Deborah Bloomfield

A team of Japanese and US physicists has pushed thousands of Ytterbium atoms to just within a billionth of a degree above absolute zero to understand how matter behaves at these extreme temperatures. The approach treats the atoms as fermions, the type of particles like electrons and protons, that cannot end up in the so-called […]

A hormone injection therapy could help people with Down syndrome, as a new study found it to improve cognitive function and brain connectivity of a small group of people with the condition.  The authors of the study, published in the journal Science, demonstrate the role that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) appears to play in cognitive function […]

Scientists from the Janelia Campus at Howard Hughes Medical Institute have made a surprising discovery, and it might help explain how brain cells communicate long-term changes to each other. Their findings, reported in the journal Cell, describe a new synapse between axons and primary cilia – hair-like structures present on different cell types including neurons.  […]

The 32nd annual State of the Climate report has been released, and it is extremely troubling news. In 2021, carbon dioxide and methane reached record highs, Earth continued to warm, and sea levels continued to rise. Despite being a La Niña year, which lowers sea surface temperatures, about 57 percent of the ocean surface experienced […]

After one scrubbed launched attempt this week, NASA’s return to the Moon is scheduled for this Saturday – and you can watch this slice of history live right here. The mission is the maiden voyage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built; and the Orion spacecraft, which is being tested […]

The sun can have a catastrophic effect on skin, having the potential to damage our cells which can lead to certain cancers. Fortunately, we as a species were smart enough to come up with creams capable of blocking out the worst of the harmful radiation, but how effective are they? According to one 92-year-old’s face […]

This year Pakistan has experienced some of the most extreme weather events of the unfolding climate crisis. The region experienced a record-breaking heatwave in the spring, with areas reaching 47°C (116.6°F), followed by the worst flooding it’s seen in a decade. One-third of the country, an area equivalent to the state of Colorado or half […]

This week, we get to see some flattened mammal remains from 250 million years ago, a beating heart and brain form from “synthetic” mouse embryo, and we find out the reason why we don’t all have the bod of an athlete.  JWST Snaps Its First Image Of An Exoplanet – And It’s A Very Weird […]

Nobody spends two decades without human contact by choice. It happens, but only as the result of horrific situations like the genocide of Indigenous peoples or extreme miscarriages of justice. But there is an exception: Juana Maria. Long before the “man of the hole” was doomed to spend his last 26 years in solitude, Juana […]

The planet Earth is a big, strange place. There are places where it can reach −50°C (−58°F) in one month and nearly +39°C (102°F) in another; there’s an apparently bottomless sinkhole in Oregon; there are literally nearly a dozen islands out there that are ruled by cats. And yet, for some reason, we still feel […]

Gigantopithecus is the largest ape that ever walked on Earth. For over 1.7 million years, this giant – and deeply mysterious – gorilla-like beast ruled the forests of eastern Asia, but it still manages to capture our imagination and stir curiosity even today. When did Gigantopithecus go extinct? Rest assured, you won’t be finding any Gigantopithecus stomping around […]

When researchers studied the skulls of 450 shaggy soft-haired mice (Abrothrix hirta) they thought those from the western side were so much bigger that they probably represented different species. Instead, what they found was a likely new biological law. Carl Bergmann came up with the observation that animals at higher latitudes are larger than those in […]

This is not a false alarm: Twitter has officially announced it will start testing an “edit button” this month, an update that they describe as their “most requested feature to date.” Tweets will be able to be edited a few times in the 30 minutes after they’re posted, as per the company’s announcement.  Once a […]

The oldest dinosaur ever found in Africa was discovered by a graduate student from the Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. Incredibly, the ancient animal was mostly intact, enabling a team of paleontologists to identify it as a new-to-science species. The ancient dinosaur walked on two legs, weighed between 9 to 29 kilograms (20 to 65 […]

Astronomers report the first image of an exoplanet captured by JWST, and it’s a very weird world. The ground-breaking telescope is said to have exceeded expected performances by a factor of 10. It’s already demonstrated that it can study exoplanets’ atmospheres as they pass in front of their stars, and now it’s shown it can […]

A single exposure to ethanol produces lasting alterations to neurons of both mice and fruit flies, resulting in synaptic remodeling within the reward circuit of the brain, new research reveals. In the journal PNAS, the study suggests that just one alcoholic drink may prime the brain to become addicted to booze further down the line. […]

Hornsea 2, a wind farm off the coast of the UK, is now fully operational and ready to help power around 1.3 million U.K. homes. With 165 turbines covering an area of 462 square kilometers (roughly 178 square miles), it is officially the biggest offshore wind farm on the planet. “The UK is one of […]

Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field like Earth so its aurorae are quite unique. They are known as proton aurorae and they are caused by the protons in the solar wind stealing electrons in the bowshock region of the planet and penetrating deeper, releasing ultraviolet light as they slow down. Now, researchers have discovered that […]