Deborah Bloomfield

Epic images from The Woman King show a powerful Viola Davis starring in a movie that’s already smashed it at the box office with a debut topping $19 million. While the film takes creative license over the true story of the Agojie, an all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in […]

One of the best ways to find life beyond the Earth is to study the atmospheres of nearby stars, a role the JWST was designed for. However, even the best telescope is no use if the information it provides is misinterpreted, and one team of astronomers fears that is what will happen. Life has changed […]

Cat’s kneading is also called “making biscuits”, which is pretty adorable, and also makes you want to just smush your face into your cat’s. What is not adorable are the punctures that may be a result of this, which have been designated the name Felis Punctatis. Cat-related zoonotic conditions can be related to mites, fleas, […]

The world of chess is still going through a bit of a rough moment this month, with speculation about cheating against the world champion, offers to play in the nude, and now the world champion again resigning a game – this time after just one move. Let’s recap. At the beginning of September, 19-year-old Hans […]

The earliest evidence of opium use has been found in an ancient burial site in Israel. Not only does the discovery tell archeologists about the trippy funerals of the Bronze Age, but it’s also shedding light on the murky opium trade of the Levant during the 14th century BCE. The story of the discovery starts […]

A top Swiss astrophysicist has shared his optimism that extraterrestrial life could be found beyond our Solar System within 25 years. This isn’t just fanciful thinking, he believes it’s a matter of probability, our flourishing understanding of exoplanets, and the incredible telescopes that are set to roll out this decade. Sasha Quanz, Professor of Astrophysics […]

For one woman, later life was all but scripted. She had mutations in multiple genes predisposing her to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and it was all but expected that she would develop the disease in her 40s or 50s. Instead, Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas, from Colombia, lived healthily until her 70s with no sign of […]

Ant-slayer spiders (Euryopis umbilicata) are the acrobats of the arachnid world. Found in eastern Australia, they spend the day hiding under the bark of eucalyptus trees before coming out to hunt in the twilight. Unlike other spider species, they do not weave a web to catch their prey – they have a much more dynamic […]

NASA’s InSight Martian lander has added meteorite impacts to the activity it has detected on Mars, having previously detected quakes thought to be caused by the cooling of the Martian interior and volcanic building. Although the space rocks landing nearby have been small, InSight is so sensitive it picked up the seismic waves from collisions […]

If you’ve ever stopped enjoying the weirdly nice-smelling air at the gas station long enough, you may have wondered: how does the pump know when to switch itself off?  The answer is surprisingly complicated. You might be expecting a simple electronic detector that tells the pump handle to shut off when wet, but that is […]

We bring you a rare piece of feel-good environmental news: the ozone layer in Earth’s stratosphere is slowly getting healthier and is on track to be fully healed in around 50 years’ time, according to the latest review by NOAA scientists.  In early 2022, NOAA’s Ozone Depleting Gas Index found that the concentration of ozone-depleting […]

A colossal aspen stand in Utah that holds the distinction of being the world’s largest living thing appears to be fragmenting as a result of overgrazing. Known as Pando, the enormous organism is predominantly preyed upon by mule deer and cattle, and new research indicates that human efforts to protect the stand may be exacerbating […]

Many people haven’t heard of La Crosse encephalitis Virus (LACV). This viral illness is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito – but what exactly is it, and is there any treatment? What is La Crosse encephalitis virus? This is an illness spread by mosquitoes that are infected with the LACV virus. As the […]

Blocks of halloumi cheese dating back 2,600 years, along with a series of other artifacts, have been found in the rich area of Saqqara by Egyptian researchers on the Ministry of Antiquities’ latest expedition. The artifacts were inscribed with an ancient Egyptian script called Demotic, which is found on the Rosetta stone and dates the […]

Time. We can’t get enough of it. We are desperate to make it flow faster or slower, and yet we are reminded again and again to live in the now. When it comes to big philosophical questions, the concept of time and related ideas like past, present, and future are among the big hitters. Is […]

Don’t say you’ve never wondered how many ants there are in the world, or whether they weigh more or less than all the whales. However, rough guesses and back-of-the-envelope calculations can now sit down following the publication of a more rigorous analysis. The work is not merely an elaborate way of settling Internet arguments – […]

IFLScience’s e-magazine CURIOUS is back with its second issue, bringing you more science highlights for the month ahead plus deep dives into intriguing topics, diary dates for events not to miss, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. CURIOUS is the perfect read if you’re after a more relaxed form […]

Reports from around the world have shown how a surprisingly high number of early puberty cases among girls were seen during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody is totally sure why this may be the case, but there are a few ideas that might be able to explain this unlikely link.  The average […]