Deborah Bloomfield

Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) can not only count, they do it better than a great many animals that can’t get past three or four. The evolutionary benefit is well understood, but how a plant achieves this feat is a mystery. Just as mice with a deactivated gene can teach us what that does for other […]

Being on a video call can be a nightmare. You want to look at the camera, but it feels unnatural to look at essentially nothing, so then you look at the screen to see the person talking, but now it looks like you are looking away. If you’re like me, you end up trying to […]

There are lots of different names given to numbers in math. There are prime numbers, obviously, and square numbers; triangle and cube numbers; perfect numbers, practical numbers, and sublime numbers. Numbers can be polite, happy, evil or odious; there are lucky numbers and fortunate numbers; they can be amicable, sociable, betrothed, or untouchable. But there’s […]

The new electric Ram Revolution truck will come with your very own little robot that charges it when you arrive home, according to a Ram presentation at CES. Shaped like a huge Roomba, the charging bot detects how much charge you need and positions itself underneath the vehicle to wirelessly charge it, allowing you to […]

Dust grains brought back by the Hayabusa mission from the asteroid 25413 Itokawa are a scientific goldmine, giving us a glimpse of a space rock in its natural environment, unaffected by passage through Earth’s atmosphere. Studying three of these grains has led one team to conclude Itokawa has a very different history from what we […]

The swirling solid ball at the center of Earth’s inner core appears to have recently paused and may even now be rotating in the opposite direction from previous decades, according to a new study. A pair of scientists from Peking University in China have been looking at the movements of Earth’s mysterious innards by studying […]

Inside the Great Pyramid Of Giza, there is a massive void. The room, sealed when the pyramid was completed some 4,500 years ago, is of unknown purpose, though some have speculated it could be a secret burial chamber of the pharaoh Khufu, who ordered the pyramid to be built.  In 2017, a team known as […]

Elephants are natural eco-warriors that sequester carbon, so protecting their numbers is vital for the environment as well as their species. The carbon offsetting capacity of elephants has long been overlooked as a tool in our arsenal against the climate crisis – but now, new research is reporting on the pivotal influence of African elephants […]

Many of us are returning to work or school after spending time with relatives over the summer period. Sometimes we can be left wondering how on earth we are related to some of these people with whom we seemingly have nothing in common (especially with a particularly annoying relative). However, in evolutionary terms, we all […]

The first light free to move through the universe is what we now call the cosmic microwave background, emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Before then, photons – the particles of light – were constantly interacting with matter, so we can’t use light to see what happened back then. But gravitational waves were already […]

Some stunning artifacts have been discovered at the site of a prehistoric campsite that was home to a group of hunter-gatherers in Britain around 10,500 years ago. This was a time long before metal or even pottery had been introduced to this strange island, but there’s a bunch of evidence that suggests the inhabitants were […]

An international team using JWST has been able to obtain a phenomenal census of the deepest and coldest ices found in a molecular cloud yet, a vast interstellar structure from which stars and planets can form. Beyond water ice, the team found frozen ammonia, methane, methanol, and carbonyl sulfide. Having such a detailed description of […]

Since at least the neolithic, humans have been creating calendars to keep track of the changing seasons. Secularly today, we used the Gregorian calendar introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. This is a solar calendar, where one solar year is measured by one rotation of the Sun by Earth and is equivalent to 365.2422 […]

Monoclonal antibodies inserted directly into the vagina via a dissolvable film are being tested as a method of both contraception and protection against sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).  Nicknamed “plantibodies” as they are produced using tobacco plants, researchers aim to use them against sperm cells, HIV, and herpes. The contraceptive and STI-preventative applications of the antibodies are […]

There’s a rather unfair saying about putting lipstick on pigs, although new research would suggest that there’s some truth to the idea that the curly-tailed podgers are indeed immune to sophistication. After conducting a series of experiments, the study authors found that even pigs that had been raised as pets lacked the ability to communicate […]

The last time Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was visible in the night sky, Neanderthals were still roaming the planet with our ancestors. In the intervening 50,000 years, a lot has changed, and we can see these celestial objects with binoculars and telescopes – but you won’t need them to see this comet. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is […]

Two cases of a novel strain of super-gonorrhea have been reported in the US for the first time. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) on January 19, the bacteria had picked up potent anti-drug resistance and showed reduced responses to five different antibiotics. Fortunately, both cases were eventually treated successfully with an […]

For nearly 100 years, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has held a sword, thought to be a well-made replica of a Bronze Age weapon. A new analysis, however, has indicated that the sword looks quite authentic because it is, having been made around 3,000 years ago. While preparing for an exhibition on […]

Cliff Palace is like few other buildings on planet Earth. Found in the rocky cliffs of Colorado’s Montezuma County, this giant dwelling was constructed over 750 years ago and provides an invaluable insight into how Native Americans lived in the centuries before colonization.  Unfortunately, the condition of Cliff Palace is being slowly deteriorated by the […]

Residents in Wales, Alaska, are mourning the deaths of two residents following a polar bear attack on Tuesday, the first in the US state in 30 years. According to the Alaska Department Of Public Safety State Troopers Public Information Office, locals Summer Myomick, 24, and her 1-year-old son, Clyde Ongtowasruk came across the polar bear […]