Deborah Bloomfield

A species of fungus that has decimated bat populations around the world has been detected in the intestines of the famous mummy known as Ötzi. Discovered in 1991 in the mountains bordering Italy and Austria, the so-called Iceman is believed to have lived around 5,200 years ago and is the oldest natural mummy ever found […]

Human remains that are over 2,000 to 2,500 years old have been recovered by archaeologists within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The discovery, what is essentially a new “bog body”, was made in peatland at an excavation site in Bellaghy in October 2023. At the time, police were made aware that human bones […]

This week NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter took its final flight, a newly discovered astronomical object is either the heaviest known neutron star or the lightest black hole, and a new gene therapy enables an 11-year-old boy to hear for the first time. Finally, we investigate the history behind BMI, and why it is not a […]

Swab, swirl, drop – then pray there’s only one line. Nearly four long years after COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic, many of us are familiar with the routine of lateral flow tests (LFTs) for the virus. But that time has also seen new variants pop up, including JN.1, which is now the most prevalent […]

One of the things we first learn about the animal kingdom is the difference between warm and cold-blooded animals. While reptiles bask in the sun to get warm, mammals – including those in the sea – must eat regularly to gain the energy needed to sustain a constant internal temperature. However, one mammal, trapped on a resource-poor Mediterranean […]

A single burst of light is precisely aimed at a tiny drone flying at breakneck speed far in the distance. Instants later, the deactivated drone crashes into the sea. Not a sound made, no human casualties, no messy explosions. A lethal, multimillion-dollar drone cleanly taken out by a shot that cost less than a good […]

Job-hunting is never fun, and even just the thought of updating your resume can fill you with dread. But what if we told you there’s a way to hack your next interview, to strike that delicate balance of showing off your skills without sounding like an arrogant jerk? Well, luckily for you, psychologists might just […]

In the latest series of True Detective, True Detective: Night Country, a team of researchers go missing in the Alaskan Arctic and are later found frozen together in a horrifying human “corpsicle”. The series contains spooky parallels to real life, and sparks some interesting questions around human cryogenics. In an interview with Vanity Fair, director and […]

A group of potty-mouthed parrots living at a British zoo are to be sworn into a larger flock in an attempt to teach them some manners. The eight African greys have become a star attraction at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park for their tendency to turn the air blue, yet zookeepers have now seemingly had enough […]

While T. rex and other large ancient predators had the advantage of size and frankly enormous teeth when it came to intimidating their prey, smaller dinosaurs didn’t have quite the same arsenal of claws and fangs to rely on. Instead, a new paper has suggested that to source their prey, these small feathered dinos used […]

When the doomed submersible the Titan imploded as the crew attempted to explore the wreck of the Titanic in June 2023, people began asking a lot of questions about implosions, including why the Titanic itself didn’t implode despite being at a lower depth. One such question, asked a number of times over the last year, […]

Superconductive materials can transmit electricity without resistance, making them fundamental for advanced and efficient technologies. The current drawback is that this property is only obtained below a certain temperature, often pretty close to absolute zero. Even high-temperature superconductors remain below freezing – but scientists are hunting for the material that would be superconductive at room […]

Charged molecules do not form a boundary layer between saltwater and air as previously thought, new research reveals. Indeed, they are depleted there relative to their abundance in the liquid as a whole. Instead, at a depth of a few molecule’s diameters an ion-enrichment layer lurks, like some mythical beast waiting to surprise. The discovery […]

Linguists have documented what they believe to be a new language that’s been quietly blooming in Lajamanu, a remote village in the Northern Territory of Australia predominately inhabited by Warlpiri people. Known as Light Warlpiri or Warlpiri rampaku, it’s a mixed language created by blending different elements of standard Australian English with Warlpiri – an […]

Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) successfully soft-landed on the Moon on Friday, January 19, and was able to deploy two small rovers to explore the lunar surface. But from the get-go researchers suspected that there was something odd – the solar panels were not catching sunlight and charging the lander. Images from one […]

Ask if anyone in a group gets migraines, and the nodding faces will no doubt have a haunted look to them. These strange and often debilitating headaches come with a host of unpleasant symptoms, one of which is psychedelic patterns in the affected person’s vision. So, what are they? The strange patterns people see when […]

Children ask a lot of fun questions, often quite persistently and while you are trying to cook food. One such question comes from the 9-year-old child of a Reddit user, who asked: “If helium is lighter than air, would a balloon with a vacuum in it, also float?” An excellent and enjoyable question. First, sorry […]

Sudden increases in methane concentrations in the Martian atmosphere have been a major puzzle for scientists, and the answer may lie in fluctuations in atmospheric pressure. The conclusion wouldn’t really change the prospects for life on our neighbor – but if it’s right, it would be a big step forward in knowing how to look […]

Lying can be pretty difficult to spot, even for the machines that are made to catch liars out. So how can we tell fact from fabrication? Researchers have a few tricks up their sleeves. Fibbing facial cues What do you get when you combine big data, machine learning tech, and facial analysis software with a […]

Another day, another blurring of the lines between reality and fiction. There’s a decent chance you’re one of the millions of people who’s watched the viral video of ants marching around a speaker that’s blasting AC/DC in a “death spiral”.  We hate to break it to you, but the video is fake.  The post (below) […]