Deborah Bloomfield

Whether it’s the classic nightmare about having to take a test you haven’t studied for, or the surprisingly common one about all your teeth falling out, dreaming is an almost universal human experience. But while we might know quite a bit about what goes on in the brains of slumbering mammals, birds have so far […]

If you’re confused as to why we have started measuring asteroids in giraffes, ferrets, and other wonderful units then we have no explanation for you. On the other hand, new research reveals that body parts like feet, hand spans, and arm-lengths are actually more useful yardsticks than most standardized units of measurement, which may account […]

Oh you think you’re good at sex? Maybe the best in the world? Well you may finally have a chance to put your money and several other things where your mouth is, because the Swedish Sex Federation is attempting to launch a competitive international sex competition. According to several viral posts and a few recent […]

According to an unusual claim circulating in the dark corners of social media, some people may be aliens and not even know it. The evidence, they claim, is in their blood. More specifically, people with the rhesus-negative blood type may be descended from extraterrestrials. So what’s going on here? The “aliens” did it? A TikTok […]

Ketamine is emerging as a promising treatment for depression in adults, with some studies indicating that the drug alleviates mental suffering in as little as 24 hours. Understandably, however, there are concerns over the pediatric use of the drug, although a new review study suggests that repeated doses of ketamine may in fact be safe […]

A recent Joe Rogan podcast has spawned viral TikTok videos promoting a strange (and false) theory about climate change, first proposed in a book that also claimed that Jesus Christ lived in India for 18 years and was abducted by aliens following his crucifixion. In an episode released on January 18, the Joe Rogan Experience featured […]

Caltech engineers claim to have successfully transmitted energy from solar panels in space back down to earth in a possible breakthrough for the future of energy generation. Powered by an experimental solar probe, the energy was wirelessly transmitted in space before being beamed back down to a receiver on earth, proving that an orbital solar […]

Shirley Bassey sang Diamonds Are Forever and she might very well be right when it comes to the Enigma diamond. The Enigma is a carbonado type black diamond and is the largest cut diamond in the world according to Guinness World Records, weighing a very impressive 555.55 carats or 111 grams with 55 faces. While […]

In further evidence that the proverb “Hard work never killed anyone” is deceitful employer propaganda, a conference has learned the most deadly form of heart attacks are most common on Mondays, at least in Ireland. Although Monday being the most dangerous day confirms what many of us have suspected, the data come with a twist, […]

After two decades in prison, Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned and released thanks to new genetic evidence that suggests she did not kill her four children. Tabloid newspapers branded Folbigg as “Australia’s worst female serial killer.” In October 2003, she was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her three […]

It can be hard to see snails as a threat, but did you know that they’re among the five most dangerous animals to humans on Earth? Freshwater snails claim the most human lives for the diseases they carry, but out in the ocean, cone snails carry harpoons laced with a complex cocktail of neurotoxins that can […]

There has been a surge in brain abscess cases in children in the United States, beginning in mid-2021 and peaking last winter, according to two recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. While cases have remained rare, there has been substantial variation since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a rise following […]

Countries in the Global North have historically been responsible for a larger amount of greenhouse emissions, and there has been a call for them to redress the balance by helping middle- and low-income countries financially towards climate readiness and decarbonizing their economies. Researchers have looked at a scenario where all countries in the world would […]

Biologists spend a lot of time trying to prove an animals’ presence and abundance, but according to a new study the evidence is often easily obtainable in a place no one thought to look. Thousands of air quality monitoring stations are collecting particulates around the world, and these often come with DNA attached. A study […]

The four gravitational wave observatories that are working around the world have so far discovered these particular signals only from binary systems: the collisions of two extremely dense objects, such as neutron stars, or black holes. But singular bodies also emit gravitational waves, and now researchers think that one particular class of objects has waves […]

In the 1990s, Romanian-Australian economist Stefan Mandel and his small team entered the lottery and won. Over and over and over again. The feat, of course, wasn’t achieved through having a really lucky set of numbers. Mandel had a system, which he first put to use to win a lottery in Romania, using the money to […]

In the last few years, there has been a growing trend in chowing down on some chia seeds – normally in ice-cold smoothies or, for the fancy, on top of creamy yogurt parfaits. On some health sites, it recommends that you pre-soak the seeds before consuming them, but, unfortunately for one person, they did not […]

A giant cemetery complex that shows signs of human activity for thousands of years has been unearthed near Salisbury in England, home to the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge. The newly found burial site is thousands of years younger than Stonehenge, but it goes to show how this area of Salisbury Plain once held huge […]

Your chances of being attacked by a shark are nearly zero, according to an interactive map that shows where, when, and under what conditions shark attacks are occurring globally. When you look at the data, there are 100 unprovoked shark attacks worldwide annually, but each year humans kill around 100 million sharks. When it comes […]

Over the last few decades and especially in recent years, peculiar filaments have been discovered stretching vertically near the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. They extend for 150 light-years and they are so thin they look one-dimensional. Now, a new population has been found: they are shorter and lie horizontally, pointing directly to […]