Deborah Bloomfield

Lol used to mean something. In days gone by, this staple of internet slang meant much more than an internal snigger or a brief burst of air from the nostrils. That’s why one man has invented the LOL Verifier, a device that only lets you type lol if you have actually laughed out loud. The […]

A wet nose is a staple of a good dog, ever twitching, seeking scents in the air that are invisible to the paltry human schnozz. It’s often said that a wet nose is the sign of a healthy dog, and while this is true to some extent, there’s another explanation as to why dogs’ noses […]

Fire crews were called to a dairy plant in Wisconsin to battle a buttery blaze on Monday, January 2. According to the Portage Fire Department, a fire broke out in a butter storage room at Associated Milk Producers Inc, melting it and causing it to “flow throughout the structure”. “The butter was running down like […]

In rare cases of stroke and brain damage, patients can lose their sight altogether. Disorientated and unaware of what’s happened, it can take clinicians days before they establish that the person has become blind.   But what if the patient themselves don’t know that they are blind? In extremely rare circumstances, someone that has no […]

Humans are exceptionally naked as primates go, but exactly when and why Homo sapiens decided to ditch the fur is something that’s long interested geneticists. Now, a new study has gone in search of the genetic basis of our bodily baldness and found that we actually still have the full set of genes necessary for […]

Stones skipping over water is one of the joys of holidays by lake or seaside, but it seems most of us have been doing it wrong for centuries, at least if you prefer quality of bounces over quantity. Generations of parents have taught their children different hand and arm movements, but most have agreed the […]

Edward Norton has discovered that he is directly related to Pocahontas, the Native American woman whose life and tragic run-in with European colonialism have inspired many stories.  Norton’s surprising ancestor was revealed during his recent appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots in which celebrities learn about their ancestral histories.  He said he was […]

Clusters of galaxies often have hundreds of members packed together in a relatively small region of the universe. But even in the dark region between these galaxies, the intracluster space, there is a faint glow. This is produced by wandering stars that don’t belong to any galaxy. How they got there is a mystery – […]

Researchers have sent information across two kilometers (1.2 miles) using sub-terahertz frequencies, the expected range for the still-developing 6G, the future generation of mobile system standards. This is the longest transmission ever achieved at these wavelengths, transmitting information at over two gigabits per second.   The deployment of 5G technology has shown that it is […]

The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved in the US, designed to protect these helpful critters from American foulbrood disease caused by Paenibacillus larvae. The vaccine, which has just received approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), was developed by the US biotech company Dalan Animal Health. Instead of injecting the individual bees […]

The Aurora Borealis, also known as the northern lights, is a spectacular meteorological event produced by the charged particles from the Sun hitting the upper atmosphere. Anecdotal stories suggested that some of these events can create weird sounds, and observations in the last few years not only found such sounds but also recorded them. Now, […]

If you are currently suffering from an unending state of sickness that seems to have engulfed almost everyone, you are certainly not alone. Whether it be COVID-19, the flu, or any of the other cold-like viruses that are currently surging in the winter, it seems that the feeling of bunged-up noses and scratchy throats may […]

Nudibranchs quite literally come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but most recently we’ve been losing it over the perplexing body plan of Melibe viridis, also known as the green melibe. Its elongated body is lined with sticky lobes that act a little like legs but also as decoys when under attack, and it’s easy […]

Archeologists have found traces of a Viking hall in Denmark that once stood at the time of Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, the ancient king of Denmark whose moniker inspired the name of the technology that wirelessly connects your smartphone to speakers. The hall was recently uncovered by archeologists near the village of Hune in North Jutland, […]

A lot of rockets have a characteristic orange hue, and lots of people wonder about it. The coloration is not just an artistic decision taken by the engineers involved – actually, the opposite is true. Having tangerine-colored rockets is the best possible solution when it comes to launching something into space. From the tank of […]

Artworks by Indigenous Australians, some dating back tens of thousands of years, have suffered damage recently from mining operations, climate change, and now deliberate vandalism. Irreparable damage to Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain suggests no part of the country is safe, even when there is no money to be made. For the traditional owners, […]

Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu will attest. So it was hardly surprising that, when a Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist weighed in with advice about how to cook pasta perfectly which […]

A dual-action therapy that may eliminate existing tumors and prevent future tumors from occurring has been developed, according to new research. Targeting glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer, the therapy is designed to stop reoccurrence in mouse models, marking an important milestone in both treatment and prevention.  “Our team has pursued a […]

A novel type of synthetic tissue has been successful in returning erectile function to pig penises in a new study. The breakthrough mimicked the unique tissue needed to maintain an erection and could hold promise for future therapies to repair penile injuries in humans. Part of the difficulty in repairing mammalian penises relates to their […]

Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of gravity and co-inventor of calculus, was born on Christmas day of 1642, but only if you count the time using the now-abandoned Julian calendar. In the Gregorian calendar that we use today (and was used by the catholic regions of Europe at the time), the correct date is actually January […]