Deborah Bloomfield

Advanced life on Earth depends on the ozone layer, which shields us from lethal ultraviolet radiation. Yet even after nearly destroying this planetary armor and then saving it in the nick of time, there’s still a surprising amount we don’t know about it. One team of researchers found auroras can quite literally shed light on […]

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may not be the most palatable of treatment options, but new research indicates that the seizure-inducing technique may be more effective than ketamine at alleviating depression. Researchers pooled data from six separate studies, finding that ECT was in fact superior to ketamine in every trial they looked at. Over the past few […]

In today’s tech world, you need to protect yourself and your team from security breaches and unauthorized data access. Your files need to be secure and protected at all times, they are your bread and butter after all. If you’ve been looking for a private cloud service that protects users’ right to privacy, then you’ve […]

Some 500 meters (1,640 feet) beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean, scientists have discovered a vibrant new ecosystem, bustling with predatory sharks, schools of fish, and teeny aquatic organisms.  The “oasis of life” was recently found near the Maldives during an expedition by the Nekton Maldives Mission involving the Government of Maldives, the non-profit […]

It seems every other week, scientists and engineers try to come up with a better version of a robot claw machine – they’ve even tried using dead spiders. The latest offering in the wild world of robotics has seen researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) develop a new […]

If you’re sitting at your desk at work right now, there’s a good chance you’re feeling underappreciated. Of course, there are many reasons why an employee might feel a company isn’t feeding into their personal satisfaction, but you’d be amazed at how little it can take to change that impression. It often boils down to […]

As every dog lover knows, you’re going to get the odd lick across the face from your furry friend. This isn’t going to cause any problems aside from an unpleasantly sticky face in the overwhelming majority of occasions, but it has the potential to cause some very irksome complications in certain cases.   An elderly […]

The transmission of information is the lifeblood of humanity and we have been able to do it faster and faster. The latest record is so mind-bogglingly fast that to comprehend it, we ought to compare it to the whole internet. Using a single laser and a single optical chip, researchers were able to transmit 1.8 […]

Usnea, also known as beard lichens, is a group of pale, grayish-green lichens which like to grow on anything from bark and twigs to gravestones and skulls. In late Medieval times, the latter was considered to be worth its weight in gold as doctors prescribed skull lichens for various diseases, and the nature of the […]

An old enemy has regained the title of the deadliest infectious disease: tuberculosis (TB). The fight to defeat TB has dramatically slowed down over the past couple of years due to the world becoming preoccupied with COVID-19, Dr Mel Spigelman, president of the nonprofit TB Alliance, told AFP.   “We went from what I honestly […]

One of the best things about evolution (other than our good friend the thumb) is how it hasn’t brought about an army of tank-sized cockroaches. Bar a few giants from the past and some freakily-long stick insects, insects tend to remain relatively small – but why is that, and how big is it possible for […]

China claims to have successfully tested a hyperloop-style train on a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) test track in North China, in which a train is levitated above magnetic rails inside a vacuum tube. State-run media outlets are reporting the train reached speeds of 81 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) but the design could lead to […]

Elon Musk is expected to take the keys to Twitter by the end of next week following a rollercoaster of legal battles, online spats, and complex negotiations. Regardless of who owns the platform, the social media giant appears set for some severe cuts to its workforce.  That’s according to a new report by the Washington […]

The biggest spider in the world prowls the Amazon in search of insects, rodents, and even birds that it can sink its one-inch (2.5 centimeter) fangs into before dragging back to its burrow. With a leg span of almost a foot (0.3 meters) and weighing around 170 grams (6 ounces), it’s a hefty arachnid that […]

Here’s a weird mystery for you: between 1950 and 1959, data on black widow bites was collected in the US, during which time 63 people died. The majority of those people were male, and in older studies, it was apparently shown that around 80 percent of black widow bites happened to men. Weirder still, according […]

Patterns have emerged in the thousands of planets recently discovered orbiting stars besides the Sun. So when planets are found that break those patterns, astronomers get curious, particularly when they have been confident in their explanations for what they have seen. The latest rule-breaker goes by the not-exactly rebellious-sounding name of TOI-3757 b and lies […]

An owl has kicked off Halloween by stealing a toy stick horse (also known as a hobby horse) and riding it around like a witch on a broomstick. The great horned owl took the horse from an unknown resident of Eureka, Illinois, before being captured on film by resident Eric Lind. Lind’s mother had been […]

Next week, the Sun, Moon, and Earth will come together in near-perfect alignment, creating a partial solar eclipse as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. It may not be as showy as a total eclipse, but it’s always fun to watch the Moon take a bite out of the Sun. Partial eclipses happen […]