Deborah Bloomfield

Have you ever been so engrossed in a task that you just … lose yourself in it? No awareness of time or outside influences; no inner criticism of yourself or your performance – just pure focus and enjoyment from exploring the job at hand. There are a number of terms for this phenomenon: you might […]

Fathers drinking alcohol prior to conception could be linked to brain and facial defects in their offspring, new research suggests, putting the onus not just on mothers to quell their alcohol consumption but on fathers too. The findings suggest that research needs to examine fathers’ roles in fetal alcohol syndrome as opposed to just mothers’, […]

Sourcing human tissue samples for biological investigations isn’t always easy. While they are ethically obtained through organ donation or from tissue that’s removed during surgical procedures, scientists are finding them increasingly difficult to get hold of. And it’s not just because there’s a limited supply of human tissue samples. There’s also restricted availability of the […]

The Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias, Kinneret, or any of quite a few other monikers, is Israel’s largest freshwater lake, and the lowest freshwater lake on the planet. But like so many landmarks dotted around the area, it has long been much more than that: over the years, it’s been a source […]

This week, a new paper argues our Ice Age ancestors were eating some pretty nasty things as a source of carbs, men might be more likely to stick to a meat-based diet in order to feel more ‘manly’, and you may have seen the incredible image of a full nervous system but you may not […]

Plummeting 91 meters (300 feet) and landing on solid rock is generally not conducive to survival. Against all odds, however, one climber survived the “unsurvivable” after a rope slid through her harness and she entered freefall downwards, escaping with severe but non-fatal injuries. Scientists then tried to understand just how she managed it.  As described […]

A new theory is gaining traction among Renaissance Art scholars, which suggests that Michelangelo, the famous master behind the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel, may have portrayed himself as God. If this is true, then this sneaky selfie tells us a lot about how fond he was of himself.  The “Creation of Adam” is […]

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown biochemical change that occurs in the brain cells of patients with motor neurone disease (MND), contributing to the rapid neurodegeneration that characterizes this devastating disease. Though still in the early stages of investigation, it’s hoped the discovery could be pivotal in developing treatments that could “change the course of […]

A select few of Easter Island’s giant heads have an especially strange choice of headwear. Just a handful of these famous volcanic rock statues have a red “hat” placed on top of their head. Not only are these hats made out of a red stone from a quarry on the other side of the island, […]

Anyone who has frequented a gym for any length of time has probably encountered “that person” – a grunter, whose loud guttural noises sound like an animal either in pain or getting it on. For many gym-goers this is an annoying disruption, but is there any evidence that it actually helps weightlifters perform better? Well, […]

Toilets take on a lifesaving role in a 1981 patent that proposed the water trap within a basin could give a person trapped in a burning room access to fresh air. The patent claims that if a room is filled with toxic gases, the inhabitants just might survive by inserting a tube through the water […]

A team of archaeologists recently discovered the resting place of a Roman doctor who has been buried for around 2,000 years near Jászberény, Hungary. Amazingly, the doctor appears to have been buried with some of his equipment, a find that is extremely rare. The body was excavated by researchers at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), […]

Like a murmuration of starlings or a school of fish, some shapes can make patterns out of disorder in a way that feels as though it should require a guiding intelligence, or at least life. There are still major gaps in our knowledge of the characteristics that enable this to happen, but two scientists have […]

A new trial has shown that inhalation of plastic at moderate levels could impact sex hormones, with exposure to micro- and nanoparticles (MNPs) of nylon having a significant disruptive effect in female rats. The study indicates that it is not necessarily newer additives that could be disrupting hormone levels, but in fact the plastics themselves, […]

Back in the heyday of reality TV not really giving a hoot about ethics, one reality show in the UK placed 10 boys and 10 girls in separate houses to look after themselves, without adult supervision. The children, all aged 11 or 12, were provided with food, money, toys, and cleaning equipment for the “experiment”, […]

An angry goose is such a force to be reckoned with that in parts of the world they’re used as Guard Geese, protecting homes and farms from trespassers. From a distance, they might not seem like the typical attack animal, but get a look at their freaky geese teeth and you’d likely feel differently. But […]

Along the east coast of America, an unusual and sad phenomenon has been happening since 2016: Humpback whales have been washing up dead and stranded on the beaches of the east coast, causing concern among researchers as to the cause of these deaths. From Maine through to Florida, coastal US states are reporting higher than […]

Were you to lay eyes on the bizarre worm blobs of Colorado’s sulfur caves, you’d have just a few breaths in you before the deadly gases brought your sightseeing tour to an untimely end. Fortunately, being tucked deep within a spring it’s not a place you’re likely to end up in by accident, but it […]

Researchers have spotted three Roman military camps in Jordan that may provide evidence for a previously unknown campaign to conquer a desert kingdom in the second century CE. Identified using Google Earth, the temporary bases rewrite history and suggest that the Roman army marched across Arabia to annex the Nabataean Kingdom, which had its capital […]

From wild cheetahs and cougars to the tiniest little fuzzball, just about all cats can purr – and, just like the wag of a dog’s tail, it’s an unmistakable signal that everything in that kitty’s life is A-OK right now. Or is it?  As it turns out, this most ubiquitous of feline noises is way […]