Deborah Bloomfield

A comet that will make a (somewhat) close approach to the Earth in September 2024 is already creating excitement among amateur astronomers. Comets are unpredictable beasts, and a great many have proven disappointing – but C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has many of the characteristics required to put on the best display for at least a decade. […]

Feeling sleepy in the morning is not a rare feeling – we’ve all woken up, smacked the snooze button, and gone back down for a top-up sleep. However, some people go beyond this and feel like they can’t physically get up for an hour or more after waking – this could indicate dysania.  Dysania is […]

Relativity Space’s Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed rocket, will be launched for the very first time on Wednesday, March 8, and you can watch the whole event being live-streamed in the video player below. If the launch is a success, it will become the largest 3D-printed object to achieve orbital flight.   Dubbed “Good Luck, […]

Scientists recently discovered a fungus-killing molecule so good at its job, it was named after everyone’s favorite Hollywood assassin Keanu Reeves. Named keanumycins, they are incredibly potent against fungi that both kill crops and infect humans, adding a new weapon to the very limited arsenal of fungicides currently available.   According to the researchers, they […]

Here’s a fun hypothetical: what would happen if everyone on the planet jumped at the exact same time? Could the Earth move, or – as legend has it – could our planet’s rotation even slow down? Unfortunately, given the insurmountable problems in choreographing the event, we cannot say for certain what would happen. However, a […]

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has delivered incredible insights into the Red Planet, often capturing intriguing images of landscapes that don’t have any earthly comparisons. As a frigid desert, Mars has its share of sandy dunes that under certain conditions create curious shapes. The latest image, captured just a few months ago, shows unusual dunes […]

If everything people had said about the music of Mozart was true, the man would be a bona fide miracle-worker. After all, listening to the guy’s tunes has been said to increase intelligence for adults, children, and fetuses alike; it can supposedly make cows produce more milk and chickens lay tastier eggs; even single-celled organisms […]

Water on Earth is believed to have been brought by comets, colliding with our fledgling planet billions of years ago. But that water did not form with the rest of the solar system. Researchers believe that it was already a component of the pre-solar nebula.   To understand the origins of water on Earth, researchers […]

What with all that’s going on [gestures generally at the world] you probably have enough to worry about, but a new experiment has looked at the catastrophic effect a hypothetical planet would have on the solar system and Earth. In our solar system, there is a big gap in size between terrestrial planets (rocky worlds, […]

The “Geological Wizard” William Buckland was arguably one of the most eccentric scientists in history. He began his career focused on rocks, minerals, and fossils, but in his spare time enjoyed some adventurous gastronomical exploration in effectively eating his way through the animal kingdom.  If reports are to be believed, that included gorging on everything […]

As comedian Spike Milligan famously quipped, “Money can’t buy you happiness – but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.” The first half of that, of course, is total bunk: having money can, in fact, make you much happier than not having it. But what about the rest of it? Are the super-rich […]

The big picture of Earth’s geologic history over the last 2 billion years is of continents coming together and then breaking apart every 600 million years or so. A future rejoining is inevitable, but geologists have long debated whether it will occur when the Americas’ west coasts run into Asia, or if their east coasts […]

One of NASA’s pioneering women astronauts has given a talk to inspire girls interested in science, and specifically space exploration. Susan Kilrain returned the shuttle safely after a potentially dangerous fuel cell failure, so she has a powerful story – but there is considerable irony in her telling it in a place that only allowed […]

Buried at the back of a cave in southwest France lies what may be Europe’s first ever murder victim. According to a new analysis of the departed’s battered skull, the assassination was probably achieved with a blunt object such as a stone axe, and the target may have taken up to a month to die […]

Children’s development is not negatively impacted by having same-sex parents compared to heterosexual parents and the child may even be better off, according to new research. The analysis, which covered 34 previous studies, backs up previous findings that children can flourish under both same- and different-sex families, disputing the idea that it damages their development.  […]

Have you ever wondered how much saliva you produce in an hour? How about a day, or a year? Hey, let’s go all in, how about in the average lifetime? Well, the answer is pretty surprising. On a normal day, the average person produces between 0.5 and 1.5 liters of saliva – that’s more than […]

Are you scared of clowns? You are not alone. Coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, is a widely acknowledged phenomenon. Studies indicate this fear is present among both adults and children in many different cultures. Yet it is not well understood due to a lack of focused research. While numerous possible explanations of the phobia […]

Late on Saturday March 4, 2023, United Nations (UN) member states finally agreed the legal framework for a treaty designed to protect the high seas. This development was nearly 20 years in the making and represents an important step towards reversing biodiversity loss and ensuring sustainable development. However, it is only the first step in […]

Africa is slowly but surely tearing in two. Like anything in geology, it’s an extremely long process that will take millions of years, but it will eventually see part of East Africa chip off from the rest of the continent, likely resulting in a new ocean arising between the two land masses. The colossal breakup […]