Deborah Bloomfield

Police appear to be investigating the so-called “Tylenol murders“, an as-yet unsolved case that saw seven people killed after taking Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide, 40 years on.  On September 29, 1982, a young girl in the suburbs named Mary Kellerman woke up with a sore throat and a runny nose and […]

Looking at an earthworm that’s been dumped on the street by a bird, you might not think much of the annelids, but the reality is these animals are one of the largest and most successful phyla of animals alive today. They’ve dominated both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and now the analysis of some remarkably old […]

As if there were not already enough reasons to save coral reefs, scientists studying the Red Sea have discovered another one: they can be major sinks for carbon dioxide. Coral reefs grow from two major chemical reactions: photosynthesis and calcification. Reef photosynthesis stores carbon, just as forests do on land, but calcification takes hydrogen carbonate […]

An epic dig along the UK’s Jurassic Coast has uncovered a remarkable find: an ancient crocodile-like creature that would’ve looked a little like the modern gharial. It’s the most complete specimen of its kind, consisting of a partial skull, backbone and a few limbs, meaning scientists were able to name it – something that’s not […]

Back in Medieval England, life was hard. Even if you lucked into the best possible circumstances, your life was doomed to be both short and violent – and god forbid you got sick, because you were more likely to be prescribed salty owl meat or puppy fat than a simple ibuprofen for your aches and […]

Scientists have published the most accurate map of the distribution of matter in the Universe. This incredible achievement gives insights into the evolution of the cosmos as a whole and it suggests that the Standard Model of Cosmology is missing some ingredients to explain what we are seeing today. The matter that makes stars, planets, […]

In many relationships, one or both parties may have at some point wondered: how do I fight the temptation to cheat? The answer, according to a recent study, might be more obvious than you think. Simply putting yourself in your partner’s shoes could help squash any adulterous inclinations and may help protect a relationship from other […]

At first sight, the video below might be confused with an amateur’s effort at filming Jupiter and the movements of its largest moons. However, the timer and scale bar reveal, the darkness at the center obscures a star 133 light years away, and each of the moving dots represents a gas giant larger than Jupiter […]

An ornate gold pendant and chain uncovered by metal detectorists in Warwickshire, UK, in 2019 has now been unveiled by the British Museum. The heart-shaped piece is embellished with red and white floral designs appearing to depict the union between King Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Measuring roughly 5 centimeters (2 […]

An archaeological investigation of a well-known shipwreck off the cost of Sweden has revealed a glimpse into life in the royal courts of 15th century Scandinavia, with the discovery of more than 3,000 plant specimens on board – including such exotic and exclusive spices as saffron, ginger, cloves, peppercorns, and almonds. The sinking of Gribshunden […]

The remains of an elite Maya female with an arrowhead lodged in her shoulder blade provide speculative evidence that high-ranking women participated in pre-Columbian warfare. After analyzing the strength of the ancient corpse’s upper arm, the authors of an as yet un-peer-reviewed study suggest that she may have been a proficient archer, with skills matching […]

A Swedish mining company has announced the discovery of the largest rare earth oxides deposit in Europe, with 1 million tonnes of metal found beneath the ground in north Sweden. The state-owned company, LKAB, is in luck as the deposit is very close to its Kiruna iron mine, which is the largest of its kind. […]

Only seven symptoms can be specifically linked to long COVID, according to the results of new study in over 50,000 patients. The researchers were surprised by the finding, given the massive number of potential long COVID symptoms that have previously been recorded in the literature. “Despite an overwhelming number of long COVID symptoms previously reported […]

Here are a few problems which probably won’t affect you unless you work at NASA: hydrogen burns with a very pale blue flame that is almost invisible in daylight, hydrogen is highly flammable, and hydrogen tends to leak through the tiniest of cracks. “That makes it a hazard, as the element is highly flammable, to […]

An advert for mobile phones recorded in the 1940s has recently been unearthed by Open Culture. It shows a working mobile phone, long before the iPhone or the 80s Wall Street guy brick. The advert begins by attempting to explain the benefits of being able to communicate while on the move. Advertisement “Here comes a […]

This article first appeared in Issue 2 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  There are few simple questions out there that can shake the foundations of science like “when does a theory become a fact?” A scientist like Stephen Hawking will tell you that it never does, that all scientific theories are just observations of […]

There’s no reasonable way to say this without sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but if you turn over a lot of bollards in London, UK, you will find that a surprising number of them are cannons. Granted, any number of cannons above zero is a surprising number of cannons to find embedded in the sidewalk, […]

Scientists respond to handwringing about our failure to find evidence for life beyond the Solar System by pointing out how limited our searches so far have been. Even if our instruments have picked up a signal, however, we may have overlooked it using decades-old algorithms to comb the data. That idea has become more plausible […]

Shark fans, look away: it seems some of us may have been unknowingly eating some of the oceans’ most remarkable and endangered apex predators. A new study used DNA barcoding to analyze the contents of “flake” –  an umbrella term used for fish fillets – sold across South Australia, and found that much of the […]