Deborah Bloomfield

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of climate change is that the effects aren’t always linear. Higher temperatures inevitably mean more of the recently escalating droughts, floods, and fires. Sometimes, however, increased warmth can create a tipping point, from which a region, or the entire planet, cannot come back easily even if temperatures fell again. We’re […]

Human bodies are stalked by their own haze of chemical emissions that changes indoor air chemistry, as shown by a new study. While we might be totally unaware of this invisible companion, the researchers believe the “oxidation field” produced by our skin may have an impact on indoor air quality and even human health. It’s […]

A rare piece of papyrus – perhaps part of an ancient letter – has been returned to Israel after six decades in much colder climes. Lost for close to three millennia in total, the scrap somehow found its way to Montana – before a chance glimpse of a photograph led to its discovery and retrieval. […]

Two new rocky super-Earths can be added to the now long list of known exoplanets, worlds that orbit stars outside the Solar System. This finding is exciting for multiple reasons. They orbit an ultra-cool star, they are relatively close to Earth – about 100 light-years away – and one of them is in the habitable […]

The Winners of Bird Photographer of the Year 2022 have been announced and among them are some stunning specimens in all their plumed glory. Each year, the competition draws global attention as it tasks them with capturing aves in artful and unexpected ways to be in with a chance of winning a £5,000 (~$5,800) grand […]

It’s a weird time in the world of chess. When players aren’t getting their fingers snapped by chess robots, they’re offering to play naked to prove they didn’t win against a top chess player by cheating. On Sunday, 19-year-old Hans Niemann took on world champion Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup, and won using black […]

Renowned all over the world for their association with beautiful jewelry and their aphrodisiac connotations, oysters are synonymous with fine dining and expensive tastes. Now, a new species of pearl oyster has been described after samples were collected from the east coast of Phuket Island, Thailand.  The new species – Pinctada phuketensis sp. nov – […]

Fall is almost here, with the autumn equinox less than two weeks away, so it’s not hard to guess why September’s full Moon is called the Harvest Moon. It will peak tomorrow, September 10, at 5:59 am EDT precisely, but if you look up at the sky you’ll see it appear full until Sunday. Many […]

Drones have enabled us to zoom into the sky and get up-close and personal with some of Earth’s most spectacular, and sometimes perilous, natural events and landscapes. From weaving around active volcanos to zooming in on a polar bear town, or simply getting up high enough to really take in the view, they have brought […]

This week, we saw the stunning first-ever images of the Sun’s chromosphere, a link is found between living near oil refineries and risk of stroke, and we learn that the electric car actually predates Tesla – the man, not the company.  World’s Largest Solar Observatory Releases First Images Of Sun’s Atmosphere Advertisement The National Solar […]

The skeleton of a young woman once suspected of being a “vampire” has been unearthed by archaeologists in Poland. Her body was found within a 17th-century cemetery with an iron sickle placed across her neck and a triangle padlock on her big toe, apparently to ensure she couldn’t wreak havoc from beyond the grave.  The […]

For a while now, scientists have known that taking a stroll in the great outdoors can do wonders for your mental health. However, what they didn’t know is why – until now.  A new study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, has found that a 60-minute stroll in nature results in a reduction of stress-related markers within […]

The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device has been breaking records for sustained nuclear fusion for a while. And now, the device has shown that it can keep the extremely hot plasma going with less instability and with fewer impurities, two major hurdles in the construction of a commercial nuclear fusion power plant. The […]

It’s no secret that species extinction and biodiversity loss are making our environment increasingly less stable. As it feels like we inch closer to waving goodbye to threatened animals like the Javan rhino, a question springs to mind: How do we know when a species is extinct? How, for instance, do we know there aren’t […]

In true crime, you get cold cases and then you get the really, really cold cases, like that of the deaths of two mummies who were killed between 740 and 1,120 years ago. While their cause of death might not be of much interest to whoever their now-relatives are, they do pose an interesting challenge […]

Living next to an oil refinery has been linked to an increased risk of stroke in a new study carried out in the southern US. It was also evident that the health burden overwhelmingly impacted poorer people, generally because they are forced to live in areas closer to fossil fuel refineries.  Scientists at Yale University, […]

In the UK, any person who stumbles across a cache of gold or silver from centuries gone by is officially a treasure hunter. This means we’re obligated by both technicality and awesomeness to tell you that a couple in Yorkshire, in northern England, recently switched from being “house renovators” to “incredibly successful treasure finders” when […]

Scientists have found that pairing mānuka honey with a widely used antibiotic could potentially prove to be a useful treatment for a fiendishly tough-to-treat lung infection. It’s only been tested in a petri dish so far, but it’s yet another demonstration of mānuka honey’s reported antibacterial potential.  The researchers gathered samples of the bacteria Mycobacterium […]

A malaria vaccine has been developed by the University of Oxford and it may soon be coming to areas that need it most, following promising clinical trial results that surpass the WHO-required 75 percent efficacy. The scientists say they have already secured a deal that will allow them to manufacture 100 million doses of the […]