Deborah Bloomfield

Swearing was long dismissed as a topic of serious research because it was assumed to be simply a sign of aggression, weak language proficiency or even low intelligence. We now have quite a lot of evidence that challenges this view, prompting us to reconsider the nature – and power – of swearing. Whether we are […]

One of the most important qualities for a young person to develop is resilience. This involves their ability to overcome adversity. Resilience is perhaps more important now than ever. Today’s young people have been facing adversity on a mass-scale, thanks to COVID and all the disruptions to their education and social, home and working lives. […]

Fuelled by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of pathogenic fungi is on the rise. Despite the growing risk, the world spends a minuscule amount of money on fungal disease research funding compared to bacterial, parasitic, or viral diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that needs to change, publishing its first-ever list […]

The study of exoplanets, worlds which orbit stars other than our sun, is currently being transformed by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We will shortly gain our first insight into conditions on rocky, potentially Earth-like worlds beyond our solar system. One of these distant worlds might host life. But could we detect it? […]

When stars with a mass between 10 and 25 times that of the Sun go supernova, they leave behind a neutron star: an object so dense that a teaspoon of its material weighs like a mountain. Astronomers report new measurements of HESS J1731-347, a record-breaking neutron star. With an estimated mass of just 0.77 times […]

The shortlist for the prestigious Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa has welcomed finalist David Daballen, Samburu Operations Director at Save The Elephants, Kenya. Over the last two decades, he has been an ambassador and warrior for elephants, an endeavor that’s seen him wade into crocodile territory to keep sleepy trunks out of river water. […]

In 2008, Beijing had some of the worst air pollution in the world. The city’s US embassy acquired a monitor capable of giving up-to-the-minute information on the concentration of ozone and PM2.5 particulates in the air. Then, it started doing something that seems small – but, if one study is right, turned out to be […]

Astronomers have performed the most precise measurement of the composition of the universe yet using decades of supernovae observations. However, this comprehensive analysis still can’t answer one of the most curious discrepancies in astronomy. Most of our universe is made of invisible components, dark energy and dark matter. According to the new analysis, dark energy […]

New research showing SARS-CoV-2 destroys connections between nerve cells in a mini-brain organoid may be part of the puzzle of why COVID-19 infections can have such a profound impact on the brain. Some of the observations bared some similarity to those seen during Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease development. Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden created […]

The more you look, the more you find. And that includes record-breaking intergalactic structures. The famous Stephan’s quintet is a group of galaxies was first discovered in 1877 and it continues to hold fascination. It was one of the first targets of JWST’s science mission. Now, FAST, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, has revealed even […]

Advanced life on Earth depends on the ozone layer, which shields us from lethal ultraviolet radiation. Yet even after nearly destroying this planetary armor and then saving it in the nick of time, there’s still a surprising amount we don’t know about it. One team of researchers found auroras can quite literally shed light on […]

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may not be the most palatable of treatment options, but new research indicates that the seizure-inducing technique may be more effective than ketamine at alleviating depression. Researchers pooled data from six separate studies, finding that ECT was in fact superior to ketamine in every trial they looked at. Over the past few […]

In today’s tech world, you need to protect yourself and your team from security breaches and unauthorized data access. Your files need to be secure and protected at all times, they are your bread and butter after all. If you’ve been looking for a private cloud service that protects users’ right to privacy, then you’ve […]

Some 500 meters (1,640 feet) beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean, scientists have discovered a vibrant new ecosystem, bustling with predatory sharks, schools of fish, and teeny aquatic organisms.  The “oasis of life” was recently found near the Maldives during an expedition by the Nekton Maldives Mission involving the Government of Maldives, the non-profit […]

It seems every other week, scientists and engineers try to come up with a better version of a robot claw machine – they’ve even tried using dead spiders. The latest offering in the wild world of robotics has seen researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) develop a new […]

If you’re sitting at your desk at work right now, there’s a good chance you’re feeling underappreciated. Of course, there are many reasons why an employee might feel a company isn’t feeding into their personal satisfaction, but you’d be amazed at how little it can take to change that impression. It often boils down to […]

As every dog lover knows, you’re going to get the odd lick across the face from your furry friend. This isn’t going to cause any problems aside from an unpleasantly sticky face in the overwhelming majority of occasions, but it has the potential to cause some very irksome complications in certain cases.   An elderly […]

The transmission of information is the lifeblood of humanity and we have been able to do it faster and faster. The latest record is so mind-bogglingly fast that to comprehend it, we ought to compare it to the whole internet. Using a single laser and a single optical chip, researchers were able to transmit 1.8 […]

Usnea, also known as beard lichens, is a group of pale, grayish-green lichens which like to grow on anything from bark and twigs to gravestones and skulls. In late Medieval times, the latter was considered to be worth its weight in gold as doctors prescribed skull lichens for various diseases, and the nature of the […]