Deborah Bloomfield

The seismic-in-more-ways-than-one eruption that shook Tonga in January 2022 triggered an electrifying lightning marathon that saw over 192,000 flashes illuminate an ash cloud. The electrical storm lasted over 11 hours and not only produced the most intense lightning storm ever seen but also the largest lightning rings ever observed. On January 15, 2022, the Hunga […]

A gallery of 57,000-year-old fingerprint cave art found in France is the oldest known engravings made by humans, according to a new study. However, Homo sapiens were not the human species behind the art – it was our close cousins, Neanderthals. The intriguing engravings were found in La Roche-Cotard of the Centre-Val de Loire in […]

The world’s first at-home pregnancy test that uses saliva rather than the more traditional urine has been developed and is now on sale to the public. It represents the first big shakeup in pregnancy testing since at-home tests became available in the 1970s. The kit, called Salistick™, was developed by Israeli startup Salignostics, and is […]

Not all stellar flares are the same. They are usually a brief brightening of a star – but for FU Orionis (FU Ori), located 1,200 light-years from Earth, the brightening has turned into an 85-year-long emission that is a trillion times more powerful than the largest Solar flares ever detected, and there is no sign […]

For seasonal allergy sufferers, many mornings start with a squirt up the snoot with a nasal spray. Despite years of expertise in this activity, however, there’s a chance you’re doing it wrong.  If a nasal spray user simply stands upright and pumps the spray in a vertical position, then chances are it’s just hitting the […]

Wildlife filmmaking is arguably one of the most exciting fields of television, as explorer Dan O’Neill recently found out when filming for Curiosity’s new series GIANTS. In it, he heads into the wild to find the biggest beasts alive today and compare them to behemoths of the past: from sharks, to elephants, lions, saltwater crocodiles […]

The BepiColombo mission has completed its third flyby of Mercury, with three more waiting to happen in the next couple of years. This one was the closest flyby yet, with the spacecraft flying just 236 kilometers (147 miles) from the surface of the smallest planet in the Solar System. The mission is a collaboration between […]

On April 15, 1912, an iceberg sank an “unsinkable” ship. The Titanic was the largest ocean liner in the world when it set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York, USA. However, its short career would come to a devastating end four days into crossing the Atlantic, claiming the lives of […]

Faced with the vast expanse of the sea and treacherous conditions, rescue missions for lost deepsea craft are notoriously difficult. Even though the recovery of Pisces III – the deepest underwater rescue ever achieved – was successful, its incredible story highlights just how intensely difficult underwater recovery operations can be.  In 1973, two men were […]

Medicine has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few centuries. However, the past has been littered with myths and misunderstandings surrounding the way our bodies and treatments work. Come along on a journey as we explore remarkable, unfounded theories of the past and present, why people may believe these intriguing myths, and the […]

There are few people who can claim the amazing feats that Tori Bowie had, a three-time Olympic medalist and a world champion sprinter in the women’s 100 and 4×100 meter relay, top in her field. She tragically passed away at her home last month due to complications in childbirth. In May, Bowie was found in […]

We are one step closer to understanding one of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience, as scientists have figured out the structure of the protein that triggers Huntington’s disease. The discovery brings hope for a treatment that could stop the disease in its tracks, but that’s not all. Because similar proteins have been implicated in other […]

Prepare to enter the fascinating world of corvids, this beady-eyed and extremely clever family of birds are common across the world, but can you tell a raven from a crow, and are you savvy enough to know the difference? A note before we begin: these are American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  and common ravens (Corvus corax), […]

The discovery of the embryo of a choristodere, a type of crocodile-like reptile, has overturned what biologists thought about the development of egg laying. The discovery has big implications for how mammals and birds, as well as reptiles, developed their approach to having young. The fossil has traces of egg around it, but this was […]

People are just now learning what the end of bread is called. Or rather, people are just now learning that the end of bread isn’t called the same thing by everybody. A tweet from the account “No Context Brits”, dedicated to serving up posts about and photos of British life without any additional information, started […]

A new type of light-activated concrete could suck pollution out of nearby air and convert it to harmless products, making good use of a material that is used in almost all modern construction. When tested in a tunnel, the concrete was able to reduce air pollution inside the tunnel and improve air quality, giving a […]

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio has released three powerful videos that show just how much carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere each year, from what sources, and from where on the planet. And they show just how much fossil fuel burning by industrialized countries plays a role in the amount of greenhouse gases released into […]

Of all the remarkable places to view the summer solstice, the point in the year when the Earth’s axis is tilted at its closest point from the sun, few can compare to the sunny spectacle that unfolds at the Native American rock art of Arizona’s Verde Valley. The Verde Valley is home to a sprawling […]

Marine archaeologists have drummed up a bold plan to recover an ancient shipwreck that’s been laying on the seabed for over 3,000 years. Despite being hand-sewn in ancient times, the boat has managed to remain in unbelievably good condition.  Dubbed the “Zambratija boat”, the vessel measured a total of 10 meters (32 feet) long and […]