Deborah Bloomfield

With every significant breakthrough in technology, humanity has had to reckon with equally significant drawbacks – and artificial intelligence (AI) is definitely no exception. We’re all aware of many of its downsides by now: it’s bad for the environment; it’s bad for our brains; increasingly, it’s even turning deadly – and let’s face it, it’s […]

It’s been said that there are many benefits to being a marine biologist, but there is one insurmountable obstacle we humans simply can’t overcome: we are, in fact, primates. Terrestrial ones at that, meaning we don’t have the upper hand when it comes to tracking animals like whales in their natural environment. For this reason, […]

The world is set for a once-in-a-decade event as the large and potentially hazardous asteroid 2025 FA22 makes a close approach to Earth. As it does so, the object should be visible to amateur astronomers equipped with small telescopes. 2025 FA22 was discovered on March 29 this year by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid […]

It’s official: the animal with the highest number of chromosomes is the Atlas blue butterfly, boasting a record 229 pairs. This is a pretty unusual finding since many of its closest relatives have just 23 or 24 pairs. The Atlas blue butterfly (Polyommatus atlantica) is native to the North African mountain ranges of Morocco and […]

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration has decided to mark the 10th anniversary of the discovery of gravitational waves with a very special gift. They have published data on the clearest signal they have yet detected in the observatory, which allowed them to confirm Stephen Hawking’s area theorem of black holes. The event was seen on January 14, […]

An international team of researchers reports new insights into observations from NASA’s Perseverance rover. Last year, the rover sampled mudstone with peculiar mineral formations. New analysis provides further peculiarities in the sample, making the case for possible biosignatures. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the […]

You’re lucky enough to be alive at the same time as the biggest animal to have ever inhabited the planet. At 33.5 meters (110 feet) long and weighing more than 150,000 kilograms (330,000 pounds), the blue whale takes the crown overall. If we look to land animals, you’re dealing with dinosaurs. So, given how humongous […]

A mysterious and pre-teased NASA conference from the Perseverance team has gone live and announced their findings: the “clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars”. Earlier this week, NASA pre-trailed an “exciting” announcement coming from the Perseverance rover team. The release was light on what would be announced, but now we have […]

Researchers from Stanford University have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that can decode users’ “inner speech” and convert it into words. The device successfully allowed four paralyzed patients to communicate and represents a massive breakthrough in this field, although its ability to tap into people’s thoughts raises a number of concerns about mind-reading and data […]

The platypus is a deeply unusual animal for a collection of reasons, not least because it is considered to be the most venomous mammal on the planet. Just a small handful of mammals can deliver a dose of venom – and the duck-billed platypus sting is often cited as the most agonizing. Platypus venom isn’t potent […]

The European wildcat Felis silvestris can breed with domestic cats (F. catus) to produce fertile offspring. Not only does this mean that pets on the loose in areas that overlap with wildcat territory could get up to hijinks, but it also means their subsequent hybrid offspring can also go on to do the same.  Why […]

While the mention of blood might conjure up images of a crimson red liquid, it turns out the animal world isn’t keen to stick to just the one color (or any color at all) when it comes to this particular body fluid. In fact, scuttling about the forests of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands […]

“Take two bottles into the shower?” asks one now-classic commercial from the UK. “Not me – I just want to wash my hair and go.”  And you can! With a miracle product known as 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner – but should you? How does it even work? Surely it can’t really replace the talents of […]

Take a wander through the outskirts of south London and you might stumble across a fragment of Earth’s deep past: a collection of rocks forged more than 2 billion years ago. Older than the first stirrings of complex life, they are among the most ancient rocks in Western Europe. But what are they doing in […]

On Tuesday, US Congress held the latest hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the relatively new term for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) of the past. “The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government […]

In 40,000 years, long after its mission is over, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft will have a close encounter with Gliese 445. It won’t be the probe’s last. The Voyager probes were launched in 1977 and have been traveling ever since. At the moment, Voyager 1 is around 168 AU from the Earth, having become the […]

A gamma ray burst (GRB) unlike anything we detected before has released some of the most powerful photons in the universe four times in the course of 24 hours. The event was not the most powerful GRB ever detected, but was easily the longest. It’s only a few decades since astronomers thought supernovae were the […]

An investigation into shark meat being sold at grocery stores, seafood markets, and online in the US has found that a concerning amount comes from vulnerable through to critically endangered species, and is commonly presented to shoppers with ambiguous or incorrect labeling. Carried out as part of a seafood forensics course at the University of […]

A team of scientists in Finland and the UK has revealed that myocardial infarctions (the fancy medical term for heart attacks) may not be solely caused by cholesterol buildup and lifestyle factors. Evidence has been found that infectious bacteria linked to the mouth could help trigger heart attacks. The rest of this article is behind […]

Whilst standing on Antarctica or the Arctic during winter, you might not notice too much of a difference, looking down at the snow-covered ice. But the Arctic and Antarctic are very different, as you would soon discover if you were able to keep drilling your way down through the ice. For a start, if you […]