Deborah Bloomfield

Giraffes mostly sleep standing up as a defence mechanism against predators, keeping them relatively safe as they sneak in a short nap. However, this isn’t possible during certain sleep stages, and the positions giraffes adopt to cope with their extraordinarily long necks are, quite frankly, hilarious. Giraffes are enormous animals topping heights of 4.8 to […]

An “astounding” and “unexpected” array of giant virus-like particles have been found lingering in the soil of Harvard Forest, Massachusetts. Not only are they abnormally large, but they’re also pretty weird, with “previously unimaginable” structures that throw into question everything we know about giant viruses and viral diversity. “The cornucopia of viral morphotypes found in […]

Washing your clothes is a pretty mundane chore, but it can be easily accomplished on Earth using detergent and a washing machine. And while hanging your clothes outside to dry can result in the best smells, keeping your space suit clean 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away from the nearest washing machine – or even water […]

Surgically attaching the circulatory systems of old mice and new mice – a process called heterochronic parabiosis – seems to turn back the biological age of the older mouse. This research could be beneficial in analyzing the restorative effects of young blood in older individuals. Previous studies on mouse parabiosis have shown that it comes […]

Issue 13 (August 2023) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. In This Issue… Advertisement OUR COVER STORY: Is Logic Flawed? Paradoxes have long posed a problem for […]

An ancient worm has wriggled back to life after 46,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost. The tiny animals, called nematodes, were revived from a lengthy slumber, which began in the late Pleistocene some 45,839 to 47,769 years ago, radiocarbon analysis has revealed. That’s quite the catnap. As well as being impressively hardy, the microscopic critters […]

Exercise is good for your overall health and your heart in particular. Guidelines recommend that we should be doing 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a week. But does it matter when you do this exercise? Should you spread it out in the week or does it lose some of the benefit if you cram it […]

In 1974, farmers stumbled across one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time in an unassuming field in the Shaanxi province of China. While digging, they found fragments of a human figure made out of clay. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Archaeological excavations revealed the field was sitting above a […]

About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40 feet above today’s levels. Around […]

You may have seen a lot of talk about a “gravity hole” in the Indian Ocean. It’s an easier-to-remember name for what scientists call the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL), and it’s a gravity anomaly that’s been puzzling scientists for a long time. The Earth isn’t smooth. Just look at plunging depths like the Mariana […]

Humanity’s first cities and empires rose and fell in a region cradled between the River Tigris and River Euphrates: Mesopotamia. During the first echelons of recorded history, this ancient land was the birthplace of the Sumerians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians. Cities thrived, and eventually gave rise to writing, mathematics, astronomy, and stunning artistic developments. […]

Temperatures around the world are soaring. Both California’s Death Valley and China’s Xinjiang region have seen temperatures climb above the 50°C mark. A blistering heatwave is also sweeping across the Mediterranean, causing temperatures in parts of Italy, Spain, France, and Greece to exceed 40°C. In the future, the impact of scorching temperatures will extend beyond […]

The history of medicine is full of dubious claims and outlandish ideas. We have all heard of quack practitioners who claim medical expertise in order to promote and sell nonsense treatments and nostrums. These individuals experience various levels of success, but usually, their bogus claims are discovered before too long. But what about instances where […]

Have you ever wondered how ancient people made maps before the invention of air travel and satellites? Ancient mapmakers from across the world relied on a mix of artistry, exploration, mathematical ingenuity, and a heap of imagination to capture the vastness of the lands they knew and many of the ones they believed were out […]

An unidentified arachnid fossil was retrieved from the Late Carboniferous (Moscovian) strata of strata of Piesberg near Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany, a few years ago. The mysterious specimen was passed on to fossil arachnid expert Dr Jason Dunlop of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, who in a recent study has revealed its astonishing […]

In February 1971, physicists working at the National Accelerator Laboratory (NAL), Illinois, were faced with a puzzle. They were testing a new state-of-the-art machine they had built. The 200-billion-electron-volt (BeV) proton synchrotron particle accelerator was not only extremely sophisticated, but it was also the largest machine in the world at the time. To say its […]

China has long been touted as a revolutionary when it comes to wind power. Earlier this year, it was reported that the country had begun construction of a wind farm using what were then hailed as the largest turbines ever seen, each with a capacity of 16 megawatts. Now, a new milestone has been reached, […]

Rats, to some, are a menace – but to others, they are an adorable cutie-pie of a pet. Scientists have now identified that a part of the rat’s brain called the periaqueductal gray (PAG) is critical for laughter and playfulness, all through tickling them.   Playing is necessary for development and forming connections in both […]

There’s nothing more badass than heading into battle with a space arrow in your quiver, and one Bronze Age dude (or lady) knew exactly how that felt. After scanning an area of Switzerland for archaeological artifacts made of meteoritic iron, researchers discovered a single arrowhead that had been forged from extraterrestrial metal. Reporting their find […]

Across the animal queendom, some species do without sex, reproducing asexually. For some wasps and lizards this is a common thing. In other cases, it’s a rare resort for a female with no males – or at least no males she considers worth her time – around. Animals in captivity astonish their keepers now and […]