Deborah Bloomfield

In the desperate quest to find a way to avoid cooking the planet, scientists have run the numbers on using dust as a sunshade. They found it might just work, but only if the dust came from the Moon. The idea of blocking sunlight to offset the effects of human activity on the global climate […]

The worlds at the edge of the Solar System, beyond the orbit of Neptune, continue to show just how peculiar things can get far from the Sun. For example, the heart of Pluto, the curious shape of Arrokoth, and the rings of Haumea. And now we can add the unusual rings of Quaoar to the […]

Curiosity has discovered an exciting new rock on Mars, and not just any old rock, a delicious chocolatey meteorite. It’s not the first time the rover has found meteorites on Mars but it makes a nice change from its usual rocky scenery, and frankly, meteorites are cool on any planet. This one has been nicknamed […]

Amongst a flurry of questionable bills being introduced in American states recently, a new piece of legislation in Montana would prevent scientific theories from being taught in schools. According to the Republican that sponsors the bill, it is a move to prevent the teachings of things that “aren’t true”.  It calls into question exactly how […]

We’ve all heard horror stories of a malfunction causing an elevator to plunge into freefall like the Tower of Terror ride at Disney World. An incident supposedly like this occurred in November 2018 at Chicago’s fourth-tallest building. Six people were reportedly stuck after the elevator at the former John Hancock Center in Chicago “plunged” from […]

The lightning capital of the world can be found in Venezuela, where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo. Here, the unique geography and climate combine to create a landscape that lends itself to nocturnal thunderstorms that peak in September as a result of humid air being swept inland, colliding with cool mountain air. Known as […]

January 28 saw a peculiar event taking place above the sky of Hawai’i. Green lights were seen coming down from the heavens. The bizarre effect, reminiscent of the computer-inspired title screen of The Matrix, was not proof that we live in a simulation. It was a NASA satellite taking observations. #SubaruTelescope pic.twitter.com/5hhIsewuNp— Subaru Telescope Eng […]

Red sprites have been caught dancing in the skies above Hawai’i thanks to the Sabaru-Asahi Star Camera atop Maunakea and some eagle-eyed viewers. The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera is a 24/7 livestream of the night sky that is in the habit of catching some very strange phenomena in the Hawaiian night sky. The sprites were caught […]

Here’s a weird question: does your phone weigh more when it’s “full” than when it’s “empty”? It sounds almost ridiculously naïve – of course, a phone isn’t like a jug of water, with each photo or contact adding an extra few milliliters to the total. How could information have a weight? But like many apparently […]

Flip over a wine bottle and you’ll notice it has a large dent on its base. It’s a peculiar feature that’s found almost exclusively on bottles of beloved boozy grape juice, but scarcely on any other liquor bottles.  The indentation on wine bottle bottoms has served different functions over the ages, but today it’s thought […]

Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize information technology, processing problems that even our most powerful supercomputers can’t solve.  However, those problems require quantum computers that have millions of qubits (quantum bits), while today’s quantum computers operate on a 100-qubit scale. Connecting more quantum microchips could help overcome the limitations of today’s machines, but they […]

The Church of England is weighing up whether the Christian God should no longer be referred to as “he”. While the news has sparked blind outrage in the British tabloids, the idea of a gender-neutral God is nothing new.  The church said it would launch a commission in a few months that will investigate the […]

A cache of 57 coded letters, sent over four centuries ago by none other than Mary, Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned in England by Elizabeth I, has been discovered and decrypted by a team of international scholars. Thought until now to be lost or destroyed, the letters turned up in precisely the kind […]

One of the trickiest things about panic attacks is that they often occur out of the blue, leaving people that experience them feeling out of control. A new study – which is yet to be peer-reviewed – highlights how individuals can track their moods to retrospectively identify triggers, and how potentially triggering events in the […]

Many people believe that the richest 10 percent are significantly smarter or more hard-working than people less wealthy than them. This is particularly prevalent among opinions of the ultra-rich, where some look to billionaires for guidance in all walks of life. But are they actually more intelligent than the rest of us?  A new study […]

An extremely large earthquake has occurred in the southeast of Turkey, near the border with Syria. Data from seismometers which measure shaking of the ground caused by earthquake waves suggest this this event, in the early morning of February 6, was a magnitude 7.8 out of 10 on the moment magnitude scale. Seismic waves were […]

The devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday has caused catastrophic damage to Gaziantep Castle, a historic Roman-era castle in Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Region.  Photographs and footage from the scene show large parts of its ancient stone walls have fallen down the surrounding hillside. Some bastions in the east, south, and south-east parts […]

Five years ago yesterday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Tesla into space, in a stunt that even the most hardened Musk haters would grudgingly admit is pretty cool.  The Roadster has since been on one hell of a journey, driving away from Earth at the impressive speed of 26,619 kilometers per hour (16,540 miles per […]

Researchers have crafted an artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of deciphering fragments of ancient Babylonian texts. Dubbed the “Fragmentarium,” the algorithm holds the potential to piece together some of the oldest stories ever written by humans, including the Epic of Gilgamesh. The work comes from a team at Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany who have […]

A natural product made by bacteria in the genus Pseudomonas has been found to have antimicrobial properties. The substances, named keanumycins, have been shown in a new study to be effective against fungi that cause disease in both plants and humans. The rise in antimicrobial resistance means there is an urgent need to find new ways […]