Deborah Bloomfield

In 1979, a deadly pathogen really did leak out from a lab, killing at least 66 people and many animals nearby. Sometimes known as the “biological Chernobyl”, the disaster was covered up by the Soviet authorities, with the truth only emerging to the rest of the world in the 1990s. According to official accounts by […]

Long before things like germ theory or antibiotics were properly understood, it’s no surprise that ancient peoples had some pretty… inventive ways to keep themselves safe and healthy. We’re not going to sugar-coat it: our ancestors were big into magic. Tattoos to protect women in childbirth, curse tablets, love spells – you name it, there […]

Are sharpshooter insects the ultimate pee propellors? New research has established that these small insects can fling huge volumes of urine a day using droplet superpropulsion. Their watery waste bullets spray with such vigor that it forms “leafhopper rain” as part of an incredible mechanism that conserves energy. Getting enough water is an important part […]

In an attempt to survive the winter months, when temperatures drop and food is scarce, a number of species will experience some form of hibernation. While true hibernation refers specifically to mammals, different taxonomic groups will experience hibernation-like processes specific to their needs, so if snakes don’t hibernate, what do they do? Hibernation vs. brumation […]

When we think about dangerous marine creatures, most of us likely picture a great white shark circling an unsuspecting surfer or swimmer, but dolphins have also been known to attack humans on rare occasions. So does Flipper have a dark side? Dolphins are fascinating creatures. There are 36 species of marine dolphins (including orca, which […]

Hundreds of Antarctic exploration photographs taken over 100 years ago have been made accessible to the public thanks to National Archives of Australia (NAA), who recently released a collection of photographs, glass plate negatives, and lantern slides. The incredible images document early 20th century British and Australian Antarctic explorers, and include some absolute zingers for […]

Could computers of the future run on human brain cells? A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University certainly think so. In a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Science, the team outline their plans for ‘organoid intelligence’, an emerging multidisciplinary field looking to develop biocomputers that operate with human brains cells. Such a […]

A tower of human skulls in the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan contains a surprisingly high proportion of crania belonging to women. Presenting the latest research on the grisly pillar, archaeologist Raúl Barrera Rodríguez explained that of the 655 skulls identified so far, 38 percent had been whipped off of female necks. Speaking at an […]

After a brief stint of Tesla stock trouble, Elon Musk has reclaimed his title as the world’s richest person. The Twitter Tsar was unseated from the top spot by Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, in December last year after Tesla stock slumped in value by around 60 percent in 2022.  It’s estimated that […]

We’re not quite sure why, but there seems to be a resurgence in people attempting to play amateur volcanologist and asking, “Why can’t we just pour concrete into a volcano to stop it from erupting?” The suggestion has popped up on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit lately as a way of preventing deaths. Advertisement First off, […]

Over the last century, the world has benefitted from countless health research breakthroughs and many advancements in medical knowledge. Just in the last few years, these have ranged from poop transplants and regenerating livers to lab-grown blood and a malaria vaccine. You name it, scientists have probably dissected and analyzed it with the aim to […]

If you have been looking west at dusk over the last few days you may have spotted two bright lights in the evening sky. Those are not stars, but planets: Venus and Jupiter. The two celestial bodies are going to be in conjunction over the next few days, appearing their closest on Wednesday, March 1. […]

Over three weeks after the toxic train derailment on February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, a reel of strange and unusual symptoms has started to be reported among local residents. It’s still not clear if and how many of the symptoms are linked to the recent environmental disaster, but the Centers for Disease Control and […]

Over the past few years, images have circulated of kangaroos sitting in shallow water with their heads above the surface, seemingly inviting you in for a beer to chill. Unfortunately, this is Australia we’re talking about, so a betting person would say that it’s trying to kill you in one way or another.  Following the […]

A female orca has been giving a newborn long-finned pilot whale an easy ride in the waters off western Iceland, as if the youngster was her own calf. However, the biologists who observed the event are cautious as to whether this is a case of cross-species lifeline for an animal that would have died otherwise, […]

Whales and dolphins have long captivated humankind but our planet’s biggest animals still retain some mystery about how and when they sleep. Here, we take a deep dive into the world of cetacean sleep patterns. How do whales sleep? First of all, whales, dolphins, and porpoises are collectively known as cetaceans, they are mammals (not […]

The presence of archaic genes within the modern human genome tells us that Homo sapiens once interbred with other hominin species such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, although where and when these ancient rendezvous occurred is difficult to say. Seeking to solve the mystery, the authors of a new study have retraced the potential dispersal routes […]

A new study looking at the effects of carbonated beverages on mice has found that feeding them Pepsi and Coca-Cola increased the size of their testicles and boosted their testosterone concentrations. However, as the authors note, this goes against previous findings that have found harmful effects of carbonated drink consumption on reproductive health. One survey […]

One winery in the South of France has an especially unique selling point that has been bottled up for decades: it lies within the impact crater of an ancient meteorite. After over 70 years of speculation, the discovery was made thanks to a new analysis of the rock and soil, which contained so-called “microdiamonds”. The […]

At the center of the Milky Way sits Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole that weighs 4.6 million times our Sun. It is orbited by several stars and a few peculiar objects including the mysterious X7. It’s possible X7 is not long for this world and could become food for Sagittarius A* within the next […]