Deborah Bloomfield

Greta Thunberg has said in an interview that she does not want to go into politics, calling it too “toxic”. In an interview with the BBC, the prominent climate crisis activist also described being seen as the face of a global movement as “too much responsibility” for a teenager to take on. Thunberg is no […]

The star cluster NGC 4755 is popularly known as the Jewel Box because its stars look like sapphires with the occasional ruby and diamond through a small telescope. There are, however, no emeralds. That’s not just an omission of this collection of 100 or so stars. Irrespective of the achievements of environmentally active celebrities or […]

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, iodine sales have been on the rise across Europe, with shortages recently being reported in Finland. Here, the government recommended that every household has a single dose of iodine tablets, in case of a nuclear event, leading to the shortages in pharmacies.  Elsewhere across Europe – including […]

Ever feel like your dog is judging you? As it turns out, it just might be since new research has found that dogs are capable of recognizing humans’ competence at completing certain tasks. They’ll even side with the person they deem most capable when food is involved, so you ought to put on your best […]

Right now, Earth is passing through the cloud of dust and debris trailing probably the most famous comet of them all, Halley’s Comet. These cosmic explosions that light up the night sky at this time of year are the Orionids meteor shower and this year it’s peaking tonight and in the early hours of tomorrow. […]

The finalists for the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards have been revealed and boy are they back in all their ridiculous glory. Thousands of entries have been filtered down to 40 of the best and most hilarious image finalists ready to put a smile on your face in their bid to win the grand prize. This year’s […]

Stone tools created half a million years in what is now Poland were probably the work of an extinct hominid species called Homo heidelbergensis, thought to be the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. Previously, researchers were unsure if humans had made it to central Europe by this point in history, so the […]

It’s often a touted piece of trivia that Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. As strange as it may sound in today’s world, it is true. However, it’s less well-known that the nomination was actually a sarcastic joke that fell victim to the quirks of the Nobel nomination system.  Hitler was nominated […]

On Christmas eve, 1617, a violent storm raged off the coast of Norway. Of the 23 boats out at sea, 10 never returned, and 40 men and boys were lost with them. What followed was a wave of accusation, suspicion, and murder that lasted for 40 years and claimed 91 lives. At the northernmost point […]

Police in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, have accused a woman of showing up to an eviction they were facilitating and fighting them using angry bees. According to Hampden County Sheriff deputies, 55-year-old Rorie Susan Woods put on a full beekeeper costume during the alleged incident. Police say that Woods showed up at the scene of an eviction […]

A drug researchers are calling CanKet, which resembles ketamine but has two important chemical differences, has been reported by the Australian National University. The scientists who found it suspect the drug is circulating widely in Australia, and possibly worldwide, but differences in drug laws mean it has only been found in Canberra. The Australian Capital […]

A man recently played the saxophone during a nine-hour surgery in which doctors opened up his skull so they could access his brain and test for the safest boundaries from which to remove a tumor. The procedure is known as an awake craniotomy, and it has historically tasked patients with doing anything from playing the […]

Parts of Uganda have entered a three-week lockdown to help contain an Ebola outbreak that has struck the country. Uganda’s President Yoweri K Museveni announced the measures on October 15, noting that people will not be able to travel in or out of Mubende and Kassanda.  A nighttime curfew between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am […]

North America was once home to enormous ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs, new research has found, and some of the largest known to have existed were stomping around what’s now called Mississippi. Clocking in at 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds) in weight, the “bird-mimic” dinosaurs had little heads on top of long necks as well as long […]

We have bad news for anyone who likes to look up at the sky and not see the words “Drink Pepsi” (for example), as researchers have found that space adverts are not only possible today, but economically feasible. The team, from Skoltech and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, had previously looked at the viability […]

A new study has offered hope that we could be close to finally finding a treatment for a rare form of inherited blindness in adults. Such a treatment has been sorely lacking after recent results have suggested promising therapies for children, but not for adults who are currently living with the condition.   The therapy, […]

Controversy has bubbled up around a recent research project at Boston University that created a lab-made hybrid version of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. The research combined the spike protein of the Omicron variant (BA.1), the fast-spreading but relatively mild variant, with the “backbone” of a more pathogenic strain from earlier in the pandemic. […]