Deborah Bloomfield

In recent years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) has discovered around 40 circular structures at the bottom of Lake Michigan. ADVERTISEMENT In 2022, researchers at NOAA were surveying the Great Lake when they spotted strange circular depressions in the lakebed using sonar. The depressions, ranging from 91 […]

Some places on Earth are home to remarkable sites, from the “gates of hell” to caves that hold the only known population of some fish, they have the power to captivate and often keep people returning year after year. ADVERTISEMENT Among them is Rausu on the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, Japan. If you are here […]

Around 30 years ago, Dr Carl Sagan made an eerily prophetic prediction about the future of the US, appearing to foretell the rise of big tech, misinformation, and superstition.  ADVERTISEMENT Sagan is best known as a preacher of science, communicating complex ideas with passion and poetry like no other, but the late astrophysicist was also […]

The world currently stands on the precipice of a sixth mass extinction, and this time, it’s humanity’s fault. That means it’s on us to try and fix things, and work is already well underway to resurrect certain long-lost species as part of an ambitious plan to reverse the situation. De-extinction, they call it. ADVERTISEMENT First […]

In science and mathematics, it has been a fairly common occurrence for two different people/teams to be working on the same problem, and invent the same solution. After all, both fields are concerned with finding underlying rules that govern math and science, it shouldn’t be surprising that these would occasionally be discovered independently. ADVERTISEMENT On […]

It’s five years to the day since the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. For many, life in the immediate aftermath of that moment became unrecognizable; for some, the change was permanent. As well as its direct impact on millions, causing not only deaths but disability in the form of long COVID, […]

NASA has been left without a Chief Scientist and an Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy after the latest rounds of cuts by the new Trump administration.  ADVERTISEMENT On Monday, March 10 the US space agency’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, emailed employees to inform them the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy would be closed […]

There’s a chance the gold ring on your finger or the chain around your neck has a link to the prolific destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. In a new study, scientists have looked at the impact of small-scale gold mining in the southern Peruvian Amazon and found that it has led to a […]

We live in a world rampant with misinformation, and many of us are just shockingly ill-equipped to defend against it. Luckily, a new study has found a countermeasure – and much like our physical health, it all comes down to maintaining your booster shots. ADVERTISEMENT “Misinformation is a threat to society and the functioning of […]

Officially, the ngudlukanta – also known as the desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris) – is one of the many small Australian mammals lost to cats and foxes, but all hope is not gone. If ngudlukantas do indeed live, a project exploring the mechanics of their jaws could be key to finding and protecting the survivors. ADVERTISEMENT The […]

Dogs are undoubtedly humanity’s best friend (sorry, cats, but you just don’t make the same effort). Unfortunately, canine companions are also acquaintances with a bunch of nasty, disease-causing microbes that can be introduced to your home.  ADVERTISEMENT One hotspot for lurgies that pet owners might not be keenly aware of is their water bowl. Take […]

Some species are found once, reported, and then seem to have the ability to remain hidden, only to be rediscovered many years later. From golden moles to birds of prey, these species persist despite small populations and tiny distributions. Now, joining this list of rediscovered species is a frog from Chile that was thought to […]

Around 100,000 years ago, a group of Homo sapiens-like humans buried five of their dead at Timshenet cave, along with grave goods consisting of animal remains and chunks of red ochre. At the same time, neighboring tribes of archaic hominids – including some that were more Neanderthal-like in appearance – adopted similar customs, all of […]

The US “Doomsday Plane” has been spotted flying over the US Midwest, taking off from Oklahoma and circling over Nebraska and Iowa, before returning to land in the Sooner State. According to flight tracker AirNav, the Boeing E-6B Mercury’s flight took it over the Offutt Air Force nuclear command base. ADVERTISEMENT At the height of […]

Greenhouse gases are eroding the safe carrying capacity for low Earth orbit, a new study concludes. Moreover, the authors calculate that without drastic cuts to emissions, the difference will be marked. If their calculations are right, the dreams of many companies to drastically scale up and use the region just above our atmosphere for communications […]

The secret to remaining mentally astute into old age? Keep reading – no, literally. New research has shown that cognitive decline is not inevitable. Frequently using literacy and numeracy skills – whether by checking an email, calculating the grocery budget, or reading a science news article – can keep the brain sharp and prevent decline […]

The biggest animal that has ever existed on Earth is alive today, and swimming around in the oceans. But most land mammals, impressive though an elephant may be, look like a tiny elephant shrew in comparison to the mighty Brachiosaurus. ADVERTISEMENT The bad news is, we are probably not going to see land mammals the […]

Thousands of protestors came together on Friday, March 7 to take a stand against sweeping cuts to scientific funding and attacks against scientific organizations by the Trump Administration. ADVERTISEMENT Rallies organized by the grassroots organization “Stand Up for Science” took place in 32 cities across the US. A number of walkouts – where people literally […]

Last week, North America was treated to the unusual sight of an X on the Moon. On Thursday, viewers in North America will be able to witness a relatively rare event, occurring roughly once every two and half years, as the Moon turns a blood-red color in the night sky.  ADVERTISEMENT While you would be […]

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore has captured an image of a blue jet sprite in the Earth’s atmosphere, a rare phenomenon only confirmed in recent years. ADVERTISEMENT Astronaut and keen astrophotographer Don Pettit shared a photo to Reddit, taken by colleague Butch Wilmore during his unexpectedly long stay on board the International Space Station (ISS). “Here […]