Deborah Bloomfield

This Saturday, clear skies permitting, millions of people across North America will look up to see the Moon edged with what is termed a “ring of fire”. However, there is a much more long-standing ring of fire (in addition to the one Johnny Cash sang about). It surrounds the Pacific Ocean, and includes the most […]

Animal mating strategies and breeding behaviors offer some of the strangest and most impressive feats of nature that can be seen. From singing songs to woo your future mate to helping your mate get undressed, the animal kingdom sets the stage for all kinds of breeding behavior. However, the female frogs of the world have had […]

A “living fossil” that’s persisted on Earth for over 445 million years earned Laurent Ballesta the title of Wildlife Photographer Of The Year for 2023. The Grand Title winner submitted the mesmerizing shot of a golden horseshoe crab as part of a portfolio that took two weeks of diving for six hours a day to […]

It’s no secret that modern humans and Neanderthals regularly got it on, and that these prehistoric trysts had genetic consequences for our species. Now, it seems we can add pain sensitivity to that list of things our rampant interbreeding may have influenced. In a new study involving more than 7,000 people, researchers have demonstrated that […]

OSIRIS-REx dropped its priceless cargo – samples from asteroid Bennu – down to Earth a few weeks ago. The canister containing the material will be opened today in a livestream from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where the precious material will be unveiled to the world. Obviously, the asteroid bits will be opened in a specially […]

Many attempts have been made to find the so-called “Planet Nine”, but all have – so far – been fruitless. In a new paper, a team claims to have their own explanation: our theory of gravity is wrong. For a few decades, astronomers have been puzzled by an apparent clustering of objects, way out in […]

The moment has arrived. Fat Bear Week 2023 has come to a close, and we have our winner. Feast your eyes on Grazer.  Bear 128 Grazer, to give her her full title, has officially been voted best fat bear of the year, beating majestic male 32 Chunk in what can only be described as a […]

Today we recognize that handwriting is unique to each person. From the way we form our letters to the amount of pressure we place on pen and paper, the details of our individual writing can be used to identify us. The same, it seems, is true for ancient runesmiths, which has allowed archaeologists to finally […]

In sports, coin tosses are often used to decide who goes first, or pick who goes to bat for the first part of the game.  It seems fair. You’d assume that as coins have two sides and you introduce a random element (flipping the coin and catching it), the odds of it coming up with […]

Archaeologists have discovered traces of ancient Egyptian wine, which, at 5,000 years old, is some very vintage vino. While exploring the tomb of a First Dynasty queen, the team unearthed hundreds of wine jars dating back to 3000 BCE, which contained remnants of wine. The findings also shed some light on the life and status […]

Earlier this year, China began digging a 10,000-meter (32,808-foot) hole into the Earth, the deepest ever attempted in the country. Digging down through 10 layers of rock, the team hopes to reach rocks from the Cretaceous Period, the layer known as the Cretaceous System, which dates back up to 145 million years. While cool in […]

Over 120 river dolphins have died in the Brazilian Amazon in the wake of an extreme drought and water temperatures reaching 38.8°C (102°F).  Researchers at the Mamirauá Institute told Reuters that dozens of dolphins had died over the past week in the region around Tefé Lake. They added that roughly 80 percent of deceased dolphins […]

Renting makes you age faster according to a new study that found that the negative impacts it can have on your biology are twice that of unemployment. More bad news for millennials who burned their housing deposits on *checks notes* coffees and avocados, but the good news is that the effects are reversible. The study […]

Ever wondered what ancient languages sounded like? Well, wonder no more, for a video series made using artificial intelligence (AI) can show you. The videos are created by YouTube channel Equator AI, which states that it strives “to preserve and revive the past of mankind, making it closer and more understandable for people of our […]

Moles are strange little guys. With digger-like claws, terrible eyesight, hairless snoots, and an appetite for soil-dwelling insects, these animals are extremely well adapted to life below the Earth’s surface. In fact, this “blueprint” of subterranean mammals has proved so successful that it’s evolved independently numerous times across different continents of the world.  The world […]

Welcome to the wonderful world of animal grammar. From collective nouns to naming a new species, the wacky world of wildlife nomenclature sure loves to keep us on our toes. Whether the name has a Latin or Greek root or something else entirely, we break down what is the acceptable plural for one of the […]

The cutest thing on Earth might just be a baby sloth, but how does it come to be? For an animal that’s famous for moving slowly through the canopy, it’s hard to imagine how they mate, but for three-toed sloths, it all begins with a female screaming in D sharp. “Females will climb to the […]

The European Space Agency’s Gaia is for sure a marvel of engineering and an incredible observatory. It is busy creating the most accurate map of the Milky Way, measuring the position and motions of 1.8 billion stars so far. Scientists have published several papers that show that the data from the observatory goes far beyond […]

Aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) are the largest nocturnal primate in the world and almost undoubtedly the most distinct of all lemurs. Feared and revered in equal parts, this goblin-like native of Madagascar is a beautiful example of how evolution can drive the creation of some wonderfully weird creatures.  With straggly hair and beaming eyes, photographs of […]

Aerospace engineers have proposed a way to send a mission to study Neptune for a fraction of the expected cost by using Triton’s atmosphere for the braking maneuver. Whether anyone will be willing to roll the dice on a still very expensive project, sweeping over the giant moon just right, remains to be seen, but […]