Deborah Bloomfield

Flying a kite: it’s an age-old family tradition, so quintessential there’s even a Disney song about it. Many people will have happy memories of kite-flying on a sunny afternoon; but, did you know that this most innocent of hobbies could actually be a hotbed of law-breaking? There are more regulations around kite safety than you […]

We know that weather events on Earth can be terrifying and even deadly. But elsewhere in the Solar System, the weather can get even more extreme, with phenomena that only marginally resemble Earth’s own. Winds that would easily kill you, rains that would melt or crush you, unique lightning, and aurorae that would give you […]

So, the third annual Mental State of the World Report has dropped, and once again we’re all depressed and nobody likes us. Okay, that may not strictly be true: there’s a smattering of good news in among the concerning findings. But overall, the world is in a similar situation to the past two years – […]

The idea of the “Dark Triad” as a collection of malevolent behavioral traits has become popular in recent years and has been the subject of many studies into unpleasant attitudes and behaviors with civilian groups. But research has investigated these traits in relation to military personnel to see if there is a way to predict […]

Dicks! Big ones, small ones, absolutely colossal ones – it seems humanity just can’t get enough of these funny little dangly bits. As a species, we’re obsessed: why isn’t it hard? Why isn’t it floppy? Oh god, is it even summer ready? But for some people, it’s more than just a fascination. It’s a problem. […]

A new moai statue has been found buried in a dry lake bed on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The team who discovered the stone head believes that there could be even more in the lake bed waiting to be revealed after climate change led to it drying up. The statue was found […]

Venus is only a bit smaller than Earth, but the similarities stop there. Earth’s “evil twin” is a hellish world of crushing pressure, lead-melting heat, and acid rain. Now, a long-standing mystery about how the interior of Venus loses heat may have been solved. Astronomers think a feature on its thin and squishy crust helps. […]

Giant, majestic, hairy, and looking quite a bit like a guinea pig, the capybara is most definitely a fish, according to the Vatican.  Capybaras are the world’s largest rodents and are native to South America. Though you might not think it because of their shape, capybaras are excellent swimmers and appear to enjoy time in […]

For as long as humans have lived in close proximity to animals, there has been the ever-present risk of infectious agents making the jump from them to us. This process is known as spillover: when a pathogen, like a virus, crosses a species barrier to infect a new host. It’s not a rare phenomenon; some […]

As the days get longer and the Northern Hemisphere begins to see the first signs of spring, daffodils begin to appear in our gardens, parks, and even in a vase on the kitchen table. However cut daffodils and bulbs sold in shops bear a striking resemblance to members of the onion family, and some worrying […]

Painting a simple stripy pattern on wind turbines could prevent the majority of bird deaths from collisions with the blades, according to new research. The work, which builds on previous studies showing a that small lick of paint could save endangered bird species, proposed that increasing the contrast of wind turbines against the sky will […]

The length of an Earth day is built deep into our sense of time, so much so that minuscule variations in the Earth’s rotation can create considerable problems. How then are we to operate on other worlds, where the length of a day is completely different? The European Space Agency (ESA) doesn’t have the answer, but thinks […]

Let’s admit it: being “face blind” sounds less like a real condition, and more like a hastily-slapped-together excuse for why you failed to say hi to Bill from IT for the third time this week. But to those who suffer from the phenomenon – which is more properly known as prosopagnosia – it can be […]

Take a look at any “great man” of 16th-century European history and there’s a chance your eyes will be drawn southwards to his nether regions, where you’ll see a bulbous mound. Known as a codpiece, this item was a must-have for any serious Renaissance king looking to promote and protect his virality.  The accessory is […]

Buckle up dead American presidents, you’re going to space whether you like it or not. The DNA of four past US presidents will be blasted into deep space as part of a symbolic space burial flight alongside a number of high-flying names, who will all have part of their remains placed in special capsules and […]

In 2018 a whale behavior was filmed for the first time off eastern Canada. Instead of lunging after fish, the humpback whales stayed nearly motionless while opening their mouths wide and letting the fish come to them. Interest from marine biologists turned to astonishment when the same behavior was described among Bryde’s whales in the […]

In 1979, a deadly pathogen really did leak out from a lab, killing at least 66 people and many animals nearby. Sometimes known as the “biological Chernobyl”, the disaster was covered up by the Soviet authorities, with the truth only emerging to the rest of the world in the 1990s. According to official accounts by […]

Long before things like germ theory or antibiotics were properly understood, it’s no surprise that ancient peoples had some pretty… inventive ways to keep themselves safe and healthy. We’re not going to sugar-coat it: our ancestors were big into magic. Tattoos to protect women in childbirth, curse tablets, love spells – you name it, there […]

Are sharpshooter insects the ultimate pee propellors? New research has established that these small insects can fling huge volumes of urine a day using droplet superpropulsion. Their watery waste bullets spray with such vigor that it forms “leafhopper rain” as part of an incredible mechanism that conserves energy. Getting enough water is an important part […]

In an attempt to survive the winter months, when temperatures drop and food is scarce, a number of species will experience some form of hibernation. While true hibernation refers specifically to mammals, different taxonomic groups will experience hibernation-like processes specific to their needs, so if snakes don’t hibernate, what do they do? Hibernation vs. brumation […]