Deborah Bloomfield

Scientists at the University of Leicester, UK are turning to an unexpected source in their mission for new medical treatments: zoo animal poo. Yes, the waste from giraffes, tigers, elephants, and other exotic animals has been collected, but not for fertilizer. Hidden inside animal droppings are fascinating little viruses called bacteriophages (or phages for short) […]

It’s rare enough to find a plant encased in amber, rarer still to find part of a dinosaur – so imagine paleontologists’ surprise when they discovered this feathery “flower” was in fact a feathery tail that once belonged to a juvenile theropod. The fascinating case of mistaken identity began back in 2015 when Lida Xing […]

A former NASA analyst on TikTok has explained the (hopefully obvious) reason why photographs of our galaxy – the Milky Way – are not real. Responding to the question “How do we take pictures of the Milky Way if we are in it?”, science communicator and former NASA space analyst Alexandra Doten explained that we […]

Teeth and the evolution of teeth have long fascinated researchers in all manner of species. Questions arise, such as why they evolved, why they were lost, and even in some cases, why they evolved again. However, these questions focus on teeth within the mouth – one fish species is growing teeth straight out of its […]

The Late Cretaceous was a time of ocean giants, with the likes of scarily sharp-toothed mosasaurs and ridiculously long-necked elasmosaurs bigging it up in the seas. But while these might be some of the more famous aquatic reptilian behemoths from this period, they aren’t the only ones. Around 74 million years ago, they were joined […]

Pterosaur fossils aren’t easy to find, especially well-preserved ones. Often, you’re looking at the odd bone here and there. That is, until you start looking in the Solnhofen Limestones in Germany. Here, scientists have found almost perfectly preserved hatchling pterosaurs; meanwhile, the adults are all in pieces. The solution to that mystery appears to rest […]

New research has identified a new restriction on the chemistry involved in the Earth’s core, explaining how it was able to crystallize millions of years ago. According to this work, the core would have needed to be made of 3.8 percent carbon for crystallization to begin, which means carbon is likely far more abundant in […]

Eyeless, colorless fish inhabit the rivers running through caverns beneath the eastern and southern United States. Who needs eyes or a flashy appearance when you live in complete darkness? Remarkably, this trait evolved independently at least four times among cavefish, making them a striking example of convergent evolution in action. Scientists at Yale University examined […]

This week on Break It Down: Queen ants are throwing the rules of reproduction out of the window by producing offspring of two different species, for the first time ever we have a complete map of brain activity and boy is it pretty, a new lineage of tropical mammoths have been discovered in Mexico, 150 […]

It’s almost that time of the year when there’s a welcome chill in the air, the leaves are starting to turn golden, and everything is inexplicably flavored with so-called “pumpkin spice”. But what is actually in this ubiquitous, seasonal spice mix? Spoiler: it doesn’t contain any pumpkins. Pumpkin spice is a blend of spices, including […]

Forty-eight years ago today, Voyager 1 blasted off from Earth, beginning its epic journey through our Solar System and beyond. It’s still out there, over 25 billion kilometers (15 billion miles) from its home planet, hurtling through interstellar space at 61,196 kilometers (38,026 miles) per hour. To celebrate the anniversary of the spacecraft’s launch, NASA’s […]

There are a lot of legends about infrasound. It can make you see ghosts, some say; others insist it can make you poop your pants. Elephants and whales use it to chat across thousands of kilometers, but you’ve never heard it in your life – in fact, from a human perspective, even the word “infrasound” […]

We come bearing great news: Fat Bear Week is arriving early this year.  The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. What is Fat Bear Week? You’ve heard of March Madness? Fat Bear Week is basically like that, except instead of a bracket full […]

Artificial sweeteners may be linked to faster cognitive decline as we age, a new study of almost 13,000 people has found. The researchers looked at seven of the most common sweeteners and tracked participants for eight years, finding that those who consumed the most had the highest rates of cognitive deterioration. The controversial world of […]

Since the demise of the dinosaurs, mammals have thrived. Without their scaly peers around, their numbers exploded, they diversified, and they got bigger – but just how big? It’s well-known that the blue whale is the largest mammal ever – heck, it’s also the most massive animal to ever live – measuring around 30 meters […]

The West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington have announced they will be joining up to create their own public health alliance to provide information about vaccines, calling it a response to “the Trump Administration’s destruction of the U.S. CDC’s [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] credibility and scientific integrity.” In a joint statement […]

William Shakespeare is widely considered the most influential playwright writing in the English language, with his works still being studied and performed centuries after his death.  Despite his fame then and now, there are plenty of things which we don’t know of his life and eventual death in 1616. A month before he died, for […]

We’re told time and time again about the importance of staying hydrated – which, to be fair, is pretty reasonable considering that we need water to stay alive. But does the type of water that we drink matter? Of course not – water’s just water, right? Not if you take a wander down the bottled […]

Neanderthals and other prehistoric hominins have a reputation for being bloodthirsty brutes, existing on a diet of megafauna meat and the flesh of their enemies. However, this is a very reductive (and outdated) view of our hominin relatives. A wealth of evidence shows that Neanderthals had a taste for meat but also an appreciation for […]

Typhoon Tip was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever documented. In October 1979, it tore through the western Pacific Ocean, with a swirling mass of wind and water vapor that was nearly half the size of the continental US. Imagine half the country swallowed by a single spiraling engine of wind and water. […]