Deborah Bloomfield

This week on Break It Down: old skin samples have revealed the first-ever evidence for an intersex Southern right whale, a dangerous asteroid that might hit the Moon has an unusual origin, what dire wolf “de-extinction” really means and how it’s helping red wolves, a mushroom that contains one of the most bitter compounds known […]

Once known as one of the smoggiest, most polluted cities in the US, Chattanooga in Tennessee has just been recognized as the first National Park City in North America. In 1969, Chattanooga was named as “worst city in the nation for particulate air pollution” by the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Known as […]

Over the last three years, a huge bridge has appeared across California’s Ventura Freeway – but this isn’t just any old overpass. This one is set to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing, and it’s being built with the aim of reconnecting some of the state’s most important animal life. Known as the Wallis Annenberg […]

It has been an exciting few weeks for the Moon. Last month, there was a total lunar eclipse with a beautiful “Blood Moon“. Not content with being center stage across the Americas, it also obscured the Sun in a partial solar eclipse only two weeks ago. This weekend, the full Moon is back again, and […]

A tragic accident that befell ancient rhinos in the mid-Miocene era has allowed scientists to determine that these massive mammals, which once thrived across North America, used to gather in huge super-herds. Around 12 million years ago, over 100 prehistoric rhinos (Teleoceras major) gathered at a single water hole in what is now northeast Nebraska. […]

If astronauts ever land on Mars, and certainly if tourists do, they’ll soon send home photos of themselves pointing at a pale blue dot in the evening sky to indicate where they came from. Have you ever wondered how Earth will compare in that sky with Venus or Jupiter? Wonder no longer. What determines a […]

Part of a 13th century manuscript containing rare stories about Merlin and King Arthur has been discovered at Cambridge University Library. The remarkable text had been repurposed as binding for a 16th century archival register, remaining hidden from view until it was rediscovered in 2019. The manuscript contains part the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a […]

Neutrinos are the most common particles in the universe. Not having an electric charge and being very light, they can move to almost everything, with trillions flowing through any of us any second. The small mass of the neutrino has been a crucial quest in physics and we still do not know exactly how light […]

A new species of primitive arthropod dating back 444 million years has been discovered in the Soom Shale, a site north of Cape Town in South Africa. The baffling specimen is so bizarre that its exact evolutionary relationships remain frustratingly elusive, says discoverer Professor Sarah Gabbott from the University of Leicester School of Geography, Geology […]

What can we say – the political environment is pretty wild at the moment, and it does seem like we are hearing more about politician’s personal opinions, rather than facts, these days. But is this really a change from the past? Is the rise in “alternative facts” being spouted by high-profile individuals any more prevalent […]

La Niña didn’t stick around for long. After just a few months, La Niña conditions have subsided and the eastern tropical Pacific has entered an ENSO-neutral phase that’s expected to continue in the Northern Hemisphere until summer. That might be a lot of buzzwords, so what does it actually mean? La Niña and El Niño […]

A Reddit user has sparked confusion on the “mildly interesting” subreddit, after discovering that their shotgun shells contain shot (predictable) and a whole load of flax seed (not so much). “These shells were made specifically for waterfowl hunting,” Reddit user Benbablin explained, after posting an image of the shells. “The BBs themselves are steel as […]

One of the driest places on Earth – the Saharo-Arabian Desert – may not have always been the arid landscape it is today. A new study, which examined the hydroclimate of the area over the course of 8 million years, has found that it has had much more pleasant and humid conditions in the past. […]

An ancient human jawbone dredged from the bottom of the Taiwan Strait has been confirmed as a Denisovan fossil, proving that this enigmatic extinct human species once lived all over Asia. Recovered from a depth of between 60 and 120 meters (197 to 394 feet) in the Penghu Channel, the prehistoric mandible was initially retrieved […]

Measles is having a resurgence. Once among the most feared diseases of childhood, the development of safe and effective vaccines meant that a run-in with the illness no longer needed to be a rite of passage. But now, decreasing vaccination coverage has seen outbreaks springing up in countries that had previously eliminated the disease.  As […]

The confirmation hearing for the next head of NASA took place yesterday, April 9, with Trump’s nominee, billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman, answering questions from the senators in the committee. The general feeling post-hearing is that Isaacman has bold aspirations for the agency, although he was not willing to share details about plans and […]

Tectonically, Greenland sits on the North American Plate. But when it comes to history, politics, society, and culture, whether it truly “belongs” to North America is a much more complex question. The North American Plate is a tectonic plate containing most of the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as Cuba, the Bahamas, the extreme […]

Researchers have created an H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, vaccine that can be administered as a nasal spray. The influenza virus vector-based nasal spray vaccine platform was first developed during the COVID-19 pandemic but now may be valuable in the fight against bird flu, which is on the rise across the globe. H5N1 was […]

Cats are no strangers to weird anatomical features. They have an odd little pocket on the sides of their ears that belongs to “Henry” for some reason, and big flappy pouches that hang off their bellies – but are these pouches adorned with a belly button? The belly button, or navel, is a scar that […]

Being able to be mobile is a crucial aspect of personal independence. This is why it is important to make sure that the world is accessible to all. For many of us, it’s but a matter of time before our mobility is affected, because time catches up with everyone. There’s an easy way to see […]