Deborah Bloomfield

Iceland is bracing for a potentially hazardous volcanic eruption in the southwest of the island. Over the weekend, the Icelandic Met Office warned of a high likelihood of an eruption in the coming days. Since the end of last month, an increase in seismic activity has put authorities on alert, with hundreds of seismic events […]

Ah, webcams. Great for mid-pandemic game nights, extremely awkward remote work meetings, and being secretly watched by creepers and pedophiles while we’re in our PJs. Originally, however, they were invented for something much more prosaic: coffee. Well, we say “invented” – in fact, the first ever webcam sort of happened by accident. The “Trojan Room […]

The roar of the lion is one of the most iconic sounds in the natural world – and Hollywood. The King of the Jungle’s primal scream has been burnt into the public imagination in no small part thanks to cinema’s most famous big cat, the MGM Lion, which appears before the title sequences of many […]

NASA ceased communication with its Martian rovers on Saturday, November 11, and will not resume until November 25.  If you’re an amateur astronomer, you’ll know it’s been impossible to see Mars for a while as it edges closer to the Sun from our perspective. Even while we cannot see it, however, radio waves have made […]

A study of parents in the US has revealed that nearly one in five school-aged children and preteens of those surveyed are taking over-the-counter melatonin supplements to help with sleep. Previous research found that, from 2017 to 2018, only 1.3 percent of parents in the US reported their child taking melatonin supplements. However, in more […]

A penis is making waves among the entomological community as a new species of beetle has been discovered with genitalia shaped like a bottle opener. The beetle with the peculiar pecker has been named Loncovilius carlsbergi in honor of the Carlsberg Foundation, which the researchers say has lent significant support to their investigations. “This species […]

Gone are the days when, following your demise, you would be thrown in the pit with the other plague victims or catapulted at your enemies. Now there is a smorgasbord of disposal options available to your corpse, from aquamation to the horrifying world of cryonics. One option, apparently available since at least 1994, is to […]

Scientists are looking into a toothpaste that helps to prevent serious reactions in people with peanut allergies. The researchers have just finished their first human clinical trials on the experimental therapy and so far, so good.  A common way to treat a peanut allergy is oral immunotherapy in which people are given tiny doses of […]

Superstitions have always been difficult to define curiosities. But while they may be difficult to pin down exactly, we certainly know them when we see them. For example, have you ever met someone who avoids stepping on cracks in the sidewalk or refuses to walk under ladders for fear of bad luck? Humans have practiced […]

Starship might finally fly this week. The world’s tallest and most powerful rocket could have its second test flight as early as November 17, SpaceX announced on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter). The company is waiting for further regulatory approval before going ahead. The success of the mission is critical for NASA’s Artemis […]

The story of human evolution was treated to a major re-draft earlier this year when a team of researchers made a series of sensational claims about an ancient hominid known as Homo naledi. Despite possessing a brain not much bigger than that of a chimpanzee, this long-extinct species apparently buried its dead and decorated their […]

In 1972 and 1973, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes. They were the first missions to Jupiter and Saturn, before heading to the asteroid belt and becoming the first two of five probes to reach the edge of our Solar System. With such missions, NASA was of course expecting to hit some […]

Australia, land of egg-laying mammals, sex-crazed crocodiles, and one of the planet’s most dangerous plants, has a raft of new eight-legged friends to add to its already impressive complement of arachnids. A recent monograph describes, for the first time, 48 species of ground-hunting spiders from the family Miturgidae. “I was surprised at how many species […]

When someone challenges you to think of the worst weather possible, your mind probably pictures something like the summit of Mount Washington. You know: rainy, windy, with sub-zero temperatures in both Celsius (cold) and Fahrenheit (deadly). But that’s not the only way the Earth can kill you. Get stuck somewhere too hot or dry, for […]

Citizen scientists have detected “comet-like activity” around 2009 DQ118, an object supposed to be an asteroid. It’s a further example that classifications of objects in our Solar System are more about our convenience than eternal truths about being either one thing or another. The Active Asteroids project had volunteers search through archival data of 2009 DQ118 to […]

In Chicago, one shark has shown that she doesn’t need a male to become a mother. Despite not being housed with a male for years, the female epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) produced a fertile egg that has now hatched. Aquarium staff think that this apparent marine miracle is in fact all down to a process […]

Rats make high-pitched, happy squeaks when in the company of another rat, new research has revealed. The rodents are renowned for their fondness for friendship, frequently choosing it over food (but not heroin) and jumping for joy when watching their besties getting tickled. Now, for the first time, the glee that individuals feel when around another rat has […]

As if the screams of sacrificial victims were not blood-curdling enough, the ancient Aztecs may have used skull-shaped wind instruments to produce spine-chilling shrieks while dispatching their human tributes. Found at archaeological sites throughout Mexico, these so-called “death whistles” have sparked numerous theories and hypotheses, although it’s likely that they were used to honor the […]

Animal body parts come in all shapes and sizes, from those that look flashy to impress a potential mate to those that are vital for surviving in the varied conditions of the rainforest or across mystery regions of the deep sea. Chief among many animals’ adaptations are specialized mouthparts for slurping, biting, or drinking their meal […]

Grand pianos are pretty big, being sort of like a Casio keyboard for musicians with a lot of floor space. But the biggest instrument in the world far dwarfs it, occupying a 1.5-hectare (3.5 acre) cave. The cave was first discovered on August 13, 1878, by tinsmith Andrew Campbell and his nephew. Exploring the caverns […]