Deborah Bloomfield

All life on Earth depends on liquid water, and astrobiologists think that may be universal. That makes the discovery of water on other planets a priority, and two new discoveries are thought to have it in an abundance that makes the Earth look dry. Lurking in the same system is a suspected planet that could […]

Wisdom the Laysan albatross, the world’s oldest known bird, returned to her breeding ground on November 24 to find that her mate of 60 years was not there waiting for her. Typically, males return to the nesting sites earlier than females. This is now the second year in a row that her mate has not […]

If somebody asked you to guess their birthday, no extra information given, you might find yourself at a bit of a loss. After all, the chances are one in 365 that you’re going to get it with a random guess, right? And who’d take odds like that? Well, it turns out you might be able […]

Discovering new species is a race against the clock. Though we know all manner of beasties are out there waiting to be discovered, whether or not we can find them before it’s too late is another matter. That’s why when researchers’ tireless efforts turn up 20 new frog species, it’s worth celebrating. The crack team […]

A closer look at one of the first images produced by the JWST has revealed a treasure trove of young stars in a particularly exciting and mysterious stage of development Astronomers at NASA have embarked on a “deep dive” into an image of the Cosmic Cliffs, a “coastline” of gas and dust found in the […]

Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanic place in the solar system. The intense activity is powered by the complex gravitational interactions between itself, the gas giant, and its fellow moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. NASA’s Juno mission has been studying the interior of Jupiter for several years and in its extended mission, it began […]

A study of 5,500 students aged 14-16 has investigated factors associated with accepting or rejecting evolution as the explanation for the diversity of life. The study was conducted in Brazil and Italy, so the results may not be universally applicable, but it challenges the idea that hostility to the evidence for evolution is all about […]

In yet another edition of slightly terrifying Christmas traditions, it’s Julebukking – Norway’s marginally sweeter take on Krampus. Sharing roots in Norse mythology and paganism, both Krampus and Julebukking see a goatly entity visiting your house around Christmas, but the two have quite different intentions. Similar to trick-or-treating on Halloween, the act of Julebukking sees […]

There’s a dusty old rumor that duck quacks don’t echo. You might’ve heard it, you might’ve read it, you might even have watched the British comedy show Duck Quacks Don’t Echo that was named after it. The concept is pretty simple: take a duck and put it in an echoey space, make it quack, and […]

Attila the Hun is one of history’s most notorious warlords – yet while he has traditionally been cast as a bloodthirsty barbarian motivated only by a lust for gold, new research suggests that his constant attacks on the Roman Empire may have been driven by drought. After analyzing 2,000 years’ worth of tree-ring data, the […]

The Lensa photo and video editing app has shot into social media prominence in recent weeks, after adding a feature that lets you generate stunning digital portraits of yourself in contemporary art styles. It does that for just a small fee and the effort of uploading 10 to 20 different photographs of yourself. 2022 has […]

The UN Biodiversity Conference or COP 15 is currently taking place in Montreal. Its goals are ambitious: to create a shared vision to live in harmony with nature by 2050, to create fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature, as well as the safe transport, handling, and labelling of Living Modified […]

Are you procrastinating? I am. I have been delaying writing this article for the last few days even though I knew I had a deadline. I have scrolled through social media, and I have gone down a rabbit hole looking up houses on Rightmove – even though I do not need a new house. I […]

There are a few hitches in the logistics of a Christmas that sees a bearded man swoosh across the globe delivering gifts and coal to naughty and nice children – one of them is the unfortunate fact that reindeer can’t fly. They can, however, float. Reindeer, scientifically known as Rangifer tarandus and more commonly as […]

Do you remember the last holiday season? When you took a ton of family photos and video, but then forgot to backup your computer, and all was lost? Well, this year it will be different. You are going to backup those treasured pics and videos, and score a whole lot more storage in the process. […]

A box containing 15 silver coins from the era when Judea was under the control of the Seleucid Greek Kingdom may provide the first archaeological evidence of events that formed part of the Maccabean Revolt. However, the finding place stirs modern political disputes. The coins were found in the Muraba’at Cave during excavations by the […]

The complexity of our languages is one of the things that distinguishes humans from other animals – but for most of that time, people may not have thought too hard about the structure of speech that evolved organically. Sometime between the 6th and 4th century BCE, the Indian scholar Dakṣiputra Pāṇini wrote down some rules […]

While the animal kingdom has more unique ways of communicating, mostly us humans spend all day prosaically using messaging systems and video calls to get in touch. This Desklab Portable Touchscreen Monitor gives you more space to communicate and saves you money as well by cutting 20% off the price with code WINTER20 at checkout. […]

The UK is now approaching its third Christmas of the COVID pandemic. And this year feels different. There’s little question we’re in a better position compared with 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Christmas plans were significantly curtailed, with a range of restrictions in place across the UK. But winter social mixing that took place before […]

“Very exciting” results have come out of a recent trial of an experimental vaccine that uses messenger-RNA (mRNA) technology to tackle melanoma skin cancer. It’s still early days, but the data is yet another indication of how mRNA vaccines and personalized cancer treatments hold a huge amount of potential.  The vaccine has been developed by […]