Deborah Bloomfield

In the decades that humanity has actively looked for life beyond our planet, many have wondered how the initial contact between us and another intelligent civilization might take place. A new feature-length BBC drama-documentary, First Contact: An Alien Encounter, goes right to the heart of the matter, mixing interviews with world-leading experts and clever fictional […]

New research suggests that vaping may cause specific, harmful cardiovascular effects, with the authors pointing out that it is not the harmless alternative to smoking that marketing may have you believe. In addition, due to the unique airway irritation and cardiovascular damage that both smoking and vaping cause, the findings suggest that switching between the […]

A worrying rise in social media posts, suggesting that people leave their Halloween pumpkins in the woods to feed wildlife after October 31, has seen wildlife experts concerned. Thousands of discarded pumpkins are left in woods across Britain, according to The Telegraph. While well-meaning pumpkin carvers might think they are doing the local fauna a […]

A child who had the honor of being made into a trophy head by the ancient Nazca culture of southern Peru was drugged up on a mescaline-containing cactus prior to being sacrificed, a new analysis has revealed. The same study also found evidence of ayahuasca use among other mummified individuals from the Early Nazca Period […]

For centuries empires were the dominant form of political organisation. In the west there is some degree of familiarity with the British, French and German empires, and the empires of Spain and Portugal. Not to mention the Romans or the Greeks. But one empire that sometimes gets forgotten, outside Turkey, is the Ottoman. On the […]

In 2016, astronomers saw a supernova going off in a nearby galaxy. Over the following years, they saw the light of this event interacting with the interstellar dust, creating light echoes of the powerful explosion. This is a very rare phenomenon, and the fact that Hubble was able to capture it is fantastic.  The first […]

The two Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are puny compared to our own, but what were once considered ordinary asteroids captured by the planet’s gravity have turned out to be much more interesting. Now, a view inside the larger of the pair could help us understand whether its mysterious origins lie in the asteroid belt, […]

A common household chemical that’s found in many products by your bathroom sink may be a major driving force of superbugs that are not killed by antibiotics, according to a new study. The research by the University of Toronto looked at triclosan – an antibacterial and antifungal agent often included in household items like shampoos, […]

A man in Arizona has offered trick-or-treaters a glimpse of Jupiter and Saturn instead of candy. Andrew McCarthy, an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer told his Twitter followers with telescopes to “spread the love”. “I just spent the whole night showing trick-or-treaters Saturn and Jupiter,” he wrote. “Watching them (and their parents) suddenly realize space is […]

Permanent bases on worlds beyond the Earth are going to need abundant electricity. Now that a renewed space race includes plans for Lunar bases in the near future, it’s time to think about how we can provide that at a price that won’t scuttle the project. Surprisingly, it seems battery storage for long lunar nights […]

Fewer than ten years have passed since the science fiction movie ‘Her’ depicted the seemingly far-fetched concept of human-chatbot relationships, yet new research suggests that virtual love may now be in the air. Introducing the concept of “romantic anthropomorphism”, the study authors reveal how players of romantic video games (RVGs) attribute human qualities to “digital […]

The list of benefits of good home security is vast. From protecting your home to deterring burglars to peace of mind, home security is a must for everyone. The best part is you don’t need expensive equipment or an expensive monthly third-party company contract. In fact, you can have the convenience of home security for […]

The demise of the Neanderthals has been a mystery for quite some time, with explanations from competition for resources with Homo sapiens, to Homo sapiens finishing them off with violence. However, a new paper suggests that the extinction was a lot more bow chicka wow wow than we thought, placing the blame for their demise […]

After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk dissolved the company’s board and proclaimed himself the CEO of the social media giant.  The news was revealed by a company filing on Monday, Reuters reported. The files read: “The following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the Merger, are no […]

The hearts of patients who were positive for COVID-19 appear to be as safe for transplantation as those without the disease. The result comes from a short-term analysis, lasting about one year, from a database showing heart transplants in the United States. The findings are good news, as they suggest that more safe transplants are […]

The first crash test dummy designed to mimic a woman’s body has finally been developed by a team of Swedish researchers, hoping to end the long history of man-centric safety in cars. Standing at an average height of 162 centimeters (5 feet 3 inches) and weighing 62 kilograms (137 pounds), the dummy will look to […]

Among the many considerations that people apparently take into account when buying a house are “how bad is the traffic during peak commuter hours” and “am I going to be hounded out of the place by an unholy poltergeist from hell?”. Surveys have shown that people are actually put off buying a house if it […]

Zuri, an 18-year-old female lion at Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center in Kansas, USA, has sprouted a mane like a male. Lions are normally famous for their sexual dimorphism with the males typically sporting the big brown manes that make them worthy to be the King of Pride Rock. Most of the time female lions […]

The US is seeing a spurt of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases much earlier in the season than typically seen, leading medical experts to fret it could be a very rough winter ahead for the healthcare system.  RSV infections can occur all year round, but cases tend to spike from late December to mid-February in […]