable Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new case report. The patient experienced memory loss and problems concentrating at school for a period of two years, and doctors examining him concluded that he fit the diagnostic criteria for the disease, which […]

A skull belonging to a Byzantine-era woman in central Italy displays signs of having been surgically fiddled with on at least two separate occasions. Reporting the find in a new study, researchers say the unenviable patient probably underwent a series of trepanations in order to treat a “systemic pathological condition,” although they can’t say exactly […]

You wait decades for the military to start downing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) then suddenly they’re dropping out of the sky like month-old birthday balloons. The US has downed a fourth flying object this week, taking care to not rule out the possibility of aliens before taking a more sensible approach and denying it was […]

Last week a blog post on Blue Origin’s website made a claim that, if verified, could dramatically increase the prospects for establishing ongoing bases on the Moon. However, the curious lack of promotion the company – not usually known for avoiding publicity  – has so far given the announcement suggests they may still have some […]

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a virtual telescope that connects observatories all over the world. Thanks to a quirk of physics, the resulting instrument is the size of our planet, and it has been used to snap the first close-up images of supermassive black holes: Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way, […]

With the exception of a few genetic lottery winners, many people have felt it at some point in their life: the frustration of standing on the bathroom scales after a few weeks of diligent exercise, seeing the exact same number as before you even bothered.  It’s enough to make you lose faith in the whole […]

A tactical aircraft has made the first-ever flight being piloted purely by artificial intelligence (AI), according to a release from Lockheed Martin. Flying for a staggering 17 hours, the AI-piloted a VISTA X-62A tactical test aircraft that is used to mimic military jets in a trial that hopes to add new capabilities to the VISTA […]

A new male contraceptive is being hailed a “game-changer” as it’s been found to temporarily pause fertility in mice without affecting their long-term sperm production. Mice given the treatment became infertile but maintained normal mating behavior, and by the next day were fully fertile again. The male contraceptive works by inhibiting soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) […]

An astronomer has outlined a new way of finding the elusive Planet Nine, if it exists at all and has picked up moons as it orbits around our Sun. You may be wondering why we have so much trouble finding a planet in our own Solar System, when thousands have been discovered in recent years […]

New research has looked at the vast climate “teleconnections” that span across our planet, potentially linking droughts and driving wildfires around the world. Teleconnection is the idea in atmospheric science that climate and weather events in geographically distant places can be tightly related. After all, the planet is a vast interconnected system. Advertisement A freakishly […]

If the climate crisis is allowed to deepen, the melting of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets alone could contribute about 1.4 meters (4.5 feet) to global sea level rise, according to a new study. That figure is before we even consider the impact of other contributions to the sea level rise, such as […]

Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes, so it may not be surprising to learn that they had different ways to approach food. But a new study has shown that there are a surprising number of ways that ‘veggie’ dinosaurs, even among closely related species, approached plant-based foods, and that these differences are important for […]