Deborah Bloomfield

As the Sun approaches the solar maximum – the height of its activity during its 11-year cycle – two studies have come out suggesting that we do not currently have the systems in place to study solar storms properly, or ones that large  Solar storms are a pretty common occurrence – a moderate storm was […]

A brain implant that could help restore cognitive function after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been shown to be safe in a small clinical trial. The treatment delivers stimulation to key circuits deep within the brain, and produced promising results for the five participants in the trial without any serious side-effects. According to the […]

With COP28 underway, campaigners have a message for wide-eyed observers: beware of “Blood Carbon”. The warning relates to carbon credits, which they believe are muddying the issue rather than seriously addressing the real causes of the deepening climate crisis. World leaders, big business, and the media have flocked to Dubai this week for the COP28 […]

There’s a lot we don’t know about life in the oceans of our planet. Rare species inhabit deep waters and new areas are discovered all the time, but sometimes, the only clues for understanding what lies beneath the waves are when they wash up on our shores. In the Dipaculao, Aurora region of the Philippines, […]

Music plays an important role in our lives, but have you ever wondered what your musical tastes say about you? Well, new research has suggested a potential link between the music we listen to and our moral compass. Music is one of the most fundamental forms of expression. As Victor Hugo, the French politician and […]

The Earth isn’t perfectly round IT’S FLAT. Ok not really, but it isn’t as perfectly round as you’d expect from lessons in primary school or glancing briefly at a globe, either. First of all, why are planets round(ish)? This one is relatively simple: our old friend (and dastardly nemesis) gravity is the culprit. Planets are […]

Glaring artificial lights caused the death of nearly 1,000 birds after they accidentally slammed into a brightly lit building in Chicago. These types of accidents are becoming increasingly common and it’s leaving scientists to wonder whether we need to seriously reconsider our relationship with artificial lighting. Some 960 migratory birds were recovered from the land […]

Originally developed as a test of consciousness in different species, the mirror test has since become an indicator that a creature recognizes its reflection as itself. Now, researchers have potentially welcomed a new member to the self-recognition club: mice. Placing a dollop of black or white ink on the foreheads of black-furred mice, a team […]

A model for a predecessor of life can protect proteins against radiation when it includes manganese ions –without these ions, the radiation degrades any life-forming potential. Although there is no proof that actual predecessors of life had this form of protection, the findings from this model provide the first possible explanation for how this specific […]

Researchers have reconstructed the face of an unknown pre-Hispanic individual from Bolivia who had a rare congenital defect known as craniosynostosis. Affecting the formation and fusion of cranial bones, the condition causes the skull to become misshapen and often leads to cognitive deficits, impaired vision, and other debilitating symptoms. The ancient Andean face was recreated […]

Ever heard of the Krebs cycle? How about the citric acid or tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle? If the answer’s no, you’re not on your own. The process is essential for keeping us, and all other aerobic organisms, alive, and yet relatively few of us actually know the ins and outs of what it is and […]

Over a century ago, two theories were put forward to explain all of reality: quantum mechanics and general relativity. Both have been refined and improved over decades and extensively tested. They are solid theories. But ultimately, alone, they can’t explain everything – and together they don’t seem to work. For decades, physicists have been looking […]

It’s fair to say that the Ancient Egyptians subscribed to a lot of ideas that seem strange in the modern era. There’s not an internet-friendly word count in the world that could cover all of them in one fell swoop, so today we’re focusing on mummified frogs. Mummified frogs have been found in the tombs […]

A never-before-seen virus has been reported in Peru that causes a disease similar to dengue fever, malaria, and other tropical infectious diseases common in this region. While the infection was a one-off, the novel virus is still likely to be circulating in the jungles of South America somewhere, undetected.  A single case of the mystery […]

Communication is key. That’s true on Earth and it’s true in space. But in space, you need to contend with a crucial fact of life. The speed of light is finite and distances between worlds are pretty big; between star systems they are enormous. A new analysis, yet to be peer-reviewed, envisions what it would […]

At the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a supermassive black hole. We call it Sagittarius A* and it weighs the equivalent of 4.3 million Suns. It is orbited by a bunch of stars with a period of years or longer. New evidence suggests that there is something else orbiting it much […]

In August, India became the fourth nation to touch down on the Moon, and the first to land near (but definitely not on) the lunar south pole. The mission was an overwhelming success, with the lander and rover conducting experiments to measure the temperature at the landing site and analyze the composition of the lunar […]

Even if root canals can save our smiles, there’s no denying that having a dentist drill down into your tooth is not necessarily the most pleasant experience. But a solution may well be on the horizon – researchers are developing tissue-regenerating tech that could help avoid the dreaded drill. Root canals can be used to […]

Regular magnets have two poles, a north and a south, and their behavior is defined in classical terms by the Maxwell equations. From contemporaries of Maxwell through to modern researchers, there have been hypotheses of the existence of magnetic monopoles, fundamental particles that are just north or just south. Researchers have not found them yet, […]

An entirely new genus of shrimp was discovered during an expedition to the Cyclops Mountains in Papua, Indonesia. It was a surprise find for scientists on the perilous 2023 expedition and introduces a whole new habitat for these typically water-dwelling crustaceans. The expedition was one for the history books, reanimating a species that was thought […]