Deborah Bloomfield

Two important missions to the Sun have been launched in the last few years: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency (ESA) Solar Orbiter. The two are studying the Sun in different ways, and in June last year they demonstrated just how complementary they are, helping to close in on the solution to […]

Being stuck in a queue of traffic on your daily commute is one of life’s common frustrations. Traffic jams aren’t unique to the human experience though – even ants are prone to logjams, but new research suggests they’re pretty nifty at getting themselves out of the chaos. As masters of collective behavior, division of labor, […]

A new superglue alternative, derived from soy, could provide sustainable and biodegradable stickiness that rivals the less environmentally friendly products currently on the market. Traditional superglues and epoxies are generally made from fossil fuels, and as such take thousands of years to biodegrade. Their production also generates a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions – […]

Most exoplanets that have been discovered over the last few decades happened to go around stars that are roughly the same size as the Sun. Some are a bit bigger and many a lot smaller. Planets have been discovered around pulsars, the extreme end product of supernovae, so astronomers expect that planets are to be […]

Not many Neanderthals could say they would someday go on to find fame, but if there’s one member of this extinct species that could be considered world-renowned then it has to be the La Ferrassie Man, aka La Ferrassie-1 (LF1). This skeleton was discovered over a century ago and remains the most complete Neanderthal skull […]

DEEP, a UK-based engineering firm, has said it’s taking the first steps to making a “permanent human presence” under the oceans from 2027. As shown in their mock-up images, the company hopes to create futuristic modular habitats that will allow people to live underwater at depths of up to 200 meters (656 feet) for up […]

The existence of our universe is a little bit weird based on the known laws of physics. The problem is that matter – which makes up everything we see from galaxies to donkeys – has a twin called antimatter. It has the same mass but opposite electric charge, and when matter and antimatter interact they […]

You might already be aware that the name “strawberry” is a misnomer, as strawberries aren’t really berries at all. Well, it seems strawberries are full of surprises, or rather covered in them because those seedy-looking white dots aren’t actually seeds. The strawberries’ pitted accessories are called achenes, and they are in fact the plant’s fruit, with each […]

We’re all used to having to combat the various molds that appear in our homes during the winter months. At the time when our windows are closed and we’re trying to keep the house warm, we may find out homes have been invaded by some sporific little bugger. But summer can also see the proliferation […]

A new study of ancient whale bones suggests that medieval European hunters may have targeted two species of whale to the point of extinction in the eastern North Atlantic. Although whaling took place on an industrial level during the 19th and 20th centuries, the practice in general is thought to have been present in coastal communities […]

The 2023 Ig Nobel Prizes prove there is still plenty of room in science for the weird and amusing, even under the pressure of ever-tightening research budgets. Highlights include how having bored teachers affects the student experience, and how the mating behavior of very small fish changes water mixing in the world’s largest ocean. There’s […]

Up to an hour after apparently dying, some cardiac arrest patients display an explosion of neural signaling that mirrors conscious brain activity. Describing this unexpected phenomenon in a new study, researchers reveal that many of those who are resuscitated also retain striking memories of their deaths. The study authors followed 567 patients who flatlined at […]

This week JWST has confirmed the universe’s rate of expansion and it’s causing some confusion, it’s been found that crows are capable of performing statistical inferences in decision-making, and researchers say we’ve now breached six of the nine “planetary boundaries” for sustaining human civilization. Finally, we investigated how images of black holes are taken. Subscribe […]

A starving and sick bear has been euthanized in Colorado after wild officials discovered it was suffering from a “severe intestinal blockage” due to eating a huge amount of human trash.  The 181-kilogram (400-pound) male black bear was discovered on the afternoon of Saturday, September 9 near the river trail in Telluride, Colorado.  Advertisement After […]

Almost a year ago, NASA’s DART mission slammed into asteroid Dimorphos, the moon of the larger asteroid Didymos. The goal was to move the asteroid to a different orbit, and the shift was successful – the asteroid shifted way more than expected. New research suggests that, inexplicably, the orbit continued to change for a month […]

Ever wondered what cannabis looks like up close and personal? This study has you covered, revealing what the plant looks like under a microscope. Not only has the research created some imagery fit for a stoner’s phone background, but it’s also provided some insights into the structures that help give cannabis its psychoactive properties and […]

As much as everyone enjoys flying abroad for their holidays, the cost of the climate impact might be making people think twice. So what can we do? Aside from paying to offset the carbon, the emergence of a new industry is hoping to change the way we fly. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) or e-fuels are […]

Back in 2018, scientists achieved something that still sounds unbelievable today: they “transplanted” memories from one snail into another. It was a fascinating study in its own right, but it’s also part of a much bigger story: the long-running human quest to understand precisely what memory is and how it works. How the study worked […]

A team of specialists have recreated in stagging detail the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, which once stood as the center of the expanding Aztec Empire until the Spanish invaded in the 16th Century. For the first time in hundreds of years, we are now able to see what this incredible city looked like before it […]

The 2024 Breakthrough Prize laureates have been announced, as well as the recipients of the New Horizons and Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes. The so-called “Oscars of Science” are the world’s largest international science prize and this year awarded $15.75 million in total. The five mainstage prizes (3 in life sciences, 1 in fundamental physics, […]