Deborah Bloomfield

Every year, millions of people around the world make New Year’s resolutions. And every year, the great majority of us break and abandon those resolutions. Self-control is a major problem for many of us, so failure to maintain our resolutions isn’t surprising. But is it inevitable? Is there anything we can do to make it […]

Research has shown that about half of all adults make New Year’s resolutions. However, fewer than 10% manage to keep them for more than a few months. As a professor of behavioural addiction I know how easy people can fall into bad habits and why on trying to give up those habits it is easy […]

On the surface, it may not appear that Dr Dolittle and artificial intelligence (AI) have much in common. One belongs in 1900s children’s literature, while the other is firmly rooted in the 21st century. One is a physician turned vet who can talk to animals, and the other a computerized technology that cannot. Unless… AI […]

This article first appeared in Issue 3 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.   Conservationists based at the UK’s Chester Zoo announced earlier this year that they have begun freezing tissue samples of the world’s rarest animals in an attempt to safeguard them from extinction. Here, Nature’s SAFE (one of Europe’s largest “living biobanks”) was founded […]

It’s that time of year when people make their New Year’s resolutions – indeed, 93% of people set them, according to the American Psychological Association. The most common resolutions are related to losing weight, eating healthier, exercising regularly and saving money. However, research shows that 45% of people fail to keep their resolutions by February, […]

This week, a comet not seen in 50,000 years is about to be visible to the naked eye, we consider all the strangest facts to come out of 2022, and researchers discover that they can see depression on a brain scan.  Earth Is About To See An Object Last Seen During The Time Of Neanderthals […]

From 34 species of moths to three new dinosaur species and 19 new species of stick insects, the researchers and scientists at the Natural History Museum have described 351 new species in 2022 and given them all scientific names so they can be better protected for years to come.  Among the bumper crop of new […]

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and the skies are clear, you might get a few natural fireworks on New Year’s Eve. The Quadrantids meteor shower lasts from December 28 to January 12, peaking on January 3/4. It’s one of the best showers of the year in terms of the brightness and frequency of its […]

We’ve all heard our fair share of conspiracies. There’s the one about the US government being run by a secret cabal of pedophile Satan worshippers, for example – or the even more sinister one about birds not being real. It’s easy to dismiss such theories as nothing more than the ramblings of cranks – but […]

A weight-loss drug that’s been shown to encourage weight loss in people with obesity is now available for children as young as 12 in the US. Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Wegovy for use in adolescents who are 12 years old or over, according to the drug maker […]

Archivists have recently stumbled across a walking cane that’s believed to depict a suspect in the case of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who raised hell in the East End of London in the autumn of 1888. Jack the ripper was responsible for the murders of at least five female sex workers in […]

It’s no secret that removing abortion access leads to an uptick in death rates among pregnant people and babies – it’s not even surprising, really, since by definition it involves removing access to lifesaving healthcare to those who need it. But a new study has shown another deadly aspect of draconian anti-abortion laws: they could […]

A team of scientists has recently headed to the South Pole in a push to dig deep beneath Antarctica and capture some of Earth’s oldest ice. To provide a little snapshot of this important work, one of the project’s scientists Austin Carter, a graduate student at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, recently shared a stunning time-lapse […]

It would be most people’s worst nightmare. In the summer of 2021, as the UK was taking long-awaited, tentative steps out of COVID lockdown restrictions, a man in the southeastern town of Windsor was enjoying his garden when the unthinkable happened. Human waste from a passing plane was dumped, causing a veritable poonami that covered […]

As the old saying goes: you’ve got to fake it till you make it. It’s why we dress for the job we want, not the job we have; why we carry ourselves as if we’re cute (even if we think we’re so-so); and most importantly, why we put on a happy face, even when we’re […]

South Korea has reported its first ever case of, and subsequent death by, the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The patient, who died on December 21, had been suffering from meningitis symptoms, which were caused by the pathogen, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed Monday. In a statement, the KDCA said the patient […]

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that human brain organoids are able to form functional connections with mouse brain tissue and respond to visual stimuli. After implanting the human “mini brains” into the animals’ cortices, the study authors used a variety of imaging techniques to confirm the formation of “human-mouse synapses.” In recent years, […]

‘Tis the season for winter viruses. If you’ve not succumbed to the lurgy yourself, chances are you know someone who has. We’re all used to the idea of testing for COVID by now, but it’s not always easy to get hold of a test kit, and if your symptoms are mild, you might be forgiven […]

This is the story of Captain Schlitt, a sunken submarine, and a very unfortunate bowel movement. In April 1945, just weeks away from Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War Two, a soldier’s trip to the toilet resulted in a Nazi submarine suffering a dramatic – and highly unpleasant – demise. The U-boat 1206 was cruising […]

A widely believed theory about the origins of Native Americans has been dealt a huge blow by a new genetic analysis of ancient teeth, implying the ancient inhabitants of what is now America were not who we thought they were. The theory, largely based on archaeological evidence found at Native American sites, claims that the […]