Deborah Bloomfield

WASP-69b is an exoplanet that has just 30 percent of Jupiter’s mass, but is 10 percent larger. This world is dramatically puffed-up because it orbits very close to its star, completing an orbit in just 3.9 days. And its inflated layers are not staying put – the stellar wind is eroding them, creating a comet-like […]

If you’ve ever watched Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, you will have seen the pop pop boat in action. The children’s toy uses the heat from a candle to power an engine that propels the boat forward. They’re pretty neat as children’s toys, but what is far cooler, of course, is creating pop pop boat so large […]

The incredible entries for Close-Up Photographer Of The Year (CUPOTY) have been judged and the winners are just as incredible as you’d expect them to be. While Hungarian photographer Csaba Daróczi scooped the £2,500 ($3,000) cash prize and the CUPOTY 05 title, the runners-up are equally impressive. We take a close-up look (see what we […]

It’s official: 2023 was the hottest year on Earth since records began, overtaking the previous record-breaking year by a significant margin. The global average temperature of 2023 was 1.48°C (2.6°F) warmer than pre-industrial levels in the 19th century and 0.60°C (1.08°F) warmer than the 1991-2020 average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.  Advertisement These […]

Brown dwarfs are very peculiar celestial objects. They form like stars, but they are not massive enough to start nuclear fusion in their core, so they don’t quite make it as stars. Some of them are the size of planets, with clouds and turbulent atmospheres, although they are not really planet-like. Some of them have […]

A new paper has attempted to answer the question of whether Earth, and our artificial constructions, are visible to advanced alien civilizations out there also on the search for life. The hunt for alien life, as it is at the moment on Earth, is fairly elegant in its simplicity. As well as looking out for […]

Although awareness when under general anesthetic is, thankfully, pretty rare, it’s a phenomenon that appears to affect one group more than others: females. Until now, scientists haven’t been sure quite why this happens, but a new study suggests sex hormones could be a contributing factor. General anesthesia works in part by changing the activity of […]

New research reveals that magic mushrooms have existed since before the dinosaurs became extinct, although exactly why fungi developed the ability to produce psychedelic compounds remains a mystery. Tracing the history of the genes that give rise to the mind-altering substance psilocybin, the study authors found that the mushroom genus Psilocybe first evolved the enzymes […]

Over half a century since NASA left the Moon, the space agency surprised everybody in November 2023 when it announced it was placing scientific equipment on the lunar surface once more, hitching a lift on American space company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander. After a successful launch on January 8, the world has been watching the first-ever […]

A huge, Bronze Age fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis in the North Arabian Desert has been discovered by archaeologists. The walls would have once stretched over 14.5 kilometers (9 miles), making this one of the two largest walled oases ever unearthed in Saudi Arabia. What remains of the vast rampart has been dated to between […]

Captured in JWST images, a bizarre feature of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A that was named the “Green Monster” has been revealed to be made of material that existed before the explosion. A team of astronomers has found it is composed of concentrated filaments of gas within broader sheets that differ from the rest of […]

In today’s world, modern camera technology is used in so many ways, from taking snaps during a poolside holiday to surveying the grounds of a vital business. Despite these important uses, not all cameras are made the same, and some are not as weather-resilient as others.  Although there are many extreme conditions that affect the […]

NASA has confirmed that humans will not be landing on the Moon again until at least 2026, nor circling it until September 2025. Coming the same day the Peregrine Mission One uncrewed mission to the Moon was abandoned, the announcement is further confirmation that spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit remains hard, and exploration of the […]

You might remember back in 2017 when one particularly mind-blowing GIF went viral after baffling the Internet with its strange ability to evoke auditory hallucinations. The GIF itself was silent, and yet 70 percent of people reported being able to hear it. What on Earth was going on? We’re referring to this skip-jumping pylon, which, […]

South Korea announced today a new law that will aim to end the sale and slaughter of dogs for their meat by 2027. Currently, it is estimated that South Korea has around 1,600 dog meat restaurants and 1,150 dog farms in 2023, according to BBC News. Advertisement In the country, dog meat stew, or “boshintang”, […]

While there is no shortage of complicated questions to ask about the universe, sometimes it’s fun to go back to basics. In that spirit, here’s the answer to a question people have asked time and time again on the Internet: “If there’s no oxygen in space, how is the Sun on fire?” First off, there […]

Often described as a ringing or buzzing noise in the ear, tinnitus affects millions of people around the world and yet has no cure. However, researchers have now found that, with the help of a smartphone app that gives users training and therapy, the debilitating impact of tinnitus could be significantly reduced in a matter […]

This article first appeared in Issue 15 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  We exist in an increasingly online world that bombards us with information at every opportunity. A simple scroll on our favorite websites, news outlets, and social media platforms can bring a torrent of (sometimes questionable) content down on our heads, and it can be a […]

It isn’t just seafood that’s loaded with microplastic pollution. In a new study, scientists found microplastics in nearly 90 of sampled meats and meat-like alternatives – including seafood, chicken breasts, beef steaks, tofu, and plant-based burgers. It’s become well-documented that seafood is often tainted with the presence of microplastics due to the shockingly high quantities […]

A colossal tsunami that swept through northern Europe more than 8,000 years ago may have decimated the Stone Age inhabitants of northern Britain, according to the results of a new study. Known as the Storegga tsunami, the catastrophe coincided with a sudden decrease in the local population, although until now this decline had never been […]