Deborah Bloomfield

NASA has announced the next steps for its beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission, the ambitious plans to retrieve multiple samples collected on the Red Planet, so they can be analyzed by more sophisticated labs on Earth. The mission was deemed too expensive, with a price tag of $11 billion dollars, and it would take too […]

Whale sharks, despite being the largest fish in the ocean, still have pretty secretive sex lives. What we do know about the reproductive behaviors of whale sharks is largely based on observations from aquariums or chance encounters in the wild – however, off the coast of Western Australia, scientists have witnessed what they believe to […]

A long-term study of the mating behavior of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) has provided some insight into the factors that influence whether bird couples stay together or part ways. The findings don’t always match those from other species, opening up opportunities to explore the reasons for the differences. Raising young is hard, and many birds […]

Ancient texts speak of a strange and valuable metal known as orichalcum. The mystical material was often dismissed as a fantastical invention – until they discovered a large cache of the stuff in the Mediterranean Sea. Advertisement Orichalcum’s name is derived from the Greek for “mountain copper.” One of its most prominent mentions comes in […]

In 2010, a 71-year-old man turned up to an emergency department in Verona, Italy, experiencing shortness of breath. A fairly standard case to see in an ED, it could be assumed. However, this patient was more unique than meets the eye – he had two hearts. While the man was only born with one – […]

A mere 90 million years ago, Antarctica was a radically different place. Instead of being a polar desert characterized by colossal ice sheets and glaciers, it may have been a swampy land of rainforests dominated by ferns and conifer trees. Advertisement Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and Imperial College London came across […]

Albert Einstein, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the photoelectric effect and the great physicist behind general and special relativity, once said: “The exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.” Advertisement Given […]

The brain has its own washing machine to clear out waste products known as the glymphatic system. We’ve known about it for a while, but nobody was exactly sure what was driving the system – until now. New research studying mice has uncovered how a molecule called norepinephrine plays a key role in “brainwashing” mice […]

Recently, a 45-year-old woman was surprised to find out she had tonsilitis and needed to have her tonsils removed. While this is a normal procedure, what was so surprising was that she had already had her tonsils removed 40 years ago, aged 5.  Advertisement “I knew that there was some sort of little flap or […]

A large asteroid is about to make its closest approach to Earth in 100 years. Over the coming days, it’s so close you should be able to observe it yourself with only the aid of binoculars.  Advertisement Asteroid (887) Alinda was first discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory on January 3, 1918. […]

Geoscientists have used earthquakes to study the composition of the lower portion of the Earth’s mantle under the Pacific Ocean – and they’ve discovered something quite peculiar. There are zones where the seismic waves move in different ways, suggesting structures that are colder or have a different composition than the surrounding molten rocks. The team […]

Offshore wind farms are a valuable source of renewable energy and a crucial weapon in our arsenal in the fight against the climate crisis, but is this at the expense of marine mammals? President-elect Donald Trump suggested so in a recent press conference – though, not for the first time, his statements lacked credible backing […]

An enormous Bronze-Age “mega fortress” has been revealed in the Caucasus mountains, leaving researchers puzzled as to the function that this colossal prehistoric structure played on the crossroads between Europe and Asia. Known as Dmanisis Gora, the huge fortified settlement dwarfs all other nearby fortresses, yet contains precious few clues as to who occupied it. […]

NASA is sending an exciting mission to the Moon on board a commercial lander, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1. The lander is carrying ten scientific instruments, most of them to study the Moon, but one is going to look back at our planet: the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI). Advertisement LEXI will take […]

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The human body is an elegantly evolved machine, though it does retain several superfluous features that are no longer essential for survival, from male nipples and floating ribs to wisdom teeth and butt hair. Speaking of which, what’s the point of toenails? Advertisement Arguably among the grossest parts of the human body, it’s easy to […]

Along the coasts of Chile and Peru you may find a “living rock” that looks like it bleeds. Known to science as Pyura chilensis, it’s a filter feeder related to sea squirts, but you might not know that for looking at it. At a push you might say it looked like a sea urchin, but […]

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is expected to become brighter than Venus next week, and will probably be the brightest comet of 2025. It has already achieved a brightness similar to famously bright stars like Antares and Spica – however, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to see, nor will it become so.  Advertisement Whereas Venus is […]

The mystery surrounding one of the largest megalithic monuments in the Middle East has deepened significantly, as new research has just shattered the popular theory that the circular Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights functioned as an astronomical observatory. Also known as the Wheel of Ghosts and the Levantine Stonehenge, this enigmatic labyrinthine structure is […]

It’s the “Bleak Midwinter” in the Northern Hemisphere – so, in case you’ve been living under a well-insulated rock, cold weather and snowfalls are hardly unexpected in many parts of the world. However, the especially low temperatures seen in parts of the US this month can be partially attributed to another phenomenon: the polar vortex.  […]