Deborah Bloomfield

A family of stars spotted by the Gaia space telescope are behaving like none we have seen before, expanding the bounds of what we think is possible. Although two explanations have been proposed, we’re still a long way from understanding the causes of this unusual behavior. The Gaia spacecraft ended its remarkable mission this year, […]

A group of experts from different disciplines around vaccine science and policy have come together for the launch of the Vaccine Integrity Project. Spearheaded by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), the initiative’s stated aims include “safeguarding vaccine utilization in the US”, keeping it “grounded in the best available […]

The Yellowstone supervolcano is extremely well studied, but that doesn’t mean it is fully understood. Researchers have just discovered a new structure deep beneath Yellowstone, and it might be playing an important role in holding back an eruption from this major volcanic system. Researchers from across the US have been using seismic data and computer […]

The European Space Agency’s Biomass mission took to the sky on April 29 on a Vega-C satellite launched from French Guiana. Its scientific work will soon start, and it is set to revolutionize what we know about the Earth’s forests and the carbon that is stored within. The mission is the first ever satellite to […]

Insect populations have been declining across the world at an alarming rate, but no one has been sure why. According to a new study, intense agricultural practices are at the top of the list of causes, but there are multiple interrelated factors that are all contributing to quickly killing off these vital creatures. People have […]

The Soviet Union’s failed Kosmos 482 Venus spacecraft is set to make a somewhat delayed reappearance as it slams into the Earth in the next few weeks. Between 1961 and 1984, the Soviet Union launched a series of space probes in order to study the second-closest planet to the Sun. The overall program was a […]

Sharks have been around longer than trees (that’s a fact you’re just going to have to accept, because things get much stranger from here). Alongside other cartilaginous fishes like rays and chimaera, they sit within the ancient and successful clade known as Chondrichthyes, which has been enduring our planet’s ever-changing landscape for over 400 million […]

What’s the biggest city in the world? Your gut might say somewhere like New York, and it’s not a bad guess – with a population of more than 8,000,000, it’s far and away the most populous place in the USA. But the biggest? Not even close. Give it some thought, maybe check your trivia handbooks, […]

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A pair of chert points found alongside human skeletons in a cave in Belize may represent the first known tattooing needles ever discovered from a site linked to the ancient Maya civilization. After testing the fragmented tools on pig skins, the authors of a new study determined that the markings present on the ancient relics […]

Pet cats are a relatively new addition to the Americas. While this part of the world does have plenty of wild cats – from bobcats and jaguars to lynx and cougars – the paws of domesticated cats didn’t set foot here until European colonization around 500 years ago.  Now, researchers may have uncovered some of […]

A notoriously difficult video game appears to have a positive impact on people’s self-reported mental health, according to a new study from Aalto University. There are games that are meant for pure enjoyment, and there are games that are meant to challenge you. And then there is Dark Souls, which is meant to punish you […]

Nearly four decades after the Chernobyl disaster, farmers may be poised to return. New research shows that large parts of the once-abandoned farmland just outside the Exclusion Zone in northern Ukraine are now safe for cultivation. Amid the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, enormous quantities of harmful radionuclides were scattered into the air, contaminating the […]

Astronomers taking a close look at our nearest neighbor galaxy have made a highly unusual and model-challenging discovery; the vast majority of its satellite galaxies appear to be pointing in our direction. According to our best model of galaxy formation, the standard model, galaxies grow as smaller dwarf galaxies are pulled in by gravitational interactions, […]

A boiled egg. What could be better? A perfect pod of fats, protein, and flavor, handily packaged in a crackable shell that’s tough enough to survive boiling so that when you rip it away there’s a bouncy egg waiting inside. Only problem is, peeling boiled eggs is the worst thing ever. Flecks of calcium carbonate, […]

Genetic material from hundreds of mammoths is providing an unprecedented glimpse into their family tree and shows how these Ice Age giants emerged, migrated, and adapted to a changing world. Scientists at Stockholm University and the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Sweden analyzed the mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of 34 mammoths whose DNA had never been sequenced […]

There are gems to be found in the dense forests surrounding Brazil’s Juruá River Basin. Not the kind you’ll find on a piece of jewelry, though – these ones come in the form of a brand-new, teeny tiny, and super shiny species of poison dart frog. When we say “super shiny”, we’re not kidding. These […]

The makers of a non-hormonal male contraceptive just announced a key milestone during their first human clinical trials, with the treatment demonstrating safety and efficacy at the two-year mark. The next step is Phase 2 trials, and if all goes well, developers Contraline, Inc. believe their product could come to market before the end of […]

The remarkable remains of an elite woman have been unearthed in an ancient fishing town in Peru’s Lima region. The woman’s skin, hair, and nails have all been preserved, making this an incredibly rare find in the Peruvian archaeological record. The burial was discovered at the archaeological site of Áspero, which was used by the […]

Have you ever wondered what the footprints of an ancient pangolin might have looked like? Well, you might just be about to find out, as researchers have discovered what they believe is highly likely to be the world’s first known fossilized pangolin trackway. The trackway was first found back in 2018 on a cemented dune […]