Deborah Bloomfield

During the Capitanian age 260 million years ago, the oceans suffered a drastic loss of oxygen causing, or perhaps amplifying, widespread global extinctions. Then 3 million years later the same thing happened again, sediment records reveal. The findings could explain a major point of confusion about the Permian period, a time overshadowed by its catastrophic […]

Heterosexual couples who don’t follow traditional gender roles may be more likely to experience lower relationship satisfaction, and according to a recent study, this observation could at least partially be explained by the fact that while individuals may not set much store by gender norms, they’re so ingrained in our societies that it’s difficult to […]

Woollen clothing has been around for as long as humans have been wearing clothes and sheep have been domesticated. Indeed, our distant ancestors used sheep for three things: food, clothing and shelter – wool makes good insulation and helps to keep in the warmth. The UK is still one of the largest wool producers in […]

Strange, unexplained holes in the seafloor have long been an unsolved deep-sea mystery. Now, a sprinkling of unusual pits at the bottom of the Bering Sea may have an explanation. The architects of this perplexing phenomenon? Teeny tiny critters called amphipods. While studying the biodiversity of the Aleutian Trench near Alaska, a team of researchers […]

Rising temperatures are tilting the playing field very slightly in favor of batters and against pitchers in Major League Baseball, a new study finds. Although the difference global heating is making is currently small, by the end of the century it could be creating a major distortion, comparable to the steroids era and the 1920 […]

We love a semi-hypothetical hare-brained scheme. From blowing up the moon to firing a bullet through Jupiter, discovering the more out-there plans of history is always a wild ride. Now we’re adding “creating a sea in the middle of the Sahara” to the already wild list of what not to do in terms of planet-altering […]

In school, you might have learned that there are three or even four states of matter; the classical states of matter. But as our understanding of the universe has expanded, we have realized that matter can organize itself in more ways than we imagined. Although there is still disagreement as to how many states actually […]

Even in an age of rovers on Mars and probes to asteroids, meteorites provide vital information that we often can’t get anywhere else. Some of the knowledge we seek is stored magnetically, making its wiping a scientific tragedy. Yet that happens when meteorite hunters use hand magnets to discover their targets, and a new study […]

A rather picky Asian elephant at Berlin Zoo has taught herself to peel bananas but only uses her unique superpower on fruit that has started to turn brown. According to researchers, Pang Pha probably acquired a knack for skinning after observing her keepers, despite the fact that none of them ever taught her to operate […]

The sunken remains of an ancient Roman villa have been uncovered by a recent survey off the coast of Italy. Once known for its luxurious beauty, this area was a holiday spot for the rich and famous of the Roman Empire. Now, however, their beautiful villas are nothing more than sunken ruins. The discoveries were […]

The Earth rotates towards the east, so the Sun, the Moon, and all celestial bodies we can see always appear to rise from that direction and set in the west. But there is no reason for that to be the only possible case. Our planet might just as easily spin in the opposite direction, and […]

A woman who crushed up a whole black widow spider and injected it in an effort to get high in the 1990s ended up having a very bad time when the arachnid’s venom kicked in. The unpleasant trip saw her spend a few days in the intensive care unit (ICU) with breathing difficulties, muscle cramping, […]

The Earthly remains and the tomb of Queen Boudicca have never been found, although many theories of her final resting place have been suggested, ranging from Stonehenge and a McDonald’s to beneath London King’s Cross train station. Boudicca was the queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe known for leading a courageous – but ill-fated […]

There are treasures to be found among the sediments of abyssal plains for those willing to dive 3,000–6,000 meters (9,800–19,600 feet) to go searching. Here, vast fields of manganese nodules can be found, rich in metals that would have battery makers’ eyes turning to dollar signs. Sometimes referred to as deep-sea potatoes, or manganese tubers, […]

Nobody does slime better than hagfish. Also known as slime eels, these slippery Myxiniformes have evolved to use goo as a defense mechanism by clogging the gills of predators in less than a second. They’re considered to be the slimiest animals on the planet, capable of producing mucus that expands to 10,000 times its size […]

Nuclear waste is a serious problem. Not only is it difficult to safely dispose of, but its harmful effects can remain a threat thousands of years into the future. In that time, whole civilizations and languages may have come and gone, posing a real challenge for safeguarding future generations from a hazard we produce today. […]

An incredible picture of the Sun has been produced by two extremely talented photographers and citizen scientists. Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel have constructed a beautiful mosaic of our Sun, showing surface features and most impressively a twisty plasma filament stretching out over the limb (outer edge) of our star. The positioning allowed the duo […]

It’s no surprise exercise is one of the first things we turn to when we decide it’s time to lose weight. We readily sign up for that gym membership and commit to extra walks with the dog, believing if we exercise enough, the number on the scales will drop. Advertisement Perhaps also unsurprisingly, many of […]

History – and, more often, mythology – is replete with tales of supposed “lost cities.” Whether it’s Atlantis, the City of the Caesars, or that tiny Irish version of Brazil that everyone insisted was real for a few centuries, there’s apparently just something irresistible about the idea of a once-great civilization now totally lost to […]

Few prehistoric animals are more iconic than the woolly mammoth: gigantic tusked beasts covered in shaggy hair, wandering the steppes of Eurasia and North America, occasionally doing battle with early humans or getting annoyed with the odd ground sloth. But like any species, their looks were the result of eons of evolution – and a […]