Deborah Bloomfield

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 […]

When someone challenges you to think of the worst weather possible, your mind probably pictures something like the summit of Mount Washington. You know: rainy, windy, with sub-zero temperatures in both Celsius (cold) and Fahrenheit (deadly). But that’s not the only way the Earth can kill you. Get stuck somewhere too hot or dry, for […]

Citizen scientists have detected “comet-like activity” around 2009 DQ118, an object supposed to be an asteroid. It’s a further example that classifications of objects in our Solar System are more about our convenience than eternal truths about being either one thing or another. The Active Asteroids project had volunteers search through archival data of 2009 DQ118 to […]

In Chicago, one shark has shown that she doesn’t need a male to become a mother. Despite not being housed with a male for years, the female epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) produced a fertile egg that has now hatched. Aquarium staff think that this apparent marine miracle is in fact all down to a process […]

Rats make high-pitched, happy squeaks when in the company of another rat, new research has revealed. The rodents are renowned for their fondness for friendship, frequently choosing it over food (but not heroin) and jumping for joy when watching their besties getting tickled. Now, for the first time, the glee that individuals feel when around another rat has […]

As if the screams of sacrificial victims were not blood-curdling enough, the ancient Aztecs may have used skull-shaped wind instruments to produce spine-chilling shrieks while dispatching their human tributes. Found at archaeological sites throughout Mexico, these so-called “death whistles” have sparked numerous theories and hypotheses, although it’s likely that they were used to honor the […]

Animal body parts come in all shapes and sizes, from those that look flashy to impress a potential mate to those that are vital for surviving in the varied conditions of the rainforest or across mystery regions of the deep sea. Chief among many animals’ adaptations are specialized mouthparts for slurping, biting, or drinking their meal […]

Grand pianos are pretty big, being sort of like a Casio keyboard for musicians with a lot of floor space. But the biggest instrument in the world far dwarfs it, occupying a 1.5-hectare (3.5 acre) cave. The cave was first discovered on August 13, 1878, by tinsmith Andrew Campbell and his nephew. Exploring the caverns […]

A new study into strawberry consumption has made some fruitful findings – eating the popular berries on a daily basis could help to reduce the risk of middle-aged people developing dementia in later life. We might think that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but science is beginning to suggest that berries may […]

Phosphorus plays an important role in planetary formation and in biology, but it is not the easiest to find around our galaxy. All of the detections that have been reported so far focus on the inner part of the Milky Way or in the neighborhood of the Sun. Now, astronomers report the detection of phosphorus-bearing […]

A recent study that predicted the white dwarf WD 0810-353 was going to come close enough to the Solar System to disrupt our comets carried a significant oversight, new research reveals. Besides removing one (somewhat distant) threat to humanity’s survival, the reasons do reveal an interesting star for other reasons. The Gaia satellite has made […]

You may notice that on certain years, trees like oaks, pines, and spruces produce a ridiculous number of their seeds. Where on other years you might be able to walk around a local park without treading on any acorns, on what is known as “mast” years you can barely wade your way through the squirrel […]

Samples of material from Ryugu show very different compositions depending on where on the asteroid they come from. An investigation of the causes of these variations has revealed the influence of water on a larger body the asteroid was once part of. While astronomers and geologists anxiously wait to get access to samples from the […]

Wherever humans tread, head lice come too. Genetic evidence shows that head lice migrated to the Americas twice: firstly, when humans first migrated from Eurasia across the Bering Strait and, secondly, when Europeans colonized the Americas around 500 years ago. Notorious for causing itchy heads, head lice are a blood-sucking parasite that spends their whole […]