Deborah Bloomfield

There are warnings around Yellowstone’s hot springs for a reason, and no matter how tempted you may be to, for example, try to boil a chicken in one of them, we highly recommend that you do not. In 2016, one man ignored the advice and tragically demonstrated precisely why certain areas of the national park […]

Snakes are pretty weird guys – their mouths can disarticulate to accommodate some strange prey, they can have “virgin births”, they’re pretty great actors, and sometimes they’re born with multiple heads. But their quirks don’t stop there: they also have one of the most unique digestive functions in the animal world. Yes, we’re talking shit. […]

Scientists claim to have pieced together the most complete genome of a Tasmanian tiger to date – with the help of RNA from a head that’s been preserved in alcohol for over a century. The potential breakthrough is the latest chapter in an effort by Colossal Biosciences and the University of Melbourne’s Thylacine Integrated Genetic […]

Like everyone else, deaf individuals are capable of communicating both outwardly and internally in a number of different ways – therefore there is no single language or modality that all deaf people use when thinking. The nature of a person’s thoughts is likely to be influenced by various factors, including the age at which they […]

Pockets of ice on Mars could shield living organisms from radiation that is lethal at the surface, while allowing through enough light to provide the energy to grow and reproduce, a team of astrobiologists claim. Whether such conditions last long enough for life that evolved when Mars was wet to persist is an open question, […]

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes; they can be an array of autumnal colors; and, sometimes, they’re covered in weird little warts. So, what’s all that about? There are a few different reasons why your prize pumpkin might have a few lumps and bumps – let’s explore the warty world of winter squash. Advertisement […]

Since its inception in 1974, the Nikon Small World competition has given us the chance to see beyond the naked eye. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the winners of this year’s contest are no different in showcasing the beauty and complexity of the microscopic world in a whole host of amazing images. The first-place winning […]

The US Space Force has made a not-so-secret announcement about the top-secret X-37B space plane. In a rare public statement about the spacecraft’s mission, officials have said X-37B is set to perform a series of “novel maneuvers” known as aerobraking, a technique that uses atmospheric drag to help lower the height of a spacecraft’s orbit […]

It’s no secret that octopuses are intelligent – but are they sentient? And how is that reflected in the way that they’re treated? Host Rachael Funnell is joined by Sy Montgomery, author of Secrets of the Octopus, and Sophika Kostyniuk, Managing Director at the Aquatic Life Institute, to discuss the evidence for octopuses’ sentience, and […]

Sound spreads both forwards and backward in a space, meaning someone standing nearby can hear you as well as you can hear them (even if you’d rather they couldn’t). A team of researchers has found a way to make sound waves propagate in one direction only, which could help avoid unwanted reflections and possibly pave […]

It’s widely assumed that flying poses a particular risk for those with nut allergies as the allergens can spread through the aircraft ventilation system, but a review of 40 years’ worth of scientific evidence has concluded that there’s no basis to this belief. Instead, the authors say, the main focus should be on cleaning and […]

A California-based startup called REMspace claims to have found a way to let people communicate with one another while lucid dreaming. To date, however, the company has not provided any peer-reviewed data or scientific literature to back up this assertion, which means we’ll need to wait for their experiments to be scrutinized and verified before […]

The US military has been left baffled by the repeated appearance of swarms of drones around one of its air bases, and a site used for nuclear-weapons experiments. In December 2023, US military personnel reported swarms of as yet unidentified aircraft flying over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The aircraft, estimated by US Air […]

Not to sound superstitious, but take care if you’re driving under a full Moon. A recent study suggests that the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions significantly increases on nights with a full Moon in the sky. Researchers at Texas A&M University closely looked at reports of nighttime wildlife-vehicle collisions in the state over 112 lunar cycles […]

A new piece of research has investigated the “flirting paradox”, or what happens when somebody tries to flirt with your partner (and vice versa). It suggests you may not want to deliberately try and make your partner jealous in order to increase their desire, contrary to some very bad advice you may receive from friends. […]

Just because a creature is big, doesn’t mean we necessarily know a lot about it. In the case of the elusive, but still 16-meter-long (52-foot) Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera edeni), they are even considered the least known of all the large baleen whale species. Now, with the help of some citizen science, researchers have been able […]

Researchers have uncovered a secret tomb containing 12 human skeletons at the Treasury building in Jordan’s Petra. The Treasury building, otherwise known as Al Khazneh, occupies the center of the ancient city that was carved into the walls of a desert canyon 2,000 years ago by the people of the Nabatean Kingdom. Now a UNESCO […]

It’s a good month for astronomical observing, but over the next few nights, an unusually close full Moon will make most of the other sights very difficult to see. It’s just as well it will be so impressive itself. Our evening skies are currently graced by the best comet for many years and the opportunity […]

World War Two is the deadliest war in human history by a long shot (and hopefully it will remain that way). Estimates vary massively, but many agree up to 80 million people died in the global conflict as a result of armed battles, city-wide bombings, sieges, starvation, disease, genocide, massacres, and the only use of […]

High-potency cannabis alters users’ DNA in ways that weaker strains don’t, new research has revealed. In particular, ultra-strong weed appears to interfere with genes related to immunity and cellular energy production, and leaves a distinct mark on the DNA of cannabis users who go on to develop psychosis. The study authors analyzed blood samples from […]