Deborah Bloomfield

Fall, or autumn as it’s known in the UK, is a famously beautiful time of year, as the leaves change color and create a stunning background of orange, red and yellow for all our Instagram pictures. However, what is actually happening to the trees and plants to cause this change? Throughout most of the year, […]

A decoder that can reconstruct people’s thoughts by analyzing their brain scans has been developed by researchers. Unlike other techniques that require the use of surgically implanted electrodes to decipher mental activity, this new approach relies on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings, therefore offering non-invasive means of decoding continuous language. Speaking to The Scientist, […]

Personal style isn’t only about your wardrobe, nope. It involves everything and anything that you can put your own personal flair onto. For example, your resume style tells potential employers a lot about you. From your approach to life to your mindset, a resume can say so much. For example, are you a creative graphic […]

Nightmares can greatly impact your well-being, but new research may have found a way to help people reshape negative storylines into more positive ones as they sleep. The approach builds on existing therapy by introducing certain sounds which can help a person to mold their nightmare into a dream, all while unconscious. An existing method […]

In Nordic countries, there’s a norm of letting babies take a nap alone outside in their pushchairs. Wander down a street in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, or Finland and there’s a chance you’ll see strollers and prams quietly sitting by themselves with a sleeping baby inside, even on a chilly winter day.  It’s perfectly acceptable for […]

With his Twitter takeover set to be completed this week, Elon Musk has outlined some of his vision for the social media giant. Speaking on Twitter (where else?) Musk claimed that he didn’t buy Twitter for financial gain, but he do so to “try to help humanity.” Addressing his message to advertisers on the platform, […]

Astronomers have announced a pretty cool discovery thanks to JWST, coming all the way from the very early universe. The space observatory has revealed that a far distant known galaxy is not a single object but two. The object is known as MACS0647-JD, and the light we can see today has been travelling since 400 […]

The Tusk Conservation Awards for 2022 are taking place this November, marking their 10th year, and Miguel Gonçalves – a park warden for the National Administration for Conservation Areas, Mozambique – is one of the named nominees. Working at the Maputo National Park since 1999, Goncalves’s efforts over the past 12 years have seen areas […]

When galaxies merge, the gravitational fields can stir gases, dramatically accelerating star formation. The end result is known as a starburst galaxy, and the JWST has turned its powerful eye to one of the most impressive examples, IC 1623, also known as VV 114. Lying 270 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus the […]

Aye-ayes have specialized fingers which are incredibly long and narrow, enabling them to slip into small holes and dig out grubs for dinner. As it happens, those fingers are also very good for picking noses. Noodly-fingered aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) are a species of strepsirrhine primate whose closest relatives are lemurs. As nocturnal primates go, they […]

The Cassini spacecraft may have burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere years ago, but its data is still being analyzed. Researchers have now completed a catalog of data from 41 solar occultations of Saturn’s rings (when the rings are in front of the Sun). The particles in the rings block part of sunlight, and this provides […]

For millennia, people have used mind-altering techniques to achieve different states of consciousness, envision spiritual figures, connect with nature, or simply for the fun of it. Psychedelic substances, in particular, have a long and controversial history. But for just as long, people have been having these experiences without drugs too, using rhythmic techniques such as […]

Many across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia saw a partial solar eclipse yesterday. The Moon covered a fair bit of the Sun as it orbited the Earth. The European Space Agency’s Proba-2 also saw the eclipse happening and, due to its orbit, saw it not once, but twice. The mission looks […]

What’s the difference between a coffin and a casket? To the average person, probably nothing – but to funeral directors of the past, the difference was a key part of their marketing. As human funerary practices grew more complex, we moved from the kinds of wraps seen in Egyptian mummies to baskets. However, as culture […]

Step aside, SETI. A strange figure caught in the backside of a car on Google Maps has caught the eye of alien hunters. While we doubt NASA will be too eager to follow up on this tip-off, it certainly is a strange sight.  Crystal Patterson, 45, reportedly came across the figure while searching for a local […]

NASA’s Lucy is on its way to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids but passed by our planet for a “hello again” and a boost. It was the first of three flybys of Earth, which are necessary to send it on the right trajectory, and it took place on October 15. As it approached, Lucy captured a […]

You are more likely to take a trip to the Moon than to see a microbe called Legendrea loyezae under a microscope. Nasa’s Apollo programme has sent a total of 24 people to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. Only four people (including us) have ever found Legendrea loyezae from its discovery in 1908 to […]

Researchers have taken musical notes to the world of pinnipeds, testing whether harbour seals can feel the rhythm in their flippers. While some evidence suggests lemurs have categorical rhythm and other apes and songbirds can be trained to recognize certain rhythms, it is a fair cry from a human ability to discriminate between rhythmic patterns. We’ve all experienced dad […]