Deborah Bloomfield

SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully blasted off on its second test flight on Saturday morning – and then came to an abrupt end just 8 minutes later. But whilst the explosion of both the first-stage booster and ship has dashed the hopes of putting astronauts back on the Moon in 2025, many are still considering the […]

Scientists at the Schmidt Ocean Institute have discovered a new hydrothermal vent field off the Western Galápagos Islands – one that has been speculated about for around 20 years, but never actually located until now. To finally pin the evasive vents down, the team had some help from a group of obliging squat lobsters, whose […]

With a penis that’s seven times too large to fit inside the vaginal opening of its species, the serotine bat, Eptesicus serotinus, has had to get creative when it comes to sexual reproduction. It’s physically impossible for the massive appendage to achieve penetration post-erection, but video footage has revealed how they’ve evolved to achieve contact […]

A deep space experiment traveling on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has just beamed a message via laser to Earth from far beyond the Moon for the first time, an achievement that could transform how spacecraft communicate. In the farthest-ever demonstration of this type of optical communication, the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) beamed a near-infrared laser […]

If you’ve ever wondered what the world looked like to an ancient Roman, now’s your chance to cruise over the ancient vista and explore its many grand sites.  A new 3D digital model of ancient Rome has been launched that allows users to virtually explore the capital of the Roman Empire in the fourth century […]

Using satellite images and aerial photography, archaeologists have uncovered a network of previously unknown and huge Bronze Age sites at the heart of Europe. The team believe these newly identified structures could explain how contemporary megaforts, the largest prehistoric constructions made before the Iron Age, came into being.  The research was led by archaeologists from […]

While we were all tucked up in bed in the early hours of Halloween, Portugal was about to start a record-breaking streak. For six days in a row, more energy was produced from renewable energy sources than was consumed across the entire country. A record-breaking streak The new record was set between 4 am local […]

Since living through a pandemic, we’ve all recently become acutely aware of the stresses associated with living in close quarters with a single group of people for a prolonged time. Spare a thought, then, for the six men and women who entered the Russian Academy of Science’s SIRIUS-23 project last Tuesday – and won’t come […]

During the early stages of their invasion of Ukraine, Russia experienced a significant loss when its flagship, the Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian forces in the Black Sea. The vessel’s destruction was a surprise not only to the Russians, but also to many who observed this conflict at the time, but now researchers believe they […]

Earlier this month, two astronauts were on a repair mission outside the International Space Station (ISS) when they dropped a tool bag. While it’s easy to think spotting the dropped object from space could be a bit tricky, with the help of a telescope, it’s now been photographed in action. The image of the tool […]

Hypnosis doesn’t work on everyone, with some people being particularly responsive to suggestion while others are more difficult to mesmerize. To try and understand why certain individuals are so easily entranced, researchers have recorded the brain activity of a group of volunteers while attempting to hypnotize them, revealing key differences between the brains of the […]

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter and wound up feeling wired, hyper, even a bit like you’re drunk? Well, scientists are looking to harness that feeling to see if it could help people suffering from depression, and a new study in mice has uncovered the changes in the sleep-deprived brain that seem to cause it. […]

At most day spas and retreats, mud baths take about 20 minutes. At the thermal baths of San Casciano dei Bagni, near Siena, Italy, however, they can last for 2,300 years – and it appears to work wonders. It was last year, after three years of excavations, that the team working on this ancient site […]

A piece of human-made space junk slammed into the far side of the moon last year, initially leaving scientists stumped. After some astronomical detective work, new research argues that it was most likely a Chinese booster rocket – with an unknown object attached to it. On March 4, 2022, a mysterious object known as WE0913A […]

A fresh look at an influential report from the 1970s has found that its predictions of global collapse within this century look worryingingly accurate. In 1972, a team of scientists from MIT used a computer model to look into the future of humanity after receiving a commission from the Club of Rome, an international group […]

Whether it’s in response to a chill in the air or an especially tasteful guitar solo, it’s often thought that goosebumps are largely out of our conscious control — but that might not always be the case. Some people possess the unusual ability to control their goosebumps at will, flicking them on and off like a […]

You’ve probably been told at some point that oil is made from dinosaurs, thinking that when you are at a gas station you are pumping refined velociraptor directly into your Volvo. As widespread as the belief is, it’s not true. Oil is not made from the decomposed bodies of ancient dinosaurs.  “For some strange reason, […]

The idea of a red apple doesn’t seem all that unusual – unless we’re talking about its color inside. Whilst most apples have off-white flesh (and hopefully, a satisfying crispness), slice into a Mountain Rose or Redlove apple and you’ll find insides with a bright and vivid red. But why do some apples possess such […]

After receiving regulatory approval earlier this week, SpaceX is about to attempt a second launch for its Starship rocket. With a problem-laden first attempt, only a 20-minute window to launch, and the hopes of the next Moon landing in the balance, the stakes are higher than ever. The rocket is scheduled to lift off from […]

The Gulf of Mexico is home to a wealth of oil and gas rigs, fishing boats, shipping lanes – and one of the most endangered whale species in the world. Only 51 Rice’s whales remain and, according to experts and conservation groups, bringing them back from the brink of extinction means that human activities in […]