Deborah Bloomfield

A model for a predecessor of life can protect proteins against radiation when it includes manganese ions –without these ions, the radiation degrades any life-forming potential. Although there is no proof that actual predecessors of life had this form of protection, the findings from this model provide the first possible explanation for how this specific […]

Researchers have reconstructed the face of an unknown pre-Hispanic individual from Bolivia who had a rare congenital defect known as craniosynostosis. Affecting the formation and fusion of cranial bones, the condition causes the skull to become misshapen and often leads to cognitive deficits, impaired vision, and other debilitating symptoms. The ancient Andean face was recreated […]

Ever heard of the Krebs cycle? How about the citric acid or tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle? If the answer’s no, you’re not on your own. The process is essential for keeping us, and all other aerobic organisms, alive, and yet relatively few of us actually know the ins and outs of what it is and […]

Over a century ago, two theories were put forward to explain all of reality: quantum mechanics and general relativity. Both have been refined and improved over decades and extensively tested. They are solid theories. But ultimately, alone, they can’t explain everything – and together they don’t seem to work. For decades, physicists have been looking […]

It’s fair to say that the Ancient Egyptians subscribed to a lot of ideas that seem strange in the modern era. There’s not an internet-friendly word count in the world that could cover all of them in one fell swoop, so today we’re focusing on mummified frogs. Mummified frogs have been found in the tombs […]

A never-before-seen virus has been reported in Peru that causes a disease similar to dengue fever, malaria, and other tropical infectious diseases common in this region. While the infection was a one-off, the novel virus is still likely to be circulating in the jungles of South America somewhere, undetected.  A single case of the mystery […]

Communication is key. That’s true on Earth and it’s true in space. But in space, you need to contend with a crucial fact of life. The speed of light is finite and distances between worlds are pretty big; between star systems they are enormous. A new analysis, yet to be peer-reviewed, envisions what it would […]

At the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a supermassive black hole. We call it Sagittarius A* and it weighs the equivalent of 4.3 million Suns. It is orbited by a bunch of stars with a period of years or longer. New evidence suggests that there is something else orbiting it much […]

In August, India became the fourth nation to touch down on the Moon, and the first to land near (but definitely not on) the lunar south pole. The mission was an overwhelming success, with the lander and rover conducting experiments to measure the temperature at the landing site and analyze the composition of the lunar […]

Even if root canals can save our smiles, there’s no denying that having a dentist drill down into your tooth is not necessarily the most pleasant experience. But a solution may well be on the horizon – researchers are developing tissue-regenerating tech that could help avoid the dreaded drill. Root canals can be used to […]

Regular magnets have two poles, a north and a south, and their behavior is defined in classical terms by the Maxwell equations. From contemporaries of Maxwell through to modern researchers, there have been hypotheses of the existence of magnetic monopoles, fundamental particles that are just north or just south. Researchers have not found them yet, […]

An entirely new genus of shrimp was discovered during an expedition to the Cyclops Mountains in Papua, Indonesia. It was a surprise find for scientists on the perilous 2023 expedition and introduces a whole new habitat for these typically water-dwelling crustaceans. The expedition was one for the history books, reanimating a species that was thought […]

Near the very center of the galaxy, on the outskirts of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, an interloper has been found. The star in question, named S0-6, has a chemical composition that matches small satellite galaxies, rather than the Milky Way itself. Given its age, it’s likely it has been traveling for a very […]

The first study of bottlenose dolphins’ sensitivity to electric fields has found some can detect electric direct current (DC) fields as weak as 2.4 microvolts per centimeter, even better than the measured capacities of platypus. Although still less capable in this regard than sharks and rays, the finding suggests electroreceptivity may play a more important […]

At the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a turbulent dark cloud called “The Brick”. It is dense, opaque, and full of cold gas, and for decades researchers couldn’t explain why a cloud that seems perfect to make stars was showing so little star formation. New observations from JWST have finally provided […]

The waters surrounding Antarctica are the coldest in the world, ranging from a frosty -2°C to a comparatively balmy 10°C (28 to 50°F). That might not sound like an ideal place to make roots, and yet life in the Southern Ocean thrives – but how? Antarctic octopuses (Pareledone) might hold some answers, with researchers having […]

In 1984, a team of astronomers poring through images from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft noticed small undulations in Saturn’s rings. The movement was observed on either side of the Encke Gap, a 325-kilometer (200-mile) wide gap in Saturn’s A ring. To the team who saw the undulations, they implied a moonlet 10 kilometers (6 miles) in […]

Jungle-piercing lasers have revealed the lost traces of an 18-kilometer (11-mile) long highway that connected Maya cities over 1,200 years ago.  The giant sacbé (white road, in the Mayan language) was recently discovered by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which used LiDAR-armed drones to cruise over the Puuc region in the state […]

A distant dusty galaxy has been rediscovered by astronomers and its existence – and that of a dozen similar galaxies – is rewriting what we know about these objects in the early universe. Galaxy AzTECC71 is massive, forming a lot of stars, and its light comes to us from just 900 million years after the […]

Neanderthals hunted the largest land animals of their time, giant beasts that weighed twice as much as African elephants – or mammoths, for that matter. The achievement not only shows a level of organization (and courage) previously unconfirmed in our nearest relatives but could have shaped Neanderthal society in Europe between ice ages in a […]