Deborah Bloomfield

Chances are you’ve yawned today, and if you haven’t, I expect you’re about to. It’s a daily practice for we weary humans, but yawning isn’t unique to our species. Far from it.  Yawning is seen in a diverse range of animal species, both those that live on land and underwater, but do all animals yawn? […]

Ask a fish if it has a tongue, and it probably won’t answer – partly because it can’t talk, but also because the question is tricky to answer. Most definitions of a “tongue” describe a muscular organ in the base of the mouth with the ability to move independently, an ability that enables humans to […]

NGC 4945 is a well-known spiral galaxy, about 11 million light-years from us. It has an active supermassive black hole at its center, as well as a lot of new stars being born around it, a phenomenon known as a starburst. Among the many signals from the core of this galaxy, astronomers have found one […]

The lack of a standardized definition of long COVID is hindering research into the condition, according to a new study looking at published work from five different regions. Long COVID is a condition in which someone experiences long-lasting symptoms after recovering from a COVID-19 infection. So far, so simple – but what causes it? The […]

Papahānaumokuākea has been described as “the poster chid for the future,” home to the world’s biggest albatross colony and telling the incredible success story of the planet’s largest marine conservation area. Proper protection has enabled wildlife to bounce back here in a way that doesn’t just benefit the immediate environment, but that has also spilled […]

If the Ten Commandments seem overly demanding then you’ll be pleased to know that you can shave three requirements off this list, as there are in fact just seven pillars of morality that are universally lauded and observed across the world. According to researchers from the University of Oxford, these common rules may have arisen […]

A parasitic worm that can burrow into the skin may help inspire the next generation of painkillers, potentially providing a viable alternative to opioids, new research has suggested.  By suppressing neurons in the skin, Schistosoma mansoni sneaks past the immune system’s pain sensors, helping it to evade detection. If we were to discover the molecules […]

The evolution of proteins isn’t just something that happens out in the wild. It can happen in the lab, too, and brings with it the possibility of developing new and improved proteins that can be used in all sorts of useful ways. Trouble is, that’s also a massive slog – until now. The rest of […]

The largest reptile alive on Earth today is the saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus. Despite their enormous size, they’re not the best swimmers, which got scientists wondering how it was possible that they had been able to spread to so many islands in the South Pacific. Turns out, they love to surf. The rest of this […]

The Green Bank Observatory, the oldest federal radio astronomy facility in the United States, was established in West Virginia in 1956 to scan the skies for objects in space. In order to prevent its readings from being impacted by local signals, it established a 33,670 square-kilometer (13,000 square-mile) National Radio Quiet Zone in 1958. This […]

Comet 3I/ATLAS has been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, which delivered new insights into this third interstellar visitor. The orbital observatory has refined the estimates about the size of the cometary nucleus and confirmed that the comet is the fastest ever to come from beyond the Solar System. The comet was discovered on July […]

High above the oceans and landmasses, an unseen migration is constantly unfolding. These travelers are aerosols: millions upon millions of microscopic particles so small they can drift for days or even weeks, riding the planet’s invisible superhighways. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full […]

New research has made waves by drawing a link between eating potatoes and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. There’s a lot to unpack here, and experts have been weighing in on the data – here’s what to know.  What the study concluded The research included 205,107 adults enrolled in three large-scale studies of […]

Several meteorites collected from Henry County, Georgia, have been tentatively identified as being from a major asteroid belt collision. If correct, this would make them among the oldest Solar System fragments, quite likely dating from before the Earth formed. On June 26, a fireball was spotted over Atlanta, Georgia, despite competing with the light of […]

Modern-day Chicago is known for its gusty winds and unapologetically chunky pizza, but 300 million years ago, the region was a lush land of tropical swamps, river deltas, and shallow seas. This abundance of extinct plant life and animal life is incredibly well-preserved at the Mazon Creek fossil site – a treasure trove that’s proving […]

What is it about our screens that keeps us coming back to them? Why do we continue to scroll past the point of finding what we went on our phones for in the first place? Those are questions that researchers are still trying to answer – and marmosets armed with iPads might just help them […]

Bioluminescence is the word we use to describe animals that are capable of creating their own light. It involves a chemical reaction that releases energy as light, and it’s a big hit down in the twilight zone where light from the Sun can’t reach. We’ve found bioluminescent jellyfish, squid, and fish, but the largest luminous […]

President Trump has issued an executive order that allows commercial flights across America to fly faster than the speed of sound. The order overturns what it refers to as “outdated and overly restrictive regulations”. It comes as companies are working on quieter supersonic aircraft, and instructs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to create standards to […]

Across September 1 and 2, 1859, the Earth experienced the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. It is known as the Carrington Event and caused aurorae visible almost to the equator and damage to electrical systems, which at the time mostly consisted of telegraphs. None comparable have hit Earth since, but we came really […]

On July 26, 1959, British scientist Dennis Bell was conducting a geological survey with surveyor Jeff Stokes, meteorologist Ken Gibson, and geologist Colin Barton with the aid of two dog sleds. When the sled dogs began to struggle, Bell went ahead to encourage them forward, but fell through a hole in a crevasse bridge. Efforts […]