Deborah Bloomfield

Hope is not lost that Artemis I, NASA’s historic mission to kick off the next stage of going back to the Moon, will fly this week. Although it is an uncrewed mission, there are some very eager passengers on board, including Snoopy, Shaun the Sheep, and some very NSFW-looking manikins. Among other things, Artemis I […]

A few months ago, NASA’s Voyager 1 sent back data that did not make sense. No, not an alien message, don’t worry. The readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) simply didn’t match what the spacecraft was doing. And now the engineering team has worked out what was happening. The AACS is very […]

Werribee Open Range Zoo, Australia, is putting on mirror week for some of its animals, exposing them to their own reflections. The experience will stimulate the creatures, and also provide insight for the keepers, who are closely monitoring how each animal responds to learn about differences within and between species. Zoos (at least the good […]

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is not a fan of the age-old advice of “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” According to the tech billionaire, “that is a total crock.” Cook dished out his career wisdom while delivering the keynote speech (video below) at the Tulane […]

After Monday’s scrubbed launch, NASA is ready to try again. Artemis I will now leave Earth in a new launch window which will open on Saturday, September 3 at 2:17 p.m. EDT. The window will be open for two hours. Everything going well, this will be the first flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the […]

The Olympics, the World Championships, even the Super Bowl – there’s nothing quite as inspiring as watching the world’s most fantastic and accomplished sportspeople flex their muscles on the field. But when you actually try to put that motivation to use and get down to the gym to re-enact the feats of legends like Usain […]

Slime is everywhere. It shapes the consistency of your bodily fluids, from the saliva in your mouth to the goo that covers your organs. It protects you against pathogens, including coronavirus, while creating a home in your mouth for billions of friendly bacteria. It helps slugs have Spiderman sex hanging from walls, hagfish turn water […]

Lucas, a four-year-old African penguin, has been given a new lease of life thanks to brand-spanking new orthopedic shoes. Designed by Thera-Paw, a company that specializes in rehabilitative products for animals, the boots allow Lucas to strut his stuff in comfort – and, of course, style – around his San Diego Zoo enclosure. We’re sure […]

Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is doing her bit for sci-comm on the International Space Station (ISS), answering questions that come her way on TikTok and Twitter. Her most recent question is something many people may be curious about but perhaps a smidgeon embarrassed to ask: “How do you handle menstruation in space?” Before breaking down the […]

When galaxies collide, they usually end up producing a great number of new stars as their gas reservoir gets compressed by the gravitational forces between the merging bodies. But it turns out that sometimes the opposite can be the case. Astronomers report the discovery of a pair of merging galaxies that have spelled their own […]

A monkey whose species was only formally identified four years ago has joined the 25 most endangered primates in the world, according to a new “Primates In Peril 2022 – 2023” report. It names the Mato Grosso titi monkey (also known as the Groves’ titi monkey) as one of four species from Brazil to join […]

Scientists have used DNA from bones found in Norwich to not only reconstruct who they came from and how they probably came to be there, but to change the thinking on an important event for understanding human genetics. Ironically, the researchers were only able to get the results they did because when they started, they […]

Researchers have conducted one of the most precise tests of Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity to date while looking at vast cosmic distances – and like all the tests before, the theory has passed it with flying colors. The current understanding of gravity, at the level of precision we have, seems to be the […]

Scientists armed with an ancient flower wrapped in amber have discovered that a highly successful group of plants is over 150 million years older than botanists previously thought. By analyzing old and new specimens from the highly successful Buckthorn family, the analyses revealed that flowering plants were likely living it up on Earth long before […]

In a world first, mice with fully recombined chromosomes have been engineered by researchers. The genetically edited rodents have just 19 pairs of chromosomes – mice typically have 20 pairs – and represent the first time ever that chromosome-level engineering has been achieved in mammals. Prior to this, the feat had only been realized in […]

Peace and quiet is hard to come by these days as noise pollution from aircraft, road traffic, and general anthropogenic fuss invades even the remotest of places. Like an endangered species, silence clings to survival in isolated pockets – and may have found its greatest refuge in the Haleakalā Crater on the Hawaiian island of […]

Astronomers might be on the verge of observing an incredible event: Two supermassive black holes are on the brink of a collision, and a new model suggests that this might happen not over cosmic timescales but within the next three years. Observing such an event would provide incredible insights into many fields of physics related […]

A hefty sauropod, possibly the largest ever dinosaur uncovered in Europe, has been found by accident. In 2017, a homeowner in Pombal, Portugal, spotted some fossilized bones during construction works. Flash forward half a decade and it seems it could be he was sitting on a record-breaking prehistoric specimen – living the actual dream. Excavation […]

Immortality exists – but to get it, you need to be a jellyfish, not a god or a vampire. Moreover, only one species of cnidarian, Turritopsis dohrnii, is known to have found the secret of eternal life. Geneticists hope comparing T. dornii’s DNA with its close relative, T. rubra, will help us understand the aging […]

Looking for ways to creatively inject some empathy into your content writing to boost your sales and appeal to a larger audience? If you’re not, you should be. Empathy gives you the ability to relate to your clients and customers. It shows that you understand your audience and can connect on a more relatable level. […]