Deborah Bloomfield

Have you ever wondered why you don’t see great white sharks in an aquarium? It’s not the size surely, we keep orcas captive – so why not great whites?  One of the last attempts to put a great white into captivity was at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan last year. It died within just three […]

Asthma UK has provided a list of suggestions for how people can manage the festive season safely, particularly if they or loved ones have breathing difficulties. Although much of the advice, such as making sure not to run out of medications while stores are shut, looks obvious once provided, they also warn about a danger […]

On the rocky shores of Gibraltar, archaeologists have discovered a new chamber in a cave system that was a hangout of some of Europe’s last surviving Neanderthals. Among the markings and bones discovered in the newly found chamber, the team hopes to uncover more insights into the culture and customs of our mysterious sibling species.   […]

No one likes entertaining the idea of a divorce, so what’s the main driver of it? Researchers at Oxford University have dug into the numbers and stats filed by England and Wales since 1971, and they’ve come to a conclusion that is fairly unsurprising: most couples go their separate legal ways due to “unreasonable behavior”. […]

A set of projectile points found at Coopers Ferry, Idaho, have been dated to 15,800 years old –making them the oldest found anywhere in the Americas. Despite the passage of time, they remain razor-sharp, and many are even beautiful. The projectile points are not just 2,300 years older than the previous record holders found at […]

Dogs, we are told, are humanity’s best friend. They’ve been by our side for up to 30,000 years and counting, evolving from a few particularly dopey apex predators into the loyal companions of close to half of US households. But in some ways, this relationship presents something of a philosophical quandary. We don’t know what […]

Nothing makes it harder to ask for what you want than lacking the specific language to describe it. By asking thousands of women to describe what increases their pleasure during sex, and creating words for the more common answers, a team of scientists hopes to create a vocabulary of pleasure that others might recognize and […]

As Bing Crosby once crooned, “I’m Dreamin’ of a White Christmas.” But that dream may become something of a nightmare this year for more than 200 million Americans, as extreme Arctic storms now make their way across the central and eastern parts of the country. US residents in nearly every state are currently living under […]

On December 20, 1980, Jean Hilliard was driving to her home in Lengby, Minnesota, when she slid off the icy road and into a ditch.  Believing herself to be just a few miles away from a friend’s house, she set off on foot to look for help, in the middle of a cold Minnesotan night. Her estimate […]

While many modern humans opt for a vegetarian or vegan diet, new research suggests that our ancestors obtained the majority of their nutrition from meat, and only diversified their food intake to include more plants at the very end of the Stone Age. Published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the new study indicates that humans were apex predators […]

There are some things in this life that you just don’t need to know. Why feet keep washing up in Canada and the US, for instance, or that some people splint when they poop. Add to this list the answer to why we all have chin dimples. One TikTok user asked the question “what is […]

If you are of a certain age, then you may have had one of your caregivers warn many, many times of the dangers of tampons causing toxic shock syndrome (TSS). It inspired fear in tampon-using people and, for some, it was thought that even leaving them in for one hour too long would cause a […]

Compared to other athletes, long-distance runners and walkers poop themselves an extraordinary amount.  In 2016, French walker Yohann Diniz soiled himself, and heroically continued, and was able to finish in eighth place, despite fainting several times due to his gastrointestinal distress. Paula Radcliffe stopped by the roadside during the 2005 London Marathon to relieve herself, while cameras […]

The idea that there is a binary between talents in the arts and talents in scientific fields is something that is completely made up. The disciplines are often kept separate as a way to push kids in education towards one career or another, but plenty of people are good at both. And these artistic celebrities […]

At least a trillion insects are killed annually for food and animal feed. Routine slaughter methods include extreme heat and cold, often preceded by starvation. By comparison, “only” around 79 billion mammals and bird livestock are slaughtered every year. Scholars have long recognised that the survival value of pain means many animals experience it, supposedly […]

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has revised its estimates of the number of scarlet fever cases in the country amid a “significant rise” in infections. The agency is now reporting a total of 27,486 suspected cases of the disease between September 12 and December 18 of this year. On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that […]

On December 14, the Roscosmos’ Soyuz sprung a leak in its coolant system. The event caused the cancellation of a spacewalk and left both the Russian space agency and NASA with a problem. That spacecraft was going to be used to bring cosmonauts Sergey Prokopeyev and Dmitri Petelin, and astronaut Frank Rubio, back to Earth […]

Henrietta Lacks will be getting a statue built for her in her hometown of Roanoke, VA. She was a Black woman who unfortunately died in 1951, aged just 31, from cervical cancer. However, she lives on in her cells, and has contributed to multiple medical breakthroughs. Despite this, the tale of how this all occurred […]

A modified drone carried a donor lung from Toronto Western Hospital to Toronto General Hospital in the space of five minutes, with the organ successfully transplanted into a patient with pulmonary fibrosis. Although donor organs have been transported between hospitals by drone before, lungs and hearts are considered particularly challenging. The operation demonstrates drones are […]