Deborah Bloomfield

Patterns have emerged in the thousands of planets recently discovered orbiting stars besides the Sun. So when planets are found that break those patterns, astronomers get curious, particularly when they have been confident in their explanations for what they have seen. The latest rule-breaker goes by the not-exactly rebellious-sounding name of TOI-3757 b and lies […]

An owl has kicked off Halloween by stealing a toy stick horse (also known as a hobby horse) and riding it around like a witch on a broomstick. The great horned owl took the horse from an unknown resident of Eureka, Illinois, before being captured on film by resident Eric Lind. Lind’s mother had been […]

Next week, the Sun, Moon, and Earth will come together in near-perfect alignment, creating a partial solar eclipse as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. It may not be as showy as a total eclipse, but it’s always fun to watch the Moon take a bite out of the Sun. Partial eclipses happen […]

Scientists recently had the first-ever opportunity to study gases freshly grabbed from a moving asteroid. These unbelievably rare samples are the subject of a bunch of new studies published this week and have revealed that the space rock, asteroid Ryugu, was once a child of the Solar System’s iciest depths.  Asteroids can prove to be […]

Back in July, three female bison made history after being reintroduced to a reserve in Kent, UK, making them the first wild roaming bison in Britain for thousands of years. Now, they’re making history once more with the pitter-patter of tiny bison hooves surprising their rangers.   On September 9, after not seeing the younger […]

Three ancient galaxies have been caught in the act of merging around a so-called “extremely red quasar”, providing fascinating new insights into how modern galaxy clusters may have formed. The event – which was spotted by NASA’s JWST – occurred some 11.5 billion years ago in what may have been one of the densest areas […]

Urine therapy (or urotherapy) is a longstanding practice based on the concept that urine can be drunk, bathed in, or otherwise applied to bring good health or even heal the body of certain ailments. Unusual as it may sound to most people, it’s an idea that persists even today. And like most things of this […]

You may have heard of the carnivore diet, and the claims it is beneficial for our health. Many diet trends, such as the paleo and Atkins diets, advocate high protein and low carbohydrate intake. But the carnivore diet takes this trend to the extreme. Advertisement So what is it, and is it bad for your […]

Some twins are born as mirror twins, which is when one twin has physical features that are the mirror image of those of the other twin. This can be in the form of the layout of moles, the direction in which their hair curls, or even the layout of their internal organs. It’s thought to […]

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been busy playing around with an unconventional new type of lander that’s designed to crash onto the surface of Mars. In a newly released video, engineers have shown a prototype of the accordion-like lander being dropped from a tall tower – with some interesting, bouncy results.  The experimental lander […]

This week, we see footage of a never-seen-before melanistic Canada lynx, the Pillars of Creation are revealed in one of JWST’s greatest images to date, and we ask the puzzling question: why aren’t there any green stars? First-Ever Melanistic Canada Lynx Caught on Camera The animal kingdom is no stranger to colors of all kinds, […]

Death is the one certainty in life, but the point at which our time comes is almost always a mystery. Particularly in nursing homes, residents often give no indication at all that they may not see another day and slip away without time for a loving goodbye from friends and family.   Predicting death is […]

Last week, the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition 2022 winners were announced. They included stunning photos of an embryonic Madagascar giant day gecko, and of the blood vessel networks in the guts of a mouse. But what really grabbed people’s attention was a close-up image of an ant’s face by Eugenijus Kavaliauskas, which was awarded […]

Jupiter has a frankly ridiculous number of moons. So many, in fact, that we haven’t even bothered officially naming the last 23. Of the moons, you are probably most familiar with Europa, Io, and Ganymede, but there are 80 moons in total that we know of. A new video has put the scale of those […]

“Ay me!” as Lysander once famously said to Hermia. “For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.” To put it more succinctly: love stinks. But it doesn’t have to! Despite their undeservedly asexual reputation, mathematicians have had a way to […]

There are more than 1.5 million biographical articles on Wikipedia, covering the lives of some of history’s most notable scientists, inventors, politicians, artists, and so on. It’s undeniably a vast number – but out of those 1.5 million, less than 285,000 are about women. Even fewer are estimated to be about non-white people. And even […]

In school, math is one of those polarizing subjects that people either love or hate. For each person complaining they will never use Pythagoras theorem outside of class, there is somebody else pointing out that math is actually about learning skills like problem-solving. In this episode, host Dr Alfredo Carpineti asks a controversial Big Question: […]

An Indian summer refers to an unseasonably warm and hazy spell during late October and early November that occurs across the central and eastern United States, and in parts of Europe. Contrary to its name, this weather system isn’t actually found in India, so where does the phrase “Indian summer” come from? In the United […]