Deborah Bloomfield

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the Moon, it probably didn’t cross their mind that there was a lack of religious infrastructure and a complete dearth of priests.  However, should they have been struck by a sudden urge to convert to Catholicism and then go to confession, it seems the Catholic […]

On January 14, the magnetic field lines around AR3182, one of the several sunspots presently on the Sun, erupted releasing a coronal mass ejection (CME). High-speed plasma from the Sun is currently racing across the inner Solar System toward Earth. The bulk of it will miss our planet but the wave of particles will graze our […]

A row over gas is bubbling up in the US after new research linked the use of gas stoves to childhood asthma. Yet with 35 percent of households across the country currently cooking with gas, many are now unsure if it’s safe to continue using their gas-powered appliances. Why are people worried about gas stoves […]

One of Australia’s most unusual mammals is actually even weirder, according to a new study looking at how the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) can survive in the harsh heat of the Australian outback. Previous studies have thought that since echidnas are not able to sweat, pant, or lick as a form of heat loss in […]

Stopping use of antidepressants should be done under the care of medical experts and use should be reduced slowly, as opposed to “cold turkey”, according to new guidelines from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The new recommendations mark the first update in 11 years, an important move in helping the […]

Alagille syndrome, a rare and potentially fatal genetic condition primarily affecting the liver, currently has no known cure and limited treatment options – but that may not be the case for too much longer, as researchers are hard at work investigating a new potential therapy. In a study in zebrafish, they’ve demonstrated the ability of […]

An emergency bulletin cuts you off midway through The Last Of Us. A sweaty news anchor tells you that a nuclear bomb is imminent: what do you do? A new study has some practical advice, as it sought to establish the best and worst places to shelter inside from a nuclear bomb.  Shielding from a […]

The collision of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field creates an obstacle known as the shock. On the Earthward side of this barrier, forces outside generate electromagnetic waves, known as PC3 waves, that sometimes reach the surface. Outside the shock is a region known as the foreshock that has waves of its own, […]

In 1938, German archaeologist Wilhelm König found a clay jar in Khujut Rabu just outside Baghdad. The jar was covered with a stopper made of asphalt, and is believed to be around 2,000 years old. But the bit that interested a number of archaeologists and scientists was the contents: an iron rod inside a copper cylinder. […]

Masturbation was once widely considered “unnatural” and is still labeled that way in some circles today. Yet if nature is what is done by non-humans then nothing could be further from the truth. Although presumably not the domain of plants or rocks, self-loving is widespread across the animal kingdom (and queendom for that matter). When […]

The tiny Romanian town of Costești is home to a bunch of rocks like none other. Not content with the typical sedentary life of rocks, these bulging boulders slowly ooze their innards and can even appear to grow and move as if they were alive. Known as trovants, it’s no surprise the geological oddballs are […]

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, and it comes in the form of a single atom or paired up in a molecule. Atomic hydrogen can emit a particular light as it changes quantum state, known as the 21-centimeter line – the particular wavelength of the radio emission (equivalent to 8.27 inches). New […]

The zombie fungus has exploded out of the parasitized corpses of insects and into the world of media, having now spread its spores from gaming into television as it got the HBO treatment in The Last Of Us, which launched yesterday. The original game of the same name was inspired by none other than Sir […]

What happens in the Pacific doesn’t stay in the Pacific. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle describes how a pattern of climate fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean has a global impact on the world – from wind, temperature, and rainfall patterns to the intensity of hurricane seasons and even the distribution of fish in the […]

A network of brain connections linked to a number of different psychiatric disorders has been discovered in a new study. The authors believe that the findings could help explain why so many patients being treated for one psychiatric illness also meet the criteria for another. In the past, technology has not allowed scientists to easily […]

A new magma chamber bubbling beneath an active submarine volcano off the coast of Greece has been discovered. While it doesn’t necessarily mean the volcano poses an immediate danger, the magma chamber’s discovery suggests the underwater volcano has the potential to reach “boiling point” within the next two centuries.  An international team of researchers used […]

Images generated by artificial intelligence (AI) have come a long way in recent years. In 2014, for instance, a top-of-the-range industry-leading AI could just about produce an image that looked like it was taken on a Game Boy color. Now it’s possible to type in a few words, and less than a few minutes later […]

Ukrainian doctors have successfully removed a live grenade from the inside of a soldier, where it was lodged just under the heart. The grenade, which “could have gone off at any moment”, was handled by the surgeons under the supervision of two sappers (servicepeople involved in landmine clearance) to minimize the risk of explosion.   […]

While walking along Red Creek, London, Texas in June 1936, Emma Zadie Hahn and her husband Max Edmond Hahn made an unusual discovery: a piece of wood poking out of what appeared to be an ancient rock formation. The story goes that ten-ish years later, their son, who was clearly born with the merest hint […]