Deborah Bloomfield

The halo surrounding the Milky Way contains gas as well as rare stars, but measuring that gas has proven difficult. The interference with short bursts of radio signals from distant galaxies offers astronomers a new solution. The gas in the Milky Way’s halo is too sparse and hot to measure directly. However, it interferes with […]

Recorded cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are higher than ever before and, for the first time, data shows it could be more prevalent in minority groups, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. The new information states that around one in 36 eight-year-olds in the US likely has autism, […]

There’s a new pseudoscience craze sweeping the internet, and it involves inserting your fingers into your vagina and then wiping them on your skin – all in the name of seduction. Known as “vabbing”, the trend has been touted as a cheaper and more alluring alternative to perfume, but can smelling like a vagina really […]

In 1993, Haddaway released the seminal dance classic What Is Love – a sparkling debut, by any musical metric, which also succinctly encapsulates a question that humanity has been wrestling with since time immemorial. Love has been the muse of playwrights, poets, artists, and composers through the ages; many have tried to quantify, describe, and […]

This week, new research finds exposure to cats and dogs in fetal development reduces chances of food allergies, a brand new “Einstein” tile can cover an infinite surface without ever repeating, and we get an exclusive behind the scenes look at the Natural History Museum London’s brand new Titanosaur exhibit. Brightest Cosmic Explosion Humanity Has […]

What does quantum mechanics, the most successful theory ever proposed by physics, teach us about reality? The starting point for most philosophers of physics is that quantum mechanics must somehow provide a description of the world as it is independently of us, the users of the theory. This has led to a large number of […]

“Medieval history” often brings up images of knights in shining armor, rampaging crusaders, and dying horribly from common and preventable causes. Far away from all those peculiarly disgusting Europeans, though, on what we now know as the Swahili Coast of Eastern Africa, there was something pretty amazing going on – as a new study reveals. “The […]

The province of Al-Jouf in the northwestern Saudi Arabian desert is home to 21 enormous 3D carvings into the rockface. These depictions of camels and horses were found in 2018 and first believed to be around 2,000 years old. Subsequent testing, however, revealed they likely predate Egypt’s pyramids and even Stonehenge. Despite extreme weathering as […]

We’ve been getting the mouthparts of theropod dinosaurs like T. Rex wrong for over a century, a new study claims. If any of their victims had been foolish enough to look back while being chased, they would not have seen some of the most fearsome teeth ever formed coming for them, at least while the […]

The World Happiness Report 2023 has been released, once again showing that the Nordic countries are certainly doing something right when it comes to their populations’ well-being. That’s especially true for Finland, which secured the title of the world’s happiest country for the sixth time in a row.  It has been over 10 years since […]

Legend has it that seven Persian princes fleeing persecution once escaped across the Arabian Sea before landing in East Africa and establishing a trading dynasty that dominated the Swahili coast for centuries. Known as the Kilwa Chronicle, this ancient oral tradition had until now been dismissed as fiction, yet a new genetic study suggests that […]

Italy is eyeing up the prospect of banning lab-grown meat in a bid to safeguard the country’s rich food heritage and, in their words, protect their citizen’s health. However, the proposal has already generated some criticism from folks concerned with sustainability and food security.  Italy’s Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, led the call this week, […]

Last week, asteroid 2023 DZ2 flew by Earth at a distance of 168,300 kilometers (104,600 miles), roughly two-fifths of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Asteroids often get close to our planet, but what was significant about this passage was its size. With a diameter between 40 and 90 meters (130 to 295 […]

Researchers have created the “lightest paint in the world”, but not in the way you might expect. While others battle for brighter and more reflective colors, this paint takes inspiration from nature to be incredibly lightweight, needing just a fraction of the normal amount of paint to cover the same area.  The new paint doesn’t […]

Around Antarctica, 250 trillion tons of cold water sink to the bottom of the ocean each year, but global warming is starting to affect that astonishing figure. The downward conveyor sets in train a process that affects every part of the oceans, to our immense benefit, so evidence the rate could almost halve in three […]

A term you must add to your mental encyclopedia of strange medical conditions is foot orgasm syndrome. It needs little introduction as it is pretty much exactly as it first sounds: the sensation of a sexual orgasm in the foot. Interestingly, however, the rare condition may perhaps explain how foot fetishes are the result of […]

Mountain lions (Puma concolor), aka pumas, might have a reputation for a lot of things, but gardening isn’t typically one of them. Now, new research has revealed that nutrients deposited in the soil from mountain lion kills may help improve plant quality and therefore attract ungulates to feed in these areas, helping the mountain lions […]

Why do some memories stay with us while others drift away? New research decided to explore the neuroscience that underpins this concept in a study that got mice playing virtual reality (VR) games while they observed their brain activity. It revealed a region of the brain not typically linked to memory retention can play a […]

In the 1970s and 80s, geologists noticed unusual layers deposited in ancient rocks, dating to around 232-4 million years ago. In the Eastern Alps, one team investigated a layer of siliclastic sedimentation deposited in carbonate. Meanwhile, in the UK, geologist and forensic scientist Alastair Ruffell examined a layer of gray rock found inside the famous […]

A federal judge has left little unsaid in her ruling that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) acted unlawfully when it denied a petition to improve the treatment of primates used in research. The ruling indicates that increased regulatory attention may now be given to laboratories using non-human primates, and may possibly extend to […]