Deborah Bloomfield

Over half of pet owners admit to sleeping alongside their dogs. While there are many benefits to snoozing with your canine companion, some vets warn it can be a risky business, especially in the winter months.  One of the main concerns is overheating. During cold spells, dogs are more likely to snuggle in your bed […]

Having been built thousands of years before anything else we know of similar scale, Göbekli Tepe is a source of immense fascination. Speculation about its purpose is widespread – and as Astronomy.com notes, many of these propose it served an astronomical purpose, ranging from the plausible but unproven to the utterly unhinged. The world was […]

Over 20 years after the wreck was first discovered, archaeologists are about to start rebuilding the medieval Newport Ship. Named for the city in South Wales where it was discovered, the wreck is thought to be of similar historical significance to the Mary Rose – and it’s even older. Back in 2002, construction workers building a […]

Research has found that a short burst of intense exercise may improve gaming performance. The study put a group of gamers through two conditions, one in which people got active before gaming and one where they remained sedentary, and then tested their overall performance. It seems that getting your sweat on in real life may […]

This article forms part of the IFLScience exciting editorial calendar for 2023. Over the last few years, Veganuary has become more and more popular. A growing number of people are opting to spend the first month of the year chowing down on a plant-based diet – a diet that excludes all animal products, such as […]

The Atacama Skeleton continues to stir controversy and confusion. Discovered in Chile’s Atacama Desert back in 2003, the 15-centimeter (6-inch) long mummified skeleton features an unusually long skull, giant eye sockets, and only has only 20 ribs instead of 24.   What is the Atacama Skeleton? The skeleton gained the nickname “Ata.” When the images […]

The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions. Plague outbreaks in Europe then continued until the 19th century. One of the most commonly recited facts about plague in Europe was that it was spread by rats. In some parts of the world, the bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, maintains a long-term […]

If you, like us, have been sucked into Amazon Prime’s new show The Rig, but come away with more questions than answers about how offshore oil drilling works, then you’ve come to the right place, as we break down what goes on on an offshore oil rig. Spooky infectious fog not included. Once a deposit […]

This week, the world’s oldest runestone is found to potentially hold the key to the early development of runic writing, NASA announces plans to land humans on the Moon in 2025, and we investigate Romania’s puzzling “living rocks”. Advertisement World’s Oldest Runestone Found In Norway May Speak Of A Mysterious Woman Archaeologists believe they have […]

Roly-poly bugs, pill bugs, woodlice – whatever you call them, it seems these terrestrial crustaceans may have more charisma up their sleeves than their comical tendency to morph into a living ball. A growing body of research has found that pillbugs may be a candidate for personality, as aspects of their behavior have been shown […]

While the privacy tools we have are rapidly improving, signing onto the internet can still open the door to snoops and criminals. A HideAway VPN lifetime subscription returns control of your data to you, with an easy to use tool that’s always on. Virtual private networks cut off spying and tracking by connecting to a […]

The prosecution in the case of Ana Walshe has read out a list of Google searches allegedly made by the defendant, Brian Walshe, who is facing charges of murder and disinterring a body. Among the searches allegedly made by Brian on the morning police believe Ana went missing, there are queries such as “can you […]

There have only been five Martian meteorites that were spotted as they fell down to Earth. One of them, the Tissint meteorite, fell in Morocco in 2012, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the town from which it takes its name. New research has revealed that this space rock is incredibly rich in organic compounds. Organic […]

In 2012, a team of doctors published the curious case report of a man who temporarily had a heart rate of 600 beats per minute (bpm) – a full 300 beats faster than the theoretical limit of 300 bpm. The case report details how a 57-year-old quadriplegic male was brought into hospital with complaints of […]

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program provides exploratory funds to technological concepts that would be immensely significant if they worked, but have a long journey just to their viability. Among this year’s contenders, probably the idea with the biggest blue-sky potential is a way to get astronauts to Mars in 45 days. For comparison, it […]

The blue whale is not only the biggest animal on Earth, but it’s also the largest ever to have existed on the planet. They can reach lengths of 33 meters (108 feet), and are three times the weight of the second largest fin whales, but how did they get so be so big? New research […]

Ultraviolet (UV) nail polish dryers, typically used to cure gel manicures, could damage DNA in our hands and cause mutations, new research finds.  The dryers are a common fixture of beauty salons – but despite their widespread use and the fact that some spectrums of UV rays are known to be carcinogenic, there has never […]

Whether it’s extrasensory perception (ESP), seeing dead people, or your mom’s uncanny ability to detect shenanigans anywhere within a 30-mile radius, we’re all familiar with the concept of a fabled “sixth sense”. Much like the ability to use more than 10 percent of your brain, it’s become shorthand for superhuman powers – an extra sense, […]

Just like her tumultuous life, the death of Cleopatra VII has become the stuff of legend. So the story goes, the Queen of the Nile took her own life by forcing an asp (aka an Egyptian cobra) to bite her on either August 10 or 12, 30 BCE, after suffering a crushing defeat against the […]