Deborah Bloomfield

As heatwaves and droughts continue to grip much of Europe, “hunger stones” from the past have been revealed by the parched rivers and announced a dire warning: “if you can see me, weep.”  Advertisement Hunger stones are a hydrological monument found in some rivers of Central Europe that are revealed when water levels drop. Dating […]

The universe’s expansion stretches space-time itself, including the gravitational waves upon it. The stretching of waves produced when black holes collide could be used to measure that expansion, although we may lack that capacity just yet. Advertisement The discovery that the rate of the universe’s expansion is accelerating struck cosmology like a thunderbolt. Nevertheless, details […]

There’s been a worrying trend recently of talking about monkeypox as if it’s a sexually transmitted infection, or worse, a “gay disease” that won’t affect the majority of people. Neither is true, as a new research letter in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases has made clear. Advertisement The letter reports a case of a […]

How do you spot a narcissist? Some say the clue is in their eyebrows, or their Insta follows, but a new study suggests a different tack: ask them if the moon landings were faked. Sound strange? It shouldn’t: plenty of studies have found that narcissists – people unusually convinced of their own superiority and entitlement […]

It’s hard to measure the impact of any one drug on world history. But here are five drugs we can safely say made a huge difference to our lives, often in ways we didn’t expect. Advertisement They have brought some incredible benefits. But they’ve usually also come with a legacy of complications we need to […]

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, and in some areas as much as seven times. That’s according to new research by a group of Norwegian scientists. This effect, dubbed “Arctic amplification”, is well documented, though the new study finds the region is warming even faster than previously thought. […]

In a breakthrough described as “game-changing” for patients in need of kidney transplants, researchers have discovered a way to change the blood type of a donor kidney – thus making it suitable for transplant into just about anybody who needs it. Not only is this an impressive feat in its own right, but it also […]

The Sun is slowly approaching the maximum point of its cycle, as we can see from the more frequent warnings of geomagnetic storms. As our star gets more active, it spews more charged particles out into the solar system in the form of coronal mass ejections (CME). And the latest one is set to hit […]

In September 2020, researchers announced they had found the molecule phosphine in the atmosphere. On Earth, the molecule is linked to biological activity, aka life. Its presence on Venus was not expected and couldn’t be explained. Since then, the debate has raged if the observations were correct, if they showed phosphine in the quantities stated, and […]

Drinking cola over multiple months may result in memory impairment and oxidative stress in the brain, according to a new study carried out on rats. The researchers, from University of Southern Santa Catarina in Brazil, found that markers of biological stress were significantly increased in the brains of rats after 68 days of drinking cola-based […]

Some fitness questions are: what’s the best balance between workout frequency and workout length? Do I need to exercise a little every day or have a long session once a week? Researchers at Edith Cowan University, together with Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University, believe they have an answer. Advertisement While both approaches provide a […]

Today’s apex predators would have been a mere snack to a megalodon, according to a new study that suggests the extinct shark could ingest an 8-meter-long (26 feet) marine mammal in just five bites. Based on this finding, the researchers suggest that Otodus megalodon occupied a higher trophic level than great white sharks and other […]

The intense gravity of a supermassive black hole is so strong that near its event horizon, photons can be forced to do multiple orbits before escaping. This is known as the photon ring. Following the observations of M87*, researchers believed that the faint photon ring was hiding within the historic image. Now, a team has […]

If someone you knew asked for rainbow crystals to be scattered on their grave at their funeral, you’d probably think they were channeling some New Age philosophy. According to a recent study, though, they may be doing the exact opposite – going back to their roots. About 6,000 years back, to be precise. Advertisement “It […]

Looking to cut down on the booze? Scientists have recently identified a simple trick that’s been proved to help drinkers cut down on their wine glugging. As simple as it sounds, the study found that sipping from smaller glasses can help people drink significantly less alcohol.  Advertisement The new study was reported in the journal […]

You love writing, but get little done. Who can blame you? With all of today’s distractions, notifications and alerts, it’s amazing anyone can get any writing done. That’s why you need to take an entirely new approach to writing. Say goodbye to your laptop, phone or tablet and embrace a more invigorating and distraction-free approach […]

Yesterday, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft atop it reached the historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Together they are the Artemis I mission, the maiden voyage for NASA’s new heavy launcher– and the spacecraft that, in a few years, will take astronauts back to the Moon. Advertisement […]

Janet Jackson can add another claim of fame to her five Grammy Awards, 11 Billboard Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, and nine Guinness World Records entries: she created a music video that had the power to crash laptops that played it, and even laptops nearby. Your fave could never. Advertisement So how did Ms […]

New research has found that supplementing older people with GlyNAC – a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine – wards off several key indicators of aging and keeps people healthier as they age. Not only that, but older people also appeared to be fitter and stronger with slimmer waistlines after taking the GlyNAC supplement.  Advertisement As reported […]

Protons, once thought to be fundamental particles, have been known since 1968 to instead be composed of quarks. Some quarks are actually heavier than protons, but this wasn’t considered a problem because protons were thought to be made up purely of light quarks – two up and one down quark to be precise. However, new […]