Deborah Bloomfield

A lot of rockets have a characteristic orange hue, and lots of people wonder about it. The coloration is not just an artistic decision taken by the engineers involved – actually, the opposite is true. Having tangerine-colored rockets is the best possible solution when it comes to launching something into space. From the tank of […]

Artworks by Indigenous Australians, some dating back tens of thousands of years, have suffered damage recently from mining operations, climate change, and now deliberate vandalism. Irreparable damage to Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain suggests no part of the country is safe, even when there is no money to be made. For the traditional owners, […]

Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu will attest. So it was hardly surprising that, when a Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist weighed in with advice about how to cook pasta perfectly which […]

A dual-action therapy that may eliminate existing tumors and prevent future tumors from occurring has been developed, according to new research. Targeting glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer, the therapy is designed to stop reoccurrence in mouse models, marking an important milestone in both treatment and prevention.  “Our team has pursued a […]

A novel type of synthetic tissue has been successful in returning erectile function to pig penises in a new study. The breakthrough mimicked the unique tissue needed to maintain an erection and could hold promise for future therapies to repair penile injuries in humans. Part of the difficulty in repairing mammalian penises relates to their […]

Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of gravity and co-inventor of calculus, was born on Christmas day of 1642, but only if you count the time using the now-abandoned Julian calendar. In the Gregorian calendar that we use today (and was used by the catholic regions of Europe at the time), the correct date is actually January […]

The debate over exactly when humans first arrived in the Americas might have been hijacked by some rather handy capuchin monkeys, according to a new analysis of Stone Age tools in Brazil. After examining the Pleistocene era artifacts, the study authors concluded that they were probably fashioned by the fuzzy little primates, casting major doubt […]

The Cassini mission has shown that Enceladus ticks several boxes when it comes to suitability for life. Under its thick icy exterior, the moon has a deep water ocean where hydrothermal vents are active. There’s plenty of water and energy in abundance. This might not be enough to sustain life, but researchers now propose a […]

If you ever get the chance to travel unimaginable distances across the universe by falling through a wormhole you’ll probably never see your friends and family again. At least, however, you may have a chance to tell them you love them before you go. Who says the universe is a cold and uncaring place? This […]

Monday night’s football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals was the first NFL game to be suspended mid-game in recent memory after Damar Hamlin collapsed after colliding with an opponent. Hamlin was struck in the chest by another player and briefly fell to the ground. Upon getting up, he stood motionless for […]

A bizarre fossil of a bird-like creature with the skull morphology of a dinosaur has presented a curious puzzle to palaeontologists. While it’s widely accepted that birds descended from dinosaurs, it’s less common to find entire body parts that seem evolutionarily disparate from one another, but then fossils like this one turn up. The specimen […]

According to special relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light – an object with mass would require more and more energy to accelerate closer and closer to the speed of light without actually reaching it. However, theoretical approaches can extend relativity to include particles and observers moving faster than the speed of […]

Spain has unveiled a new package of rules to tackle the problem of plastic pollution. In line with the regulations, the government will reportedly force tobacco companies to foot the bill for cleaning up cigarette butts, a prolific yet underappreciated source of environmental pollution.  The Spanish Government approved the Royal Decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste […]

Forensic Pathology is an incredibly fascinating field, and IFLScience wanted to delve into the profession a bit more and soothe the furious questions that have always bothered our brains. Who else should we ask than Dr Judy Melinek?  Dr Melinek has a long and extensive career in forensics and is a forensic pathologist in New […]

So, you saw this deal during Cyber Monday, and you waited, and ever since you’ve been kicking yourself. Well, we’ve got some pretty spectacular news. It’s a good thing you waited because it is back, AND the savings is even greater than before. As a part of our Same You Sale, we are celebrating people […]

As COVID cases surge in China and other countries worldwide, yet another new variant is on the rise: XBB. A subvariant of Omicron, XBB emerged in India back in August and has since spread across the globe. A large number of US COVID-19 cases are now caused by XBB and its cousin XBB.1.5. But what […]

A deep dive from Salon recently explored the curious tale of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch amateur scientist who discovered sperm only to wish he could unsee it. You might think it odd that a person be the first to view one of the most pivotal cells in the creation of life only to ask […]

Rats love watching other rats get tickled, so much so that they start doing happy little jumps, according to a new study. When “observer” rats watch other “demonstrator” rats getting tickled, the observers do something called Freudensprünge (“joy jumps”), and regions of the brain light up when listening to the sounds the tickled rats are […]

A new type of quasicrystal, one with 12-fold symmetry, has been discovered in a very unexpected place, leading geologists and mathematicians to wonder where else structures like this might have been overlooked. Quasicrystals (or quasiperiodic crystals) are structures of atoms that lack translational symmetry but are symmetric in other ways outside the rotational symmetries of […]

A walrus on the shore of Scarborough, UK, in December brought visitors from far and wide to view the magnificent marine mammal that was a long way from home. However, late-night visitors to Thor, as the walrus has been nicknamed, got ring-side seats to an unexpected pinniped peep show as it took the opportunity to […]