Deborah Bloomfield

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 […]

Last week astronauts dropped a toolbag while repairing external parts of the International Space Station (ISS). As we reported, the bag has been picked by trackers of space junk under the code 58229/1998-067WC, and its orbit calculated. It turns out there is more to the story, however, because you don’t need a high-powered telescope to […]

A team of researchers has reconstructed the face of a mature Neanderthal gentleman who lived and died roughly 50,000 years ago in modern-day France, revealing that our extinct cousins didn’t look all that different from us. Illustrating the ancient senior’s remarkably modern human-like features, the digital portrait contributes to our growing understanding of the similarities […]

The vast majority of the US is a hulking mainland, but on the peripherals of this heartland are an array of islands that are as plentiful as they are diverse. From paradise-like atolls to icy archipelagos, the US harbors some incredible islands. These are the five most significant, size-wise.   1. Hawai’i’s Big Island Hawai’i’s […]

For the first time ever, a chimeric monkey containing a large number of cells derived from embryonic stem cells has been born alive. The infant’s cells originate from two different embryos, meaning they are genetically distinct, therefore rendering the young primate a “chimera”. “This has been a long-sought goal in the field,” senior author Zhen […]

Two companies are looking to make diamonds from nuclear waste that can be used as batteries. However, while one is sticking to applications that seem to fit the technology, the other is talking about uses that seem incompatible with what they have demonstrated. Seven years ago, scientists at the University of Bristol announced that they […]

In 1917, three children in Fátima, Portugal, claimed that they had encountered an apparition of the Virgin Mary while returning home from tending sheep. According to the trio, Mary told them that she would reappear on the 13th day of every month for six months (like Urkel) before she disappeared. Word of this miracle spread, […]

Back in 1879, botanist William J. Beal began one of the world’s oldest science experiments, burying 20 glass pint bottles filled with 50 seeds in sand. One hundred and forty-four years later, scientists at the same university have continued his work, resurrecting those seeds and finding among them a hybrid plant, likely not meant to […]