Deborah Bloomfield

The virus behind the next pandemic could be quietly lurking in the High Arctic, ready to be released by thawing ice due to climate change.  Arctic ice is known to harbor an array of viruses, many of which are unknown to science. Whilst they’re locked in ice, they pose little threat to us or any […]

The Netherlands has become the first NATO country to deploy armed uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) into an operational environment in which the tracked robots will join a military unit and become part of the defense force. Some are unarmed, while others are carrying large automatic machine guns for use in firefights.   “We have deployed […]

A follow-up observation from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has shown a curious new development from the asteroid system a spacecraft smashed into last month: a newly developed second tail of ejecta. On September 26, the first-of-its-kind DART mission saw an uncrewed spacecraft collide with asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, a small body just 160 meters (530 feet) […]

Greta Thunberg has said in an interview that she does not want to go into politics, calling it too “toxic”. In an interview with the BBC, the prominent climate crisis activist also described being seen as the face of a global movement as “too much responsibility” for a teenager to take on. Thunberg is no […]

The star cluster NGC 4755 is popularly known as the Jewel Box because its stars look like sapphires with the occasional ruby and diamond through a small telescope. There are, however, no emeralds. That’s not just an omission of this collection of 100 or so stars. Irrespective of the achievements of environmentally active celebrities or […]

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, iodine sales have been on the rise across Europe, with shortages recently being reported in Finland. Here, the government recommended that every household has a single dose of iodine tablets, in case of a nuclear event, leading to the shortages in pharmacies.  Elsewhere across Europe – including […]

Ever feel like your dog is judging you? As it turns out, it just might be since new research has found that dogs are capable of recognizing humans’ competence at completing certain tasks. They’ll even side with the person they deem most capable when food is involved, so you ought to put on your best […]

Right now, Earth is passing through the cloud of dust and debris trailing probably the most famous comet of them all, Halley’s Comet. These cosmic explosions that light up the night sky at this time of year are the Orionids meteor shower and this year it’s peaking tonight and in the early hours of tomorrow. […]

The finalists for the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards have been revealed and boy are they back in all their ridiculous glory. Thousands of entries have been filtered down to 40 of the best and most hilarious image finalists ready to put a smile on your face in their bid to win the grand prize. This year’s […]

Stone tools created half a million years in what is now Poland were probably the work of an extinct hominid species called Homo heidelbergensis, thought to be the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. Previously, researchers were unsure if humans had made it to central Europe by this point in history, so the […]

It’s often a touted piece of trivia that Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. As strange as it may sound in today’s world, it is true. However, it’s less well-known that the nomination was actually a sarcastic joke that fell victim to the quirks of the Nobel nomination system.  Hitler was nominated […]

On Christmas eve, 1617, a violent storm raged off the coast of Norway. Of the 23 boats out at sea, 10 never returned, and 40 men and boys were lost with them. What followed was a wave of accusation, suspicion, and murder that lasted for 40 years and claimed 91 lives. At the northernmost point […]

Police in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, have accused a woman of showing up to an eviction they were facilitating and fighting them using angry bees. According to Hampden County Sheriff deputies, 55-year-old Rorie Susan Woods put on a full beekeeper costume during the alleged incident. Police say that Woods showed up at the scene of an eviction […]

A drug researchers are calling CanKet, which resembles ketamine but has two important chemical differences, has been reported by the Australian National University. The scientists who found it suspect the drug is circulating widely in Australia, and possibly worldwide, but differences in drug laws mean it has only been found in Canberra. The Australian Capital […]

A man recently played the saxophone during a nine-hour surgery in which doctors opened up his skull so they could access his brain and test for the safest boundaries from which to remove a tumor. The procedure is known as an awake craniotomy, and it has historically tasked patients with doing anything from playing the […]

Parts of Uganda have entered a three-week lockdown to help contain an Ebola outbreak that has struck the country. Uganda’s President Yoweri K Museveni announced the measures on October 15, noting that people will not be able to travel in or out of Mubende and Kassanda.  A nighttime curfew between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am […]

North America was once home to enormous ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs, new research has found, and some of the largest known to have existed were stomping around what’s now called Mississippi. Clocking in at 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds) in weight, the “bird-mimic” dinosaurs had little heads on top of long necks as well as long […]