Deborah Bloomfield

Walking sharks are taking the headlines by storm this year. While Discovery’s Shark Week shared some footage of an epaulette strutting its stuff in Papua New Guinea, new research has investigated for the first time how these animals’ early life stages may influence their locomotion and found that even as ball-bellied babies they are pretty […]

Wind turbines are an essential part of the struggle for a habitable climate, but they are not without their faults. One drawback that has drawn recent attention is the challenge of recycling the immense blades, rather than sending them to landfill. Although already more recyclable than the fossil fuel industry’s supporters like to make out, […]

Transcranial brain stimulation has been shown to help everything from depression to Parkinson’s, and a growing body of research suggests it could be a massive tool against a variety of neurological conditions. Now, new research has suggested that non-invasive transcranial electrical stimulation could boost the memory of older adults for a month, with possible resounding impacts on […]

The stunning observation of the Cartwheel galaxy by JWST has revealed the exceptional ability that the latest space observatory has. The birthplace of new stars, the hot gas, and the activity of the supermassive black hole are all shining in this incredible photograph. But there’s more. Now you can sit back, relax, and fly towards […]

“Unity Kinkaid finds it harder and harder to stay awake. She now sleeps for almost 20 hours a day. She used to dream; to shift in her sleep, muttering and sighing, locked in half-remembered fantasies. Now she lies unmoving, breath shallow and silent, lost to the world. Unity sleeps.” – The Sandman. Advertisement At the […]

Ever been told you have a doppelgänger? It could be that you had more in common with that person than looks, as new research suggests that people who share similar physical traits may have similar DNA. Advertisement The curious finding follows an analysis of some of the humans employed in Canadian photographer François Brunelle’s portfolio […]

A Twitter post has once more brought the practice of “sunning your holes” out of the darkness, so to speak. In a widely-shared tweet, user moochi posted a screenshot of a TikTok video of someone, with the accompanying caption “people always ask me how I am so happy all the time. Sunning your holes for […]

Carbon monoxide is observed clearly in the disks surrounding young stars that are forming planets. But there is a problem. Theories suggest that there should be a lot more of it than astronomers can actually see. Where is this missing carbon monoxide? A new paper has a solution: The molecule is trapped in ice formation […]

An audio clip recently shared by NASA has captured the imagination of people online and, frankly, freaked them out. What on Earth did NASA share? Oh, only the eerie sounds of a black hole. Yes, it’s creepy as hell.  Advertisement NASA actually released the sonification of a couple of black holes for Black Hole Week […]

Researchers in India are sounding the alarm over what they describe as a new disease dubbed “tomato flu” or “tomato fever.” Causing red blisters that can enlarge to the size of a small tomato, the cause of the contagious disease is currently unknown, although some researchers suspect it might be related to other diseases known […]

The Gospel of John identifies the fishing village of Bethsaida as the birthplace of Saint Peter, Saint Andrew, and Saint Philip, plus being the site of two miracles. A new discovery may help settle the question of Bethsaida’s location, and even mark the house where brothers Peter and Andrew were born. Advertisement Recent digging at […]

Being a world expert in a niche subject can take you to some wild places – pirate historian Dr Rebecca Simon can attest to that. Her expertise on pirates and public executions means she is much in demand, from Netflix to the History Channel, and BBC documentaries to popular podcasts. Author of two excellent piracy […]

Living near a fracking site is linked to an increased risk of children developing leukemia, new research has suggested. The new study was published last week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Advertisement Scientists at Yale University studied a sample of nearly 2,500 children in Pennsylvania, with 405 diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a […]

In 1989, a toddler died of a rare condition. As a result, his mother would be convicted of his murder, and only released after an episode of Unsolved Mysteries brought the case to the attention of a biochemist at Saint Louis University.  Advertisement On July 7, 1989, in Jefferson County, Missouri, a three-month-old Ryan Stallings […]

Russian attacks on Ukraine could leave scars in the ground that remain detectable for millions of years as part of the fossil record. “Bombturbation,” as the process is known, describes how military explosives can contaminate soil with dangerous materials and chemicals and has already been demonstrated by heavy metals left behind by artillery used in […]

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption on January 15 in the Kingdom of Tonga was an incredibly powerful explosion. It produced the loudest sound in over a century, sent a plume of material into the stratosphere, and generated a tsunami that spread across the Pacific. The height of the initial wave has now been estimated to […]

If your loyalty is to mammal-kind against rampaging reptiles, you’ve got one more reason to care about global warming. The reason reptiles, including the dinosaurs, got the jump over mammals and our ancestors has been attributed by new research to a long period of warming, not a pair of mass extinctions as previously thought. Advertisement […]

The latest image released by Hubble is a stunning reminder of just how incredible this observatory is, decades after it was sent to space and without any refurbishment since 2009. The photograph focuses on the core of globular star cluster NGC 6540 and positively sparkles. This tightly bound group of stars is 17,000 light-years from […]

Welsh legend speaks of a long-lost sunken kingdom known as Cantre’r Gwaelod, once found off the rocky shores of Cardigan Bay in the Irish Sea. While hard evidence of the “Welsh Atlantis” has been lacking, a fresh analysis of one of the oldest surviving maps of Great Britain suggests there may be an element of […]

At the start of August, scientists reported the first-ever “synthetic” mouse embryo created without the need for sperm, an egg, or even a womb. These embryos are not viable and will not fully develop into a fetus. Instead, they are incredibly early embryos containing a huge array of cells that can be differentiated into certain […]