Deborah Bloomfield

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcanic eruption which happened on January 15 2022, has broken another record, knocking the previous record holder, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, off the top spot for highest plume ever recorded. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai reached heights of 57 kilometers (34 miles), more than 17 kilometers (11 miles) clear of the previous […]

In the grand scheme of things, cosmos-wise, Mars is relatively young (a mere 4.6 billion years old to the universe’s 13.7 billion), which means it could still be in its pimply phase, as it appears in new NASA images. However, what may look like a spot of acne or a hormonal breakout on the Red […]

An extremely rare genetic condition that has never been seen before caused a Spanish woman to developed 12 different types of tumor before the age of 30, say the authors of a new study. Now aged 36, the patient has been disease-free since 2014, when a tumor was surgically removed from her colon. Born in […]

One hundred years ago on this day, November 4, the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered. Egyptian workers (and possibly a single boy working away from the main area) found the steps to this extremely well-concealed tomb. This archaeological dig was led by British Egyptologist Howard Carter with the patronage of George Herbert, 5th Earl […]

The simple mention of the word “radiation” often evokes fear in people. For others, it’s fun to think a little exposure to radiation could turn you into the next superhero, just like the Hulk. But is it true basically everything around us is radioactive, even the food we eat? You may have heard bananas are […]

Space startup Rocket Lab is all set to pull off its latest feat today: using a helicopter to catch a rocket booster in mid-air as it plummets back to Earth. The launch window for the “Catch Me If You Can” mission opens today, November 4, between 5:15-6:30 pm UTC (1:15-2:30 pm EST). Best of all, […]

As a kid, were you more empathetic and aware of your emotions than others? Did you like music and art – even if your potential in those areas was never fully reached? Were you a free and independent thinker, an outsider, sometimes feeling hemmed in by external authority? If so, some may have labeled you […]

One of the world’s most advanced telescopes has been hacked and taken offline, with all astronomical observations suspended, but the motive of the intruders – and when it will be back up and running – remains unclear.  On Wednesday, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile announced they had been hit by a cyberattack […]

An autonomous Black Hawk helicopter has cracked on with its latest test flight and shown it safely and reliably perform cargo resupply missions – all without the need for human pilots.  In mid-October, the helicopter managed to fly without any crew onboard for 133 kilometers (83 miles) around the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona while […]

What and how we eat plays a huge role in keeping us healthy. How our diet can help us when we are fighting off diseases is also vital but not discussed enough. Host Dr Alfredo Carpineti is joined by Dr William Li, physician, scientist, President and Medical Director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, and author of Eat […]

Messier 77, also known as NGC 1068, is one of the most studied galaxies outside our own, but it can still surprise. Beloved by amateur astronomers for its beautiful spiral shape, Messier 77 has been revealed to be producing many high-energy neutrinos. To find this out researchers had to go, not into space or to […]

A surprising correlation between smoking cannabis and creativity levels has been found by new research, indicating that the drug has no effect on creative thought – but does impact how creative the user sees themselves and others. A team of researchers carried out a number of experiments into how moderate everyday cannabis use can affect […]

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been fully cut off from the power grid following shelling by Russian forces, leaving it to rely on backup diesel generators, according to the Ukrainian State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company “Energoatom”. The company said that the last lines connecting the power station to the grid were damaged […]

There are subreddits for just about everything, from one dedicated to loooooong furbies to one created by a community that likes to staple bread to trees. One that stands out is “nofap“, which acts as a sort of support group for people who (for one reason or another) have chosen to stop masturbating. People in […]

A single dose of psilocybin – the psychedelic compound that puts the “magic” in magic mushrooms – has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of depression in people who had previously not benefited from treatment.  In the largest study of its kind to date, scientists from Kings College London studied a group of over 200 […]

Buried beneath a gravel road in a Finnish forest, archaeologists have discovered tooth fragments belonging to a child that lived some 6,000 years ago in the Mesolithic period. And while none of the youngster’s bones survived the intervening millennia, a few animal furs and bird feathers were retrieved from the grave, providing some fascinating insights […]

Take a look at any overhead power lines in the US and you’ll perhaps see a number of big yellow, orange, red, or white balls gripping the wires. Some people have speculated that they are weights for the lines, weather sensors, or even surveillance systems. However, none of these guesses are correct.  Along with jazzing […]

Last month, we discovered that a bunch of people were convinced of time travel due to a 1937 painting appearing to depict a man holding a cell phone, and reacting like he’d seen a really bad tweet. This month is following in a similar fashion, with people convinced that a 1938 video shows a woman […]