Deborah Bloomfield

Parasite cleanses that promise to evacuate the worms living it up in your intestines are doing the rounds on TikTok, but as is often the case when health advice starts circulating on social media, a lot of the advice is misinformed and – in some cases – even dangerous. From claiming parasites cause schizophrenia to […]

Not all planets orbit stars. There are worlds that go rogue; kicked out of their star system, they roam interstellar space without a stellar companion. In fact, our galaxy may be full of them. They are likely outnumbering stars in our galaxy 20 to one, according to new research. With the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman […]

In this age of climate change, habitat loss, and destruction of the natural world, we take an in-depth look at one endangered species in particular: the northern white rhino. Just two females remain in the world and neither are capable of carrying a pregnancy. With such constraints in place, we ask the experts if it’s […]

Electromagnetic waves are packets of energy travelling all around us. Some of these waves have lots of energy, and some have less. We call the lowest energy electromagnetic waves radio waves. There’s a good chance radio waves are moving around you right now, shining out of wifi routers, laptops and mobile phones. Advertisement The most […]

White dwarfs are the exposed burned-out cores of dead stars that have gone through the red giant phase but are not heavy enough to go supernova. This is the destiny of our Sun. Astronomers have now announced a totally weird white dwarf, which sports two different faces. One side is covered in hydrogen, and the […]

Divers off the coast of Taiwan have filmed a rare encounter with a giant oarfish, a fish seen so rarely there are legends that their appearance precedes major earthquakes. Oarfish generally live at depths of around 200 meters (656 feet), though they have been found at depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), making it rare […]

A finely crafted hunting weapon produced by an ancient hominid species sheds new light on the surprising woodworking abilities of our extinct ancestors. Analyzing the killing tool using a series of imaging techniques, researchers have revealed how the manufacturer of the 300,000-year-old object selected and treated the raw material before carving and sanding it into […]

For at least 45 years, an object in our galaxy has been emitting radio waves every 21 minutes, and astronomers are very confused about what could be causing it. The cycle is too slow and too powerful to be anything we are familiar with, but too broad to be the product of a technological civilization. […]

When the prospect of World War Two was quietly looming over Europe, German scientists unveiled the possibility of nuclear fission. In the years that followed, horror over the idea of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Hitler became one of the strongest driving forces behind the US effort to build the bomb – the […]

Take a quick glance and you might assume it’s just a cavernous inlet in a cliff face, but look closer and you’ll see this is the remains of an ancient tomb adorned with pillars and once-grand carvings. Despite its beauty and uniquenesses, the stunning historical site is rapidly disappearing in the face of neglect and […]

“I should say I thought we had a 90 percent chance of getting back to Earth on that flight,” the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, said a rare interview in 2012, “but only a 50-50 chance of making a successful landing on the first attempt.” Landing a spacecraft on the Moon was always […]

As temperature records continue to be broken and scores of us across the globe are experiencing a heatwave, people in many parts of the world are likely reaching for the sunscreen. We know it helps protect our skin, but how exactly does it do this? And does it stop us from tanning while it’s at it? We’re […]

Conspiracy theories old and new have fantasized about a planet on the opposite side of the Sun sharing the same orbit with Earth. While that is nonsense, orbital mechanics allows for multiple celestial bodies to share the same orbit on specific conditions. The Trojan asteroids around Jupiter and Earth are prime examples. Now, astronomers have […]

An Australian sailor has made headlines this week, after he survived two months alone with his dog on the Pacific Ocean. Fifty-one-year-old Tim Shaddock, from Sydney, became stranded with his dog Bella after a storm hit their boat on their journey from Mexico to French Polynesia. He was able to survive by drinking rainwater and […]

We now know the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, while the planet’s core is about two years younger than that thanks to the time-dilating effects of gravity. But how did we figure that out?  Early attempts at calculating the age of the Earth using science came up a little short. In 1844, physicist William Thomson […]

Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon, went on Twitter to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 launch with a selfie on Sunday. Unfortunately, the public was distracted somewhat. Not by his breakfast (which looked excellent) but by the sheer number of watches he wears on his arms. #Apollo11 […]

A large unidentified metal object has been stranded on a beach at Green Head, Western Australia, sparking theories on social media about what it might be. The Australian Space Agency (ASA) is investigating as it is most likely space debris from part of a rocket and initially advised those close to the site 250 kilometers […]

Ever wondered how people manage their periods in space? Thankfully, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti previously came to the rescue with an explanation, which basically boiled down to, “Just like you do on the ground.” But it’s no secret that many of the legacy systems on spacecraft were very much designed without women in mind. In both […]

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the highest inhabited regions on Earth, and while life at the so-called “Roof of the World” may be harsh, new data reveals that the area once enjoyed a warmer spell, giving rise to the powerful Tibetan Empire. However, despite exerting huge influence over Asian geopolitics between the seventh and […]

In 1822, French philologist Jean-François Champollion made an announcement that would change our understanding of the ancient world. Champollion had successfully deciphered the enigmatic Rosetta Stone and provided the key to understanding ancient Egyptian text. Now 200 years have passed, and our knowledge of ancient Egypt has grown significantly, but there are still many intriguing […]