Deborah Bloomfield

Humans have a long history of monogamy. Our ancestors have been coupling off for millennia, but this mating strategy is actually something of an outlier when compared to other species. So why do we do it?  Can monogamy be explained by simple biology? Or is it more complicated than that? As it turns out, the […]

A parasitic worm that can jump from its usual host species into mammals is becoming more widespread in rats in the southern USA, sparking concerns about the risks to humans. The rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, typically moves between snails and rodents to complete its life cycle. Rats eat snails infected with worm larvae, which then […]

The “wholphin” is the nickname for a hybrid born as a result of some unlikely canoodling between different species of cetacean, most often a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. However, this isn’t the only known example of interspecies mingling that’s been documented among this infraorder of animals. From the narluga to dolphin hybrids, […]

In millions of years’ time, a new supercontinent will form when all of our existing continents converge. This, according to a new study, will have a series of catastrophic impacts that will make Earth inhospitable to land-based mammals and will likely lead to a mass extinction. No more mammals? Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human […]

There is a truly astonishing molecule that has puzzled scientists for decades. Its name is azulene and it is known for its strikingly beautiful blue color. But it is its physical behavior that is utterly peculiar. It seems to stubbornly defy Kasha’s rule, the principle that explains how fluorescence or phosphorescence takes place.  This is […]

Scientists are talking to plants through light-based messages to see if they can prewarn them of impending dangers and trigger defence mechanisms that could mitigate the damage. Working with the tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana, they were able to activate the plant’s immune response using light as a stimulus in an achievement that could revolutionize our […]

Hopes are fading that the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover will reawaken after the long lunar night, as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) continues to attempt to establish contact. In August, India became the fourth nation to touch down on the Moon, and the first to land near the lunar south pole. Since landing, the […]

Nobody wants to die, but when we do we hope for two things: that it’s painless, and that a thousand years later somebody doesn’t study your remains and tell your ancestors “this guy was heavily constipated”. No such luck for one man, who archaeologists discovered in 2019 had suffered a fatal case of constipation, swelling his […]

When geologists set out to probe beneath the old coal-mining region of Southeastern France, they were hoping to find a trove of fossil fuels locked deep within its subsoil. Much to their surprise, they stumbled across something even more enticing: what might be the world’s biggest known deposit of white hydrogen. If their estimations are […]

A reunion with a puma named Petaka and a perilous time beneath the waves filming mini “surfing Godzillas” are among the highlights of wildlife filmmaker, presenter, and National Geographic explorer Bertie Gregory’s new series, Animals Up Close. The series set out to focus on the lives of individual animals to get a comprehensive view of […]

At some point in our lives, many of us may have looked at the partner of a good friend and been very understanding about their reasons for liking them. Maybe too understanding in some cases. If that’s you, then you’re not alone, as this is a classified psychological phenomenon known as “mimetic desire”. The term […]

The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule was not even cold on the ground – it reached 2,900°C (5,300°F) as it used the atmosphere to slow down – before some people on the internet were already questioning whether it might have brought alien pathogens with it. We’re pretty confident that the answer to that is a big […]

The mystery surrounding Stonehenge has just become a little deeper thanks to a new analysis of the iconic Altar Stone, which reveals that the enormous megalith didn’t come from the same source as the rest of the so-called bluestones that comprise the monument’s inner circle. Until now, it had been assumed that the Altar Stone […]

A long-lost language that hasn’t been uttered for centuries has been discovered on cuneiform clay tablets among some ancient ruins in Turkey.  The new language was discovered at Boğazköy-Hattusha, aka Hattusa, an archaeological site in north-central Turkey that once served as the capital of the Hittite Empire. The site earned its place as a UNESCO […]

Around 23 million years ago, the eighth continent of the world became almost entirely submerged underwater, 60 million years after separating from the supercontinent Gondwana. Geologists have known for some time that the makeup of New Zealand and New Caledonia had similar geology. After years of exploration and research, geologists realized they shared a lot […]

OSIRIS-REx has successfully completed its primary mission: to collect a sample of material from asteroid Bennu, pack it up into a capsule, and fly back to Earth. After seven years in space, and a few billion miles around the Sun (to save fuel), the orbits of our planet and the spacecraft crossed again, allowing the […]

Issue 15 (October 2023) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. In This Issue… Advertisement OUR COVER STORY: How To Spot A Pseudoscience The line between science and […]

It may be time to brush up on your geography knowledge: there are actually five oceans on planet Earth, not four as you may have been taught.  Back in 2021, National Geographic officially recognized the Southern Ocean as the world’s fifth ocean. The announcement marked the end of decades of dispute over the body of […]

The recently discovered green comet Nishimura survived its recent closest pass to the Sun, which is good for the comet but bad for us. It means soon we won’t be able to see it and it won’t come around again for another 437 years, so you’ll need to be quick to catch a last glimpse. […]

The warm ocean current that keeps northern Europe habitable is weaker than at any time in the previous thousand years, sediments and ice cores indicate. The finding increases the likelihood the current will weaken further, with catastrophic implications for the UK and Ireland, and bad news for many other places. For thousands of years the […]