Deborah Bloomfield

The Southeast US will soon be springing with genetically modified (GM) trees that have been tweaked to turbocharge their ability to photosynthesize. The idea is that the fast-growing trees will become even more efficient at soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help ease the climate crisis. The project is the brainchild of the […]

The planet is teaming with top-of-the-food-chain predators, and while humans are easily the biggest consumers we are by no means the most impressive hunters. For this, we must look to the cunning behemoths of the animal kingdom as Kodiak bears and Siberian tigers make us look like puny naked monkeys. But who is the greatest […]

New intelligence has led the US Department of Energy to conclude that the coronavirus pandemic was likely caused by a Chinese laboratory leak, but the White House claims that American intelligence is still deeply divided on the subject.  The conclusions, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, represent a change in the Department […]

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who goes by AMLO), has posted a photo of what he believes to be an “alux”; small mythical creatures believed in folklore to be invisible in general, but that occasionally take on physical form, dressing in tiny traditional Maya clothing when they do so. “I share two […]

For decades, astronomers’ estimations for the rate at which new stars are being formed in the Milky Way have been ponderously slow, but a new study argues the true value is ten times that. If so, it would overturn the way we view our galaxy and how it compares to others. Astronomers divide galaxies between […]

Suffering from long COVID can dramatically increase your risk of cardiovascular complications, a new study and meta-analysis have revealed. More than three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re starting to get a much better handle on the disease which has so far claimed the lives of over a million people in the US alone. Advertisement […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with Cambodian authorities to investigate two confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the country, officials announced this week. But while the situation has been described by the WHO as “worrying”, experts have noted that there is not yet any evidence that the disease has adapted for […]

Red dwarfs are the most common type of stars out there. They are smaller and less luminous than our Sun and live for much longer. They are also a great place for planets to form, but not every type of planet: current models suggest that they are an unlikely place for gas giants to form. […]

New York’s brownstones are practically a city landmark all on their own: those tall townhouses, complete with iconic “stoop” leading up to the elevated door, which are found throughout the city.  But have you ever wondered exactly why they have such a particular look? What made a bunch of architects more than 100 years ago […]

The ego is a difficult concept to define, but can roughly be equated to an awareness of oneself as a distinct entity from the rest of the universe. It’s through this perspective that we all experience life, effortlessly recognizing the boundary at which we end and the outside world begins at all times. Determined to […]

One family in Turkey has a way of walking that almost no other person on Earth does naturally – some members of the Ulas family walk on all fours, using the palms of their hands in what’s called a “bear crawl”. Out of the 19 children born to the family, five of them display this […]

This week, knowledge of planetary formation is thrown into question by the discovery of a “forbidden” giant planet, Google reaches the next milestone in the creation of a commercially viable supercomputer, and we investigate Peru’s mysterious “Gate of the Gods” and the legend surrounding it. Bizarre And Unknown DNA Discovered In Mars-Like Atacama Desert If […]

It’s a well-established fact of life that as we age, our skin starts to become wrinkled. What’s less well understood, however, is why exactly this happens. The onset of wrinkles has been attributed to several factors, from genetics to Sun exposure, and even how you sleep. But what if it also had something to do […]

The standard model of particle physics is both an incredible scientific achievement and a frustrating barrier that physicists are battling against. It has been crucial to understanding and predicting so much but at the same time, we know it is not complete. But finding what’s beyond has proven difficult. The latest measurement adds to this […]

Steel yourselves, Florida: something massive might be about to beach itself on your shores. Reports are forecasting that a gargantuan blob of sargassum seaweed has accumulated in the Atlantic Ocean and is headed for the US state, bringing with it millions of tons of odorous seaweed. Sargassum is a genus of brown macroalgae (the fancy […]

A plague of Garfield telephones was set upon the shores of Brittany, France, back in the 1980s that would last for over 30 years. Plastic landline phones the color of American cheese began washing up in the region in their hundreds, but for decades nobody knew where they were coming from. The iconic Tyco Garfield […]

The E-ring is quite unlike all the other rings of Saturn. It is much wider, roughly the Earth-Moon distance, and much thicker than the other rings. It is also rich in microscopic particles of ice and silica and the Cassini mission identified the icy moon Enceladus as its creator. Underneath its icy shell, Enceladus harbors […]

Valentine’s Day may have passed, but it looks like engineers at MIT have found another way for you to give your heart to a loved one in the future – 3D-print it! Every heart is unique. Not only does the organ’s overall shape and size vary from person to person and change with age, but […]

As Michael Jackson once famously sang: “I used to say ‘I’ and ‘me’/Now it’s ‘us’, now it’s ‘we’.” Yes, we know he was singing about a rat – but, if you find yourself making this same linguistic choice when talking about your significant other, it could be a sign that your relationship is on the […]