Deborah Bloomfield

On September 13, 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage suffered one of the most horrific workplace accidents in history when an iron bar punched a hole in his skull, obliterating a significant part of his brain. Despite the wound, Gage lived for another 12-and-a-half years, remaining active and (relatively) normal throughout. For the first time, scientists […]

Scientists have fused human brain tissue to a computer chip, creating a mini cyborg in a petri dish that can perform math equations and recognize speech. Dubbed Brainoware, the system consists of brain cells artificially grown from human stem cells, which have been fostered to develop into a brain-like tissue. This mini-brain organoid is then […]

The results of a small clinical trial of a vaccine for an aggressive form of breast cancer have been presented at a conference, and the researchers say there’s cause for optimism. The 16 patients in the trial all received three doses of the vaccine, with the majority developing a robust immune response and no major […]

Zookeepers worldwide know that many of their animals appreciate herbs in the diet, or sometimes just to play with or roll in. One zoo has decided their charges will like it even better if the herbs are fresh and in season, and have built a garden of 200 types to keep them happy. Most zoos […]

The Al Naslaa Rock Formation is a great example of how nature is a serious force to be reckoned with, being a giant, solid boulder that looks as though it was split down the middle with the aid of an alien’s laser weapon. Far from a story about extraterrestrial antics (as cool as that explanation […]

In season 3 of IFLScience’s podcast The Big Questions we tackled some of the most fascinating scientific mysteries of 2023, from how to prepare for the next big solar flare to the chances of making Jurassic Park a reality. Hosts Dr Alfredo Carpineti, Rachael Funnell, and Eleanor Higgs were joined by international guest experts to […]

Microbial communities known as stromatolites have been found in previously unstudied lagoons in Patagonia. Fossilized stromatolites represent some of the earliest evidence for life on Earth, and while these are not the only survivors today, they resemble the fossils in ways no other known examples do. Although the individual organisms that make up stromatolites require […]

Are blondes dumber than brunettes? No, of course not – but generally, people think they are. Similarly, you probably don’t want a more experienced doctor in the ER, and there’s a pretty good chance any given teenager is less horny than you right now. So why is it that we tend to assume the opposite […]

Rediscovering previously lost to science species is becoming a bit of a hot topic at the moment and shows no sign of slowing down. After the rediscovery of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, the team at Re:wild’s Search for Lost Species project are at it again, and this time they’ve found a tap-dancing spider in Portugal. The […]

In late September, NASA successfully returned a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth. Since then, they have begun the painstaking and delicate process of opening the sample, which the team had spent months rehearsing. Unfortunately, the team then hit a small snag: two of the 35 fasteners on the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) were […]

The oldest roof tiles ever discovered in Israel may have sat atop a fortress that played a key role in the story of Hanukkah, which today is celebrated as the Jewish festival of lights. Lasting for eight days, the religious holiday commemorates the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids, and archaeologists say the tiles were probably […]

We all have sounds that we can’t stand. Nails on a chalkboard is a classic one that sends shivers up the spines of many people, and you probably have your own personal pet peeves as well (knuckle-cracking, anyone?). But have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that we’re extra-sensitive to some sounds? And […]

Whether it’s the oldest water on Earth, lava, or the sludgy remains of an ancient corpse found inside a giant black sarcophagus, the public only has one question on their mind: what does it taste like? That question, it turns out, stretches to deadly radioactive metals. People on the Internet have apparently been wondering what […]

We hope you’ve been looking up at the sky lately, as December 13 and 14 sees the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, one of the strongest (and prettiest) meteor showers this year. Objects burn with different colors depending on their chemical composition as they fall through the atmosphere.  Advertisement “Most meteors appear to be […]

Although Rudolph and his band of flying reindeer would certainly be a sight to behold, the sad reality is that reindeer cannot fly. They do, however, have a bunch of other biological superpowers, some of which could even teach us humans a thing or two. Prancing over jet lag Some of us switch time zones […]

Along the ancient streets where Roman bigwigs once strolled, archaeologists have uncovered a vast mosaic still beaming with colors as impressive as they were 2,000 years ago. First uncovered in 2018 by archaeologists from the Colosseum archaeological park, the Italian Culture Ministry unveiled the discovery this week.  Advertisement The mosaic was found in the remains of […]

The centrifugal force is pretty cool. It could be used one day to create artificial gravity onboard space stations (saving sci-fi films a lot of budget in the process) sparing astronauts the strange effects of microgravity on their bodies. It is also responsible for the fact that the earth bulges in the middle, and as […]

The MAVEN Mars orbiter witnessed a brief restoration of the long-lost Martian magnetosphere and a temporary tripling of its ionosphere, where the Sun ionizes the upper atmosphere. The stream of charged particles known as the solar wind waxes and wanes. Mostly these are close enough to an average figure that the effects on planets are […]

Around 1,200 tonnes of fish have washed ashore along the coast of Japan. While the cause is still under investigation, authorities were keen to dampen conspiracy theories that it’s related to the recent release of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Colossal quantities of dead sardines and mackerel have washed up along a stretch […]

The height differences between Neolithic male and female people in northern Europe may have been influenced by cultural factors. That’s the findings of a new study that suggests genetics and dietary factors are not sufficient to explain the differences in height of these ancient people who lived around 8,000 to 6,000 years ago. Today, we […]