Deborah Bloomfield

A man from the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang in China showed up to hospital with severe abdominal and back pain, and a small medical mystery in tow. It was soon solved when his wife remembered that he had eaten a live crab in order to avenge his daughter. Lu, 39, was found to have […]

A new study has a solution to the Fermi paradox, but (as usual) you probably aren’t going to like it. If you haven’t heard of the Fermi Paradox, here it is in a nutshell: Given the high probability that alien life exists out there (bearing in mind the vastness of space and that we keep […]

When Mick Jagger’s youngest child, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger (seriously), was born in 2016, the aging rocker was already a septuagenarian. That’s notable, because – and bear with us, we know this is controversial – having babies in your 70s is weird. We’re not making a moral judgment here: at more than six standard deviations […]

Cannabis, methamphetamine, cocaine, and opiate use are associated with a significant increase in atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat), according to a new observational study by the American Heart Association. The research suggests the substances could increase the risk of long-term heart conditions.  “To my knowledge, this is the first study to look at marijuana use […]

The face of a man suspected of being a vampire in the 19th century has been digitally reconstructed. Furthermore, the work may have pinned down the identity of this mysterious man using DNA submitted to genealogy websites.  Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory worked together to produce the reconstruction, which was revealed […]

An unusual looking species of bee has been discovered in bushland in Perth, Western Australia, with a wide dog-like snout. Given its canine protrusion, the species has been named Leioproctus zephyr, after study author Dr Kit Prendergast of Curtin University’s own pet dog Zephyr. The new discovery belongs to the highly diverse genus Leioproctus, which […]

Whales swimming off the coast of California gulp down up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every single day, according to a new study. Clearly, plastic is not part of a well-balanced diet for a whale and the researchers arre concerned that this literal junk food is taking its toll on their health.  The study […]

Alarming new research from the University of Queensland has found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, activates the same inflammatory processes in the brain as those observed in dementia-related diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The findings might serve as a potential risk indicator for neurodegenerative disorders in people who have had COVID-19 but could […]

Having a baby is a big undertaking, and as such, it comes with a whole set of responsibilities and sacrifices. That in itself may not be surprising news – but what you might not have realized is that many of them actually begin well before your tiny half-clone ever sees the light of day. From […]

In the decades that humanity has actively looked for life beyond our planet, many have wondered how the initial contact between us and another intelligent civilization might take place. A new feature-length BBC drama-documentary, First Contact: An Alien Encounter, goes right to the heart of the matter, mixing interviews with world-leading experts and clever fictional […]

New research suggests that vaping may cause specific, harmful cardiovascular effects, with the authors pointing out that it is not the harmless alternative to smoking that marketing may have you believe. In addition, due to the unique airway irritation and cardiovascular damage that both smoking and vaping cause, the findings suggest that switching between the […]

A worrying rise in social media posts, suggesting that people leave their Halloween pumpkins in the woods to feed wildlife after October 31, has seen wildlife experts concerned. Thousands of discarded pumpkins are left in woods across Britain, according to The Telegraph. While well-meaning pumpkin carvers might think they are doing the local fauna a […]

A child who had the honor of being made into a trophy head by the ancient Nazca culture of southern Peru was drugged up on a mescaline-containing cactus prior to being sacrificed, a new analysis has revealed. The same study also found evidence of ayahuasca use among other mummified individuals from the Early Nazca Period […]

For centuries empires were the dominant form of political organisation. In the west there is some degree of familiarity with the British, French and German empires, and the empires of Spain and Portugal. Not to mention the Romans or the Greeks. But one empire that sometimes gets forgotten, outside Turkey, is the Ottoman. On the […]

In 2016, astronomers saw a supernova going off in a nearby galaxy. Over the following years, they saw the light of this event interacting with the interstellar dust, creating light echoes of the powerful explosion. This is a very rare phenomenon, and the fact that Hubble was able to capture it is fantastic.  The first […]

The two Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are puny compared to our own, but what were once considered ordinary asteroids captured by the planet’s gravity have turned out to be much more interesting. Now, a view inside the larger of the pair could help us understand whether its mysterious origins lie in the asteroid belt, […]

A common household chemical that’s found in many products by your bathroom sink may be a major driving force of superbugs that are not killed by antibiotics, according to a new study. The research by the University of Toronto looked at triclosan – an antibacterial and antifungal agent often included in household items like shampoos, […]

A man in Arizona has offered trick-or-treaters a glimpse of Jupiter and Saturn instead of candy. Andrew McCarthy, an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer told his Twitter followers with telescopes to “spread the love”. “I just spent the whole night showing trick-or-treaters Saturn and Jupiter,” he wrote. “Watching them (and their parents) suddenly realize space is […]

Permanent bases on worlds beyond the Earth are going to need abundant electricity. Now that a renewed space race includes plans for Lunar bases in the near future, it’s time to think about how we can provide that at a price that won’t scuttle the project. Surprisingly, it seems battery storage for long lunar nights […]