Deborah Bloomfield

There are now over 171 trillion pieces of plastic floating around in the world’s oceans, according to a new estimate. The news comes less than a week after the signing of the historic United Nations (UN) High Seas treaty, which sought to safeguard the world’s oceans. By the looks of this new study, they’ve got […]

Lake Tahoe has reportedly flipped, and while we’d love to report that it’s just stuck the landing on a very wet 360, the realities of lake turnover are a little more nuanced. Lakes flipping like this can happen episodically each year and are a natural and normal phenomenon that comes with the added benefit of […]

Superconductivity is an incredible property of certain materials with exciting consequences. Once reached, for example, said materials can conduct electricity without resistance, so no loss of energy. But most materials are superconductive at extremely low temperatures. The quest for a room-temperature superconductor is ongoing, and is not without a bit of scientific drama. A few […]

If you’ve been using social media over the last ten years, you may have come across a dubious and stomach-turning claim about the origins of vanilla flavoring. According to this recurrent trend, the popular flavoring – in anything from ice cream to lattes, and a host of other sweet treats – comes from the anal […]

Dormant stem cells in the brains of adult mice have been resuscitated by kick-starting their metabolism, leading to the production of new brain cells. The new study shows how even adult brains could still have potential for regeneration, which could have long-term implications for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. Neural stem cells (NSCs) […]

A team of microbiologists has begun an investigation after an assistant professor in biological science at California State University San Marcos discovered that the beef soup she had been keeping in her freezer had turned blue. Dr Elinne Becket began the “blue soup saga” – or “blue beef soup saga” as it should be known […]

The small asteroid 2023 DW could ruin Valentine’s day for a portion of North America in 23 years’ time. The chance of a collision is less than 1 percent, but despite ongoing observations have failed to drop to zero. If 2023 DW does hit, the impact would be more like an atomic bomb going off, […]

During a long flight, you may have wondered a number of things, like why flight attendants never seem to drink hot drinks, what the tiny hole in your window is for, or why the aircraft crew asks you to keep your window shades open during takeoff and landing.  Well, wonder no more. You might reasonably […]

The mission to return humans to the Moon is moving on to its next phase, NASA has announced. While reporting the current analysis of the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission, the agency revealed when the first crewed mission will take place.  Artemis I was the first test flight for NASA’s megarocket Space Launch System (SLS) and […]

The secret identity of the famous Mezcal worm has been revealed in new research that extracted DNA from bottled specimens. While there are several insects commonly eaten in Mexico, where the agave-based spirits are famous, it turns out that all of the worms sampled belonged to just a single species of moth. They say you […]

A neat new animation from Global Data has compared the sizes of 150 living and extinct animals. Measuring their length, the video includes tiny creatures like bees (1.2 centimeters/0.7 inches) all the way to huge beasts like the Supersaurus (the length of 2,833.33 bees). There are a number of surprises in there, especially seeing where […]

A mystery from the deep just got a little bit less mysterious thanks to the first scientific paper to arise from the Viking Expedition Team. While drifting through Antarctic waters, a guest snapped a picture of Stygiomedusa gigantea, commonly known as the giant phantom jellyfish. Looking a bit like an errant piece of Halloween toilet […]

When you shut your eyes in perfect darkness, the shade you see isn’t actually black, but a deep shade of gray that’s sometimes called “eigengrau.” Although the term isn’t generally used in scientific papers, it does shed some light (so to speak) on how our eyes perceive the world around us. Eigengrau translates from the […]

In an ultimately heartbreaking example of maternal monkey affection, one study has detailed the care a capuchin mother gave to her disabled baby, both before and after its eventual death. As well as allowing a glimpse into what caregiving looks like in the animal kingdom, the study provides some clues as to how such behaviors […]

A limestone sphinx bearing a cheeky grin has been unearthed in southern Egypt, the country’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry has announced. Discovered at the Hathor Temple some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Cairo, the cheery relic was accompanied by a Roman-era stone slab engraved with demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions which are yet to be […]

A comet that will make a (somewhat) close approach to the Earth in September 2024 is already creating excitement among amateur astronomers. Comets are unpredictable beasts, and a great many have proven disappointing – but C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has many of the characteristics required to put on the best display for at least a decade. […]

Feeling sleepy in the morning is not a rare feeling – we’ve all woken up, smacked the snooze button, and gone back down for a top-up sleep. However, some people go beyond this and feel like they can’t physically get up for an hour or more after waking – this could indicate dysania.  Dysania is […]

Relativity Space’s Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed rocket, will be launched for the very first time on Wednesday, March 8, and you can watch the whole event being live-streamed in the video player below. If the launch is a success, it will become the largest 3D-printed object to achieve orbital flight.   Dubbed “Good Luck, […]

Scientists recently discovered a fungus-killing molecule so good at its job, it was named after everyone’s favorite Hollywood assassin Keanu Reeves. Named keanumycins, they are incredibly potent against fungi that both kill crops and infect humans, adding a new weapon to the very limited arsenal of fungicides currently available.   According to the researchers, they […]

Here’s a fun hypothetical: what would happen if everyone on the planet jumped at the exact same time? Could the Earth move, or – as legend has it – could our planet’s rotation even slow down? Unfortunately, given the insurmountable problems in choreographing the event, we cannot say for certain what would happen. However, a […]