Deborah Bloomfield

A particularly strong solar storm cracked a hole in Earth’s magnetic field this week, sparking some epic – and rare – pink auroras. No, the planet hasn’t been attacked by intergalactic unicorns riding in on a trail of pink stardust, but it does take some unusual circumstances to create this particular colorful light show. The […]

When we think about our Bronze Age ancestors, it’s easy to imagine their lives being an endless loop of the four Fs: fighting, feeding, fleeing, and, uh, mating. What we tend to forget is that ancient people were, you know, people – not that different from you or us. They had besties; they liked to […]

A 15-week-old kitten has bamboozled the care team at a UK charity. Originally thought to be a female, the new tabby-and-white arrival, named Hope, has been found to have no sex organs.  Cats Protection admitted the kitten into their care, and on further investigation found that Hope has neither external nor any internal sexual parts. […]

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken an incredible picture of the galactic system Arp 248, also known as Wild’s Triplet. These three interacting galaxies are renowned for having a luminous bridge of stars between two of them, an indication of the merging process that is underway between these objects. The image was released by the […]

More frozen mummies like Ötzi the Iceman could be revealed as rising global temperatures cause ice to melt, argue the authors of a new study. Previously, researchers had attributed the ancient murder victim’s longevity to a series of happy accidents that had kept his body frozen for millennia, yet more recent analyses suggest that Ötzi’s […]

Oculus VR founder and designer of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, has unveiled his latest virtual reality (VR) masterpiece: A headset that makes sure that if you die in the game, you die in real life. Luckey explained in a blog post that he was halfway to completing his headset (which he has called NerveGear) […]

The COP27 climate summit is underway in Egypt and there have been some potent words to open the show from UN Secretary‑General António Guterres: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.” Not known for mincing his words on the climate crisis, Guterres gave the remarks during the […]

In mammalian social species, conflict resolution forms a big part of life. A study in Italy has explored the role of a third party in the aftermath of a fight – in pigs. A bystander pig can intervene after two other pigs have been fighting, the researchers found.  The effect of the bystander is either to […]

A man living in rural California believes that his house was burnt down after it was struck by a flaming meteorite that crashed to Earth. Bear in mind that the chances of this happening are astronomically slim – but not impossible. In California’s Nevada County, the house of cattle farmer Dustin Procita burst into flames […]

For the first time in British mapping history, the three norths have met at a single place on land. According to the Ordnance Survey of the UK, the convergence will continue for several years, making its way north (we’ll get to that bit) traveling from Langton Matravers, near Swanage in Dorset, before leaving the UK […]

When it comes to the planet, billionaires could be a million times more destructive than the average person, according to a new study. Funded by Oxfam, the study looked into the investments of the 125 richest billionaires and discovered that their cumulative emissions were one million times greater than average, with their investments accounting for […]

In 1980, an optometrist who invented shatterproof lenses for glasses took the next obvious step in his career and began trying to harvest the jizz of Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Robert Klark Graham earned his optometrist career, but his real passion lay in collecting semen. The idea, which he turned into the “Repository for Germinal Choice”, […]

There are so many gadgets out there that offer limited amusement and then end up taking up space at the back of a closet. This holiday season why not give your special someone something that is not only fun but will help them learn too? If you haven’t heard of STEM, you need to catch […]

Hailed as a “historic” moment for international climate justice, the heated topic of “loss and damage” finally made it onto the agenda at COP27. This means that the ongoing climate summit in Egypt must include discussions about richer nations helping to pay poorer nations to help them deal with the mounting damage linked to global […]

A new hub at the University of St Andrews is working to coordinate global expertise to better prepare humanity for a potential alien contact. The work of the group will build upon the current protocols but go beyond them, making them as realistic as possible and ready to be deployed in the event of receiving […]

If you run your own business or need to promote an ingenious idea, you know the need for visually stunning imagery and you know the importance of quality-sounding voiceovers. Visuals are definitely easier to come by than the latter. That’s why you need to get yourself access to reliable voiceover talent that gives you the […]

The inevitability of death causes us mortals a great deal of anxiety, yet new research involving those who have come back from the brink reveals that the experience of passing away may be less distressing than many of us think. After interviewing patients who had undergone cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) following a cardiac arrest, researchers found […]

After taking over Twitter and announcing that users can be pay to be “verified” (perhaps without any identification check at all), Elon Musk appears to be slowly learning the hard way why Twitter implemented verification in the first place. Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced that users would be able to get verified […]

Blood made entirely in a lab has been given to patients in a world-first clinical trial to see how it performs and whether the body reacts negatively. Creating synthetic blood is incredibly difficult and will likely not replace current blood donations, but could represent a turning point in the shortage of rare blood groups if […]

Local authorities in the Dutch province of Gelderland have proposed a novel way of protecting the public from a local wolf pack. To discourage the animals from coming too close to human visitors, rangers in the Hoge Veluwe National Park will be permitted to shoot them with paintballs. Yes, you read that right. The move […]