Deborah Bloomfield

There are sailors’ eyeballs to be found at sea, that is, if you know where to look. Fortunately not the result of any gouging injuries, these curious blobs are a type of algae called Valonia ventricosa, and they’re one of the largest single-celled organisms on Earth. The size of sailor’s eyeballs can vary from a […]

This article first appeared in Issue 14 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. The question of whether there’s a tangible difference between male and female brains is one of the most compelling – and controversial – in the history of neuroscience. On reading the title of this article, you might have immediately rolled your eyes: “What’s […]

This article first appeared in Issue 14 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. It’s the best thing in the world and the one thing we all want more of. Thankfully, you don’t have to be rich, beautiful, or even particularly cool to get it. Elusive though it may seem, happiness is in fact a skill that […]

This week 170-year-old champagne found on a shipwreck is the oldest ever tasted, for the first time in 50 years, the US plans to land on the moon next month, and a discovery of ancient Egyptian waterways hints at how the pyramids may have been built. Finally, we explore if humans will settle in space […]

Researchers have discovered the first archaeological evidence that cannabis’s psychoactive compounds can stay in our bones long after we have died. This evidence comes from the skeletal remains of people the 17th century. The authors of a new study were originally looking for signs of the administration of medicinal and “recreative plants” in the population […]

Over the last few decades, astronomers have discovered that planets are extremely common. Now they are focusing on better understanding how they form. And there have been some curveballs, delivering completely unexpected insights. Among the latest ones, researchers discovered that even around the hotter stars, you can find the building blocks of rocky planets. This […]

Marine mammals are known for their high levels of intelligence, their social skills, and their association with Netflix documentaries. However, most people probably wouldn’t list skincare as one of a whale’s most famous activities – and that’s where they’d be wrong. While orcas and humpback whales have been filmed enjoying a spa day, now they’ve got […]

Chinese rover Zhurong was the first Chinese mission to land on Mars, exploring one of the Red Planet’s largest impact basins: Utopia Planitia. This area was visited by Viking 2 in 1976 and decades of technological advancement meant that Zhurong could deliver new insights on the region. And some of them came from below the […]

Between 20 and 2 million years ago, a giant “terrible beast” roamed the Earth. Known to science as Deinotherium giganteum, it belonged to the same order as elephants living today – but it’s been suggested that its fossilized remains may have once been confused for the Cyclops, giving rise to the legend. The word “cyclops” […]

A pretty pink and white agate sitting in the Natural History Museum, London’s Mineralogy Collection since 1883 has turned out to be even more stunning than thought for a surprising reason. Around 15 centimeters (6 inches) across, almost completely spherical but otherwise unassuming, the specimen has remained in the collection for the last 175 years, […]

This article first appeared in Issue 14 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. Twelve thousand years ago, changing sea levels left a pocket of water isolated from the rest of the ocean, trapping in its confines a group of jellyfish. The unique subspecies can’t be found anywhere else on Earth, but exist in their millions in Palau’s Jellyfish Lake. […]

On December 1, Japan inaugurated JT-60SA, the largest operational superconducting tokamak in the world to date. A tokamak is a nuclear fusion reactor shaped like a donut and this new-build in Japan, with the support of the European Union (EU), is meant to be the forerunner of the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which […]

Astronomers have been excited by outbursts of the exploding comet Pons-Brooks, each of which has caused it to brighten up to 100 times. For those in the know, reports of its post-explosion magnitude tell them whether it’s worth trying to spot the travelling ice-volcano, or if that’s an impossible dream. It’s a common story with […]

The first wolves to come begging for scraps at a campfire set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the creation of chihuahuas, pugs, and a range of other un-wolf-like dog breeds. According to one popular theory, this fateful rendezvous between canids and humans took place around 15,000 years ago in a […]

In October, the remains of a dismembered great white shark were discovered on an Australian beach. Scientists have now analyzed them and confirmed that orcas killed the predator, in what is the first confirmed attack of its kind in these waters. The body, what remained of it at least, washed up on a beach in […]

If you fall into piranha-infested waters, how long do you have before they devour you before your very eyes? Minutes? Seconds? If you watched Netflix’s wildly popular Wednesday last year, you will have seen the show opens with the titular character enacting revenge on her brother’s bullies by unleashing a bag of the little biters […]

Regenerative medicine might just have had a new tool added to its arsenal: Scientists have created tiny biological robots out of living human cells. Though they may be small, the self-assembling bots are mighty, with a study demonstrating their potential for healing and treating disease.  The team had already proven their biological robotics chops back […]

Nothing ruins a road trip like the feeling of needing to vom all over your car mats – and yet, for more than one in four of us, it’s pretty common. Motion sickness is annoying for some, debilitating for others, and strikes seemingly at random, with some people getting it their entire lives and others […]

Our quest for the coldest place in the universe – which turned up a distinctive answer if you’re only looking at pure, natural cold – raises an obvious counterpart. As with the coldest, the heaviest object, the fastest object, and the hardest substance, it turns out the answer depends a bit on what you mean […]

Are you a paranoid Penny or a nervous Neville when you go into a hotel room? Have you ever looked at a mirror with suspicion and recalled all those movies with two-way mirrors, and wondered how to check what you are looking at? Well, there are a few tricks for that! What is a two-way […]