Deborah Bloomfield

Astronomers have observed for the first time an intermediate-mass black hole tearing chunks off a star as it repeatedly passes by it. These mouthfuls are roughly equivalent to the mass of three Earths every 25 days or so. The star in question is roughly the mass of our Sun, but the black hole is the […]

There is a common stereotype of teenagers sleeping into the afternoon but older adults getting up at the crack of dawn. It turns out that there seems to be a pinch of truth in this stereotype, and it is in fact part of the natural aging process. It is recommended by experts that people get seven or […]

The Statue of Liberty, with its big torch, blue-green color and fancy hat, is one of the most recognizable landmarks on Earth.  But when it was first constructed as a gift from France in 1885, the statue had not yet acquired this color, doing so later as the result of chemistry. The idea of returning […]

Hoping to tackle the ongoing opioid crisis, scientists are hoping they’ll be able to start human trials of heroin and fentanyl vaccines as early as 2024.  The vaccines are designed to protect people from accidental overdoses of heroin and its stronger, synthetic cousin, fentanyl. It works by prompting the body to produce fentanyl-specific antibodies that […]

While lying in the sunshine all day is some people’s idea of a perfect holiday, the reality is that cold-blooded animals such as crocodiles and lizards need the warmth of the sun to get going, while humans and other warm-blooded animals are capable of generating our own heat. We ask the question: Why are humans […]

A new study has revealed a disturbing lack of access for non-English speakers seeking advice on cancer care services from hospitals across the US. Researchers pretending to be patients calling general helplines in various hospitals were met with alarming results that highlight issues for these vulnerable patient populations.  In their experiment, researchers from the University […]

A new study has found that exposure to one of the world’s most harmful air pollutants has decreased in recent years, but also highlighted the need to reduce it even further. The researchers’ focus was on ambient fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, tiny particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller across that have become aerosolized. […]

There’s a brand new brain cell in town, and it’s here to stir up the world of neuroscience. Up to now, we all thought the brain consisted of two major cell families: the neurons and the glia. Now, scientists have discovered a secret third cell type, a kind of hybrid cell that bridges the gap […]

In the deep deep sea, researchers have found sea urchin spine fragments from 104 million years ago. The deep sea is a bizarre place and the probable origin of the first simple forms of life on Earth. Knowing how the number of species living on the sea floor has changed is incredibly important, as some […]

An ancient Babylonian letter from a student to his mother is being shared around TikTok at the moment, largely due to how funny it is. The letter, written by student Iddin-Sin to his mother Zinû, gives a snippet of life in 18th century BCE Mesopotamia. Iddin-Sin was away from his mother at the time of […]

Every now and then, the robots we’ve sent to Mars stumble across an interesting rock formation on their journeys across the surface. Occasionally – as you’d expect when studying the geology of a whole other planet – it is something really interesting. In June, for example, the Mars Perseverance rover snapped several images of a […]

Astronomers have discovered a new type of cosmic explosion. Extremely bright, quick to fade away, and in an old galaxy where massive stars going supernova shouldn’t happen, the event – called AT2022aedm – might have been caused by a peculiar collision. The event seemed like a supernova, the explosive death of a star, but it […]

Steer clear of peregrine falcons during nesting season, unless you want to end up like a pelican that stars in the winning photo of Bird Photographer of the Year 2023. Titled “Grab the bull by the horns”, the dramatic shot was captured by US photographer Jack Zhi who scoops Gold Award Winner and Bird Photographer […]

On August 23, India became the fourth nation to successfully soft land on the Moon and the first to do so close to the lunar South Pole. The lander Vikram and the rover Pragyan have completed their primary mission and they are now in sleep mode, facing their first lunar night and hoping that they […]

Swimmers have been saved from pee thanks to a popular myth that there exists a kind of urine indicator dye for pools that changes color if and when anyone decides to take a sneaky whizz. While a handy deterrent, no such indicator dye has ever existed, but that didn’t stop the myth from becoming feared […]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an urgent warning after five people were killed by flesh-eating bacteria that live in waters along the East Coast of the US.  The CDC’s health warning is designed to alert US healthcare providers, laboratories, and public health departments about recent infections by Vibrio vulnificus (V. […]

Astronomers have measured the most distant magnetic field of a galaxy yet. The light of this object has traveled for 11 billion years to get to us, and it carried the information of what the magnetic field of this galaxy was like. An incredible discovery. Magnetic fields play a very important role in the evolution […]

If they didn’t already exist, octopuses might make great sci-fi creatures. They are super-smart, sometimes venomous, and let’s be honest, just the number of tentacles alone is a Doctor Who villain-level of freaky.  When it comes to more scientific explanations, why are octopuses so out-of-this-world? One reason is that they are master editors – not […]

A rare cache of Roman weapons has been discovered stashed away in a cave in the Judean Desert. There, tucked away in a rocky hiding place, researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Ariel University retrieved four 1,900-year-old swords, still inside their leather scabbards. It’s thought the weapons were war booty, hidden by Judean rebels within […]

A few weeks ago, the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making India the fourth nation on Earth to land successfully on the Moon, and the first to land near the south pole.  Since then, the mission aimed at primarily examining the composition of the lunar soil has detected sulfur, […]