Deborah Bloomfield

“Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids,” sang Elton John. It is not just cold as hell, it lacks a lot of the basic necessities that humans need to survive, including oxygen to breathe. And given that we would like to get humans there at some point, and bringing stuff from Earth […]

In the 1800s, the USA was hit with some of the largest earthquakes in its history. According to a new study, the country is still feeling the aftershocks. In the paper, researchers from the University of Missouri and Wuhan University looked at the idea that seismic activity today near the epicenters of large earthquakes over […]

We tend to think of the appendix as something we can easily manage without, but recently science has started to take a more favorable view of this unassuming little organ. Since it persists in several evolutionary lineages, surely it must have some useful purpose? The problem up to now has been trying to work out […]

A year ago, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) made an announcement that gained little attention, but could have big implications for space exploration. They announced the intention to send another mission to Mars, named Tianwen-3, and use it to bring back a sample from the Martian surface.  Moreover, the date announced for the return […]

Floridians walking under trees might find that umbrellas aren’t quite cutting it this fall, as frozen iguanas rain from the sky with the arrival of cold weather. Iguanas were never meant to be a part of Florida’s ecosystems, but humans and our penchant for setting pets loose in the wild mean they’ve become established in […]

The relationships between animals and the environments that they live in are incredibly varied and complex. While the predator-prey interactions are probably the most well-known, each species also has an influence on the other flora and fauna and even the soil in the surrounding areas. Foremost among these influential species are beavers: they are known […]

Clothing is important to (most) humans. It protects us from the elements, provides us with a way to express ourselves, and stops us from getting arrested for public indecency – but when did we start wearing it?  The oldest piece of clothing It’s difficult to know exactly when Homo sapiens shed their birthday suits for […]

Iceland is bracing for a potentially hazardous volcanic eruption in the southwest of the island. Over the weekend, the Icelandic Met Office warned of a high likelihood of an eruption in the coming days. Since the end of last month, an increase in seismic activity has put authorities on alert, with hundreds of seismic events […]

Ah, webcams. Great for mid-pandemic game nights, extremely awkward remote work meetings, and being secretly watched by creepers and pedophiles while we’re in our PJs. Originally, however, they were invented for something much more prosaic: coffee. Well, we say “invented” – in fact, the first ever webcam sort of happened by accident. The “Trojan Room […]

The roar of the lion is one of the most iconic sounds in the natural world – and Hollywood. The King of the Jungle’s primal scream has been burnt into the public imagination in no small part thanks to cinema’s most famous big cat, the MGM Lion, which appears before the title sequences of many […]

NASA ceased communication with its Martian rovers on Saturday, November 11, and will not resume until November 25.  If you’re an amateur astronomer, you’ll know it’s been impossible to see Mars for a while as it edges closer to the Sun from our perspective. Even while we cannot see it, however, radio waves have made […]

A study of parents in the US has revealed that nearly one in five school-aged children and preteens of those surveyed are taking over-the-counter melatonin supplements to help with sleep. Previous research found that, from 2017 to 2018, only 1.3 percent of parents in the US reported their child taking melatonin supplements. However, in more […]

A penis is making waves among the entomological community as a new species of beetle has been discovered with genitalia shaped like a bottle opener. The beetle with the peculiar pecker has been named Loncovilius carlsbergi in honor of the Carlsberg Foundation, which the researchers say has lent significant support to their investigations. “This species […]

Gone are the days when, following your demise, you would be thrown in the pit with the other plague victims or catapulted at your enemies. Now there is a smorgasbord of disposal options available to your corpse, from aquamation to the horrifying world of cryonics. One option, apparently available since at least 1994, is to […]

Scientists are looking into a toothpaste that helps to prevent serious reactions in people with peanut allergies. The researchers have just finished their first human clinical trials on the experimental therapy and so far, so good.  A common way to treat a peanut allergy is oral immunotherapy in which people are given tiny doses of […]

Superstitions have always been difficult to define curiosities. But while they may be difficult to pin down exactly, we certainly know them when we see them. For example, have you ever met someone who avoids stepping on cracks in the sidewalk or refuses to walk under ladders for fear of bad luck? Humans have practiced […]

Starship might finally fly this week. The world’s tallest and most powerful rocket could have its second test flight as early as November 17, SpaceX announced on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter). The company is waiting for further regulatory approval before going ahead. The success of the mission is critical for NASA’s Artemis […]

The story of human evolution was treated to a major re-draft earlier this year when a team of researchers made a series of sensational claims about an ancient hominid known as Homo naledi. Despite possessing a brain not much bigger than that of a chimpanzee, this long-extinct species apparently buried its dead and decorated their […]

In 1972 and 1973, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes. They were the first missions to Jupiter and Saturn, before heading to the asteroid belt and becoming the first two of five probes to reach the edge of our Solar System. With such missions, NASA was of course expecting to hit some […]

Australia, land of egg-laying mammals, sex-crazed crocodiles, and one of the planet’s most dangerous plants, has a raft of new eight-legged friends to add to its already impressive complement of arachnids. A recent monograph describes, for the first time, 48 species of ground-hunting spiders from the family Miturgidae. “I was surprised at how many species […]