Deborah Bloomfield

As the northern hemisphere suffers through a summer that is breaking heat records like the proverbial bull in a china shop, something even more extreme is happening at the other end of the world. Despite being locked in near-constant darkness, the waters off Antarctica are struggling to form ice. The event is so extreme, in […]

We should admit that often, when it comes to Mars, our pareidolia goes into override. From the famous face which turned out to be a windswept hill, to bear-looking craters, to the many many rocks spotted by rovers that look like ducks, flowers, and more, it’s fun to see all these familiar things. Well, until […]

In two months, the asteroid sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will come down to Earth. On September 24, a capsule looking like something from a 60s sci-fi show will fly through the atmosphere and land in the Utah desert. The team has practiced the collection of the capsule several times, and last week they were […]

The Batagaika Crater, an immense fracture in the depths of the Russian Far East, was splintered open just a few decades due to defrosting and thawing permafrost. Decades on, with climate change continuing to cook up this part of the world, the literal scar on the planet is continuing to grow. The crack, widely known […]

Corn is a relatively ancient crop; humans began selectively breeding its wild ancestor teosinte in Mexico over 9,000 years ago. Roughly 1,500 and 2,000 years after this, partially domesticated corn varieties continued to spread to Central and South America respectively. But as this popular crop developed, so did its etymology, and now, despite looking nothing […]

The universe is just too big and planets too common for Earth to be the only place where life evolved. The search for life beyond our world is varied, from trying to spot the transmission of an alien civilization to looking for biosignatures on Mars. The answer to the question of whether we are alone […]

Now that the highly anticipated Oppenheimer movie has been released at the cinemas, audiences are encountering the gripping scientific and ethical dilemmas posed by the invention of the atomic bomb. However, lurking in the background of this narrative was something that made even the strongest supporters of a nuclear deterrent pause for thought – the hydrogen […]

Off the west coast of North America, there’s a vast underwater gorge that rivals the Grand Canyon in both shape and size. Known as the Monterey Canyon, scientists have recently managed to map this submarine colossus to reveal it with never-before-seen clarity.  The Monterey Canyon begins at Moss Landing in California along the middle of […]

Cryptozoology is a fantastic field of pseudoscience that allows us to debate the existence of bizarre beasts that are quite literally too good to be true. Among the most famous is the Loch Ness Monster, a slithery beast whose appearance in a few grainy photos over the years has raised eyebrows, and now gotten its […]

A 5,700-year-old tomb has been found to contain five generations of one family, buried over the course of a century. The find provides unprecedented insight into kinship networks in Britain shortly after the introduction of farming – even the bodies’ placement reveals much about how society was structured at the time. The Hazleton Long Barrow contains bones and […]

In 2021, ancient DNA was recovered from a 1.2-million-year-old mammoth tooth – the oldest DNA that had ever been recovered at the time. Not only did this incredible feat push the boundaries of what scientific methods are capable of, but the project also revealed a new lineage in the mammoth family. The genetic material was […]

The over-hyped perils of the Bermuda Triangle have become the stuff of modern-day folklore. Fewer people, however, know about the so-called Alaska Triangle, said to be the location of more unsolved missing person cases than anywhere else in the world. The Alaska Triangle is a loosely defined area in the state between the three points […]

While the world is full of proud pet owners, 25 of the best comedy pet photos have been whittled down into a shortlist of the funniest images of our furry friends. Featuring in the lineup is a flying toy poodle, the canine equivalent of Zorro, and a number of pets who look remarkably similar to […]

With 105 million tonnes produced annually, it’s safe to say bananas are one of the world’s favorite fruits (although botanically speaking they are berries, and the “tree” they grow on is actually a herb). While you can eat the skin of this nutritious and versatile snack, their temperamental nature means they’re ripe for only a […]

Astronomers report the discovery of water in the terrestrial planet-forming zone of nearby star system PDS 70. The observations are an important stepping stone in understanding how planets like Earth formed and where its water – that sustains all life here – came from. PDS 70 is located 400 light-years away. It has at least […]

The deepest mine in the world is the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa, which plunges 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) below the Earth’s surface. It makes for arguably the weirdest commute on Earth as miners working in the base must take a 90-minute elevator ride to work, kitted out with protective clothing and emergency breathing […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines describing the role that HIV viral suppression is playing in both improving the health of people living with HIV and stopping the further transmission of the virus. The guidance and accompanying systematic review of the science confirms what has been seen in many studies and what […]

The Rising Star cave system is a tangle of tunnels located within South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, which is one of the richest known fossil hominin sites in the world. In 2013, researchers exploring the narrow passages stumbled upon what they believed to be a burial chamber in an area known as Dragon’s Back. Burial […]

Around 80 percent of Greenland is coated in a thick ice sheet, beneath which lie all kinds of mysteries. Along with long-lost mountains and rocky canyons, the world under Greenland’s ice sheet provides scientists with some invaluable insights into the distant past of our planet. The island of Greenland is the world’s largest island, measuring […]

A documentary about the exploration of possibly the most astonishing archaeological site of close human relatives makes the biggest assertions yet regarding Homo naledi, the deeply puzzling species found there. If true, the claims made by the team excavating the site would transform how we see ourselves and our place in the evolutionary tree. Many […]