Deborah Bloomfield

The cause of a puzzling sonar “blip” that has gone unidentified for 26 years has finally been solved. First noticed in 1998 by Titanic diver PH Nargeolet, the blip was seen neighboring the Titanic wreck 2,900 meters (9,514 feet) deep in the North Atlantic Ocean. First suspected to be a second shipwreck, OceanGate’s 2022 Titanic […]

The Earth’s magnetic field is not constant. The flips where it suddenly reverses direction are a crucial tool in dating geological events. Now, some researchers claim they can use even brief changes in the field’s strength to precisely date the destruction of cities, and then use these dates to test Biblical accounts. The second book […]

For the first time ever, a pair of common respiratory viruses have been observed fusing to form a hybrid virus. According to new research, influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can combine (in human lung cells at least) to create not one but two never-before-seen hybrid viruses with the potential to evade the immune system. […]

New vocal recordings have revealed that 53 species previously thought to be non-vocal do in fact make sounds. The noisemakers include wiggly caecilians, turtles, and fish. The fact they make their own sounds shows that acoustic communication could have first emerged in a shared ancestor around 407 million years ago. As mouthy vertebrates, humans can […]

Less than 6 percent of plastic household waste in the US was recycled last year, according to Greenpeace USA. In their new report released this week, the environmental NGO even argues that plastic recycling is a “myth” used by big oil, industry groups, and major corporations – Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, and the like – […]

Cats may be the masters of indifference, but new research suggests that they are in fact fully aware when they are being directly addressed by their human. The fact the aloof floofs don’t always react may reflect a personal choice to ignore us rather than an inability to recognize that they are being spoken to. […]

Grassroots conservationist and programme coordinator for the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT), Dismas Partalala Ole Meitaya, joins a select and prestigious few names in the running for the 10th Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa. Indigenous communities are at the forefront of his work, which has been instrumental in securing land rights for the local […]

Swearing was long dismissed as a topic of serious research because it was assumed to be simply a sign of aggression, weak language proficiency or even low intelligence. We now have quite a lot of evidence that challenges this view, prompting us to reconsider the nature – and power – of swearing. Whether we are […]

One of the most important qualities for a young person to develop is resilience. This involves their ability to overcome adversity. Resilience is perhaps more important now than ever. Today’s young people have been facing adversity on a mass-scale, thanks to COVID and all the disruptions to their education and social, home and working lives. […]

Fuelled by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of pathogenic fungi is on the rise. Despite the growing risk, the world spends a minuscule amount of money on fungal disease research funding compared to bacterial, parasitic, or viral diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that needs to change, publishing its first-ever list […]

The study of exoplanets, worlds which orbit stars other than our sun, is currently being transformed by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We will shortly gain our first insight into conditions on rocky, potentially Earth-like worlds beyond our solar system. One of these distant worlds might host life. But could we detect it? […]

When stars with a mass between 10 and 25 times that of the Sun go supernova, they leave behind a neutron star: an object so dense that a teaspoon of its material weighs like a mountain. Astronomers report new measurements of HESS J1731-347, a record-breaking neutron star. With an estimated mass of just 0.77 times […]

The shortlist for the prestigious Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa has welcomed finalist David Daballen, Samburu Operations Director at Save The Elephants, Kenya. Over the last two decades, he has been an ambassador and warrior for elephants, an endeavor that’s seen him wade into crocodile territory to keep sleepy trunks out of river water. […]

In 2008, Beijing had some of the worst air pollution in the world. The city’s US embassy acquired a monitor capable of giving up-to-the-minute information on the concentration of ozone and PM2.5 particulates in the air. Then, it started doing something that seems small – but, if one study is right, turned out to be […]

Astronomers have performed the most precise measurement of the composition of the universe yet using decades of supernovae observations. However, this comprehensive analysis still can’t answer one of the most curious discrepancies in astronomy. Most of our universe is made of invisible components, dark energy and dark matter. According to the new analysis, dark energy […]

New research showing SARS-CoV-2 destroys connections between nerve cells in a mini-brain organoid may be part of the puzzle of why COVID-19 infections can have such a profound impact on the brain. Some of the observations bared some similarity to those seen during Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease development. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden created […]

The more you look, the more you find. And that includes record-breaking intergalactic structures. The famous Stephan’s quintet is a group of galaxies was first discovered in 1877 and it continues to hold fascination. It was one of the first targets of JWST’s science mission. Now, FAST, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, has revealed even […]

Advanced life on Earth depends on the ozone layer, which shields us from lethal ultraviolet radiation. Yet even after nearly destroying this planetary armor and then saving it in the nick of time, there’s still a surprising amount we don’t know about it. One team of researchers found auroras can quite literally shed light on […]

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may not be the most palatable of treatment options, but new research indicates that the seizure-inducing technique may be more effective than ketamine at alleviating depression. Researchers pooled data from six separate studies, finding that ECT was in fact superior to ketamine in every trial they looked at. Over the past few […]