Deborah Bloomfield

Swamps typically bring to mind an array of mushy greens and murky browns, but in Virginia, that all goes out the window in winter. Here, a swamp with rainbow waters can be found along the Bald Cypress Trail in First Landing State Park. The curiously colorful display is the result of rotting leaves, and hoo […]

The evidence for the Big Bang is overwhelming, but we cannot describe what goes on in that event. We can’t accurately call it a moment; time as we know it did not exist. Our science stops making sense a fraction of a second after it happened. The equations simply do not work. But what if […]

Over 91,000 people in the US die early every year due to air pollution from oil and gas, says a new study. Along with premature deaths, dirty air from fossil fuels was linked to 10,350 pre-term births and 216,000 new cases of childhood asthma per year, as well as 1,610 lifetime cancers. According to the […]

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are having a rough time. Between pesticides, parasites, disease, and climate change, their populations have been in sharp decline. This bad news is not just for bees themselves, but for us too. Honeybees are a fundamental part of modern agriculture because of their pollination service for crops.  Their diet mainly consists of floral […]

Beneath our feet lies a hidden world of staggering scale, a deep ecosystem brimming with billions of microorganisms. Its astonishing diversity has earned it the nickname the “subterranean Galapagos” and suggests that its genetic richness may rival or even surpass life above ground. Presenting their work at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in 2018, […]

Humanity has collected samples from three asteroids: the stony type, Itokawa, and the carbonaceous Ryugu and Bennu. Carbonaceous asteroids are the largest class, so it wouldn’t be too surprising that both Ryugu and Bennu are among them; still, their similarities might be a lot deeper than previously thought. New research puts forward a bold hypothesis: […]

In tropical forests from Central America through South America lives the world’s largest carnivorous bat species. With a wingspan of almost 1 meter (3 feet), these creatures feed on birds, rodents, and even other bat species. But these giant flying mammals have a softer side, forming pairs to care for their young. Meet the spectral […]

Florida wildlife officials are turning to the public to help locate one of the state’s most elusive reptiles, the rainbow snake (Farancia erytrogramma). This distinctive, nonvenomous species has seen its population steadily decline, with only one sighting recorded since 1969, which has left biologists scrambling to piece together clues about its current whereabouts. The rest […]

A resident of El Dorado County, California, has tested positive for the plague, marking the first case in the area in five years. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. It is thought that the infected person was bitten by an infected flea […]

The star DFK 52 has thrown off 0.1-1 times the mass of the Sun over the last 4,000 years, creating a truly enormous bubble in space in a crowded star cluster. The observations are particularly intriguing because of the star’s apparent similarity to Betelgeuse. Aging giant stars, like stock markets and supporters of West Ham, […]

It’s October 1962 and the world is tense like never before. US reconnaissance planes have just discovered Soviet nuclear missile sites being built on the island nation of Cuba, just 145 kilometers (90 miles) off the coast of Florida. Although the Soviet Union claims they are part of a defensive move against the US after […]

Millions of people around the world are affected by hair loss. Experiencing hair thinning or falling out can be very upsetting, and it’s only natural that people will flock to the internet in search of a remedy. Of course, we’d always recommend seeking professional medical treatment; but in order to offer the best advice, doctors […]

In 1990, the artist Jim Sanborn created a mind-boggling sculpture that was erected on the grounds of the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The sculpture, called Kryptos, resembles an unfolding scroll attached to a piece of upright petrified wood. The surface of the sculpture has just over 1,700 characters carved into it, which contain four […]

Neuroscientists in China have made a breakthrough in combating depression and other mental health disorders by growing dopamine neurons from human pluripotent stem cells that can target specific brain regions and repair mood-related circuits. The cells in question? A10 dopaminergic neurons. These cells are found in a part of the brain called the ventral tegmental […]

The Psyche spacecraft has been steadily making its way to its asteroid target, a fascinating metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche. This world is believed to be what remains of the metallic core of an almost-planet, but the story might be a lot more complex, as recent research suggests. The mission still has a long way […]

The states that make up the USA are no stranger to picking an animal and making it an emblem of the region. There are plenty of great animals to choose from – but why stick to living ones when you can pick a dinosaur too?  Not all of the states have an officially designated state […]

The jumping spider genus Habronattus consists of around 100 species that all diverged from each other within the last 2.5 million years. To breed, the males typically perform displays involving movement, vibrations, and ornamentation. Sometimes the males of these species will even perform successful mating displays to females of different species. By doing this, they’ve […]

With the announcement of a new moon around planet Uranus, it came to our attention that some people are shocked to find out that we do not know exactly how many moons are around the planets that exist in the Solar System. Finding moons nowadays is a lot more challenging than you might think. Mercury […]

An oxide of strontium, iron, and cobalt can absorb and release oxygen, depending on the gases passing over it, with a high number of cycles. This means it could fill a gap in our production of fuel cells that turn hydrogen into electricity, as well as a variety of other potential applications. The rest of […]

For the first time, researchers have managed to establish what looks like a causal and reciprocal relationship between the bacteria in our guts and insomnia. The work indicates that certain bacteria can increase the risk of suffering this sleep disorder, while others can help prevent it. However, the results show that insomnia itself can alter […]