Deborah Bloomfield

Mathematical motifs feature in many of Shakespeare’s most memorable scenes. He lived and wrote in the late 16th century, when new mathematical concepts were transforming perceptions of the world. Part of the role of the theatre was to process the cultural implications of all these changes. People in Shakespeare’s time were used to the idea […]

A plesiosaur known as “Eric” has given palaeontologists a leg up in understanding the diet of these prehistoric marine reptiles that lived between 208 and 66 million years ago. Taking a close look at Eric’s last meal using X-rays, researchers discovered 17 vertebrae of a previously undescribed teleost fish, demonstrating plesiosaurs were indeed pescatarians. Eric […]

“Every once in a while a book lands on your desk that changes the way you perceive the world you live in, a book that fundamentally challenges your understanding of human history.” So began the blurb that came with this book. Aha! I thought. The usual advertising hyperbole, a gross exaggeration. Yet Pathogenesis did challenge […]

From shamanic rituals in remote forests to chemical highs cooked up in hippie labs, psychedelic substances have been ingested in myriad contexts over thousands of years. And with interest in the medical value of these drugs now taking off big-time, tripping looks set to finally emerge from the underground and enter the mainstream.  Yet while […]

Being horny may make people more willing to have sex with robots, finds a somewhat obvious but interesting study into attitudes toward sex robots. The study, from researchers at Concordia University, found that men would be more open to sex robots than women would be, and that sexual arousal is a strong influence on whether […]

As anyone who’s ever spent time with little kids will know, you only have to take your eye off them for a second before they get themselves into all sorts of mischief. As they investigate and explore the world around them, it’s common for kids to get minor cuts, scrapes, and grazes. Most of the […]

SpaceX launched the largest rocket ever built into space yesterday with record-breaking thrust (before spectacularly blowing up). While the historic launch was heralded as a success, it wasn’t a good day for someone’s car. A remotely operated camera from a parking lot near the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, shows a flurry of debris […]

Months or years after the immediate burst of radiation put out by supernovas has passed, nearby planets face a further threat. X-rays produced by core-collapse supernovas can damage planets up to 160 light-years away, according to new evidence collected by NASA’s Chandra Observatory. Although there are no supernova candidates anything like this close to Earth […]

In late January 2022, a mass mortality event struck the long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) population of several islands in the Caribbean. By June the problem had spread to Florida, USA, Curaçao, and most of the Greater Antilles.  These sea urchins live in warm shallow waters and feed on algae. Affected urchins showed problems with […]

Having a tough time at work? Been trying to sort out a thorny problem, or push through a hard training program? For most of us, these are questions we understand instinctively – so much so that we don’t even notice the metaphorical language being used. But for people born without somatosensation – the ability to […]

When it comes to mapmaking, humans haven’t always stuck to the rules: ancient maps were riddled with inaccuracies, and covered with fantastical beasts and mythic places. Take a look at the history of mapmaking and discover what blunders early cartographers made in their attempts to depict the world’s geography.   Advertisement Credit: TED-Ed Deborah BloomfieldSource […]

Amelia Earhart is remembered today for various reasons. She is one of the most prominent figures in aviation history for her trailblazing accomplishments as a female pilot – not to mention being the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. But today Earhart is mostly remembered for her mysterious disappearance after she set […]

We love a good fluke treasure discovery here at IFLScience – and even better when it’s at the hands of somebody completely unexpected. A recent story out of Denmark is no exception, as a hoard of nearly 300 Viking coins has been discovered by a young girl using a metal detector in a cornfield last […]

The second-deepest blue hole in the world has been discovered in the bay of Chetumal in Mexico. With a depth of 274 meters (899 feet), this massive marine cavern has been named Taam ja’, which means “deep water” in the Mayan language. Scientists from the Colegio de la Frontera Sur first discovered the blue hole […]

She is one of the most iconic female figures in history. Her name and beauty were so renowned that Shakespeare described her as having “infinite variety”. But a new Netflix docudrama may have found a limit to that famed variety when it reactivated old debates over her race.   Cleopatra VII was queen of the […]

Throughout the 20th century, it was noted that the Chamorro people living on the remote Pacific island of Guam had unusually high rates of neurodegenerative diseases that had similarities to ALS, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. To this day, scientists are trying to sniff out the culprit behind this trend, but one undeniably intriguing link is […]

Researchers have created the heaviest system put into superposition yet. The crystal weighs 16 micrograms, or about one-fifth of an eyelash, and has been placed in a quantum state that has been popularized by a famous thought experiment: Schrӧdinger’s cat. In the experiment, an imaginary cat is placed in a box. Inside the box, there […]

There is only a star we are pretty sure we’ve got the right age for, and that is the Sun. Getting that value for every other star, from the very young to the very old, is a matter of clever modeling that tries to fit stars into a nice neat mold. And while it works […]

A totally new type of virus has been found living on the sunlit surface of the seas and oceans. Dubbed mirusviruses – “mirus” meaning wonderful or strange in Latin – the microbes are related to both giant viruses and herpesviruses. As such, the discovery might help to illuminate the murky evolutionary history of herpes. In […]