Deborah Bloomfield

The formation of planetary systems is not fully understood. There are many steps that require further observations, modeling, and theories. Stars form from clouds of gas and dust, and following star formation, that dust will crystallize into minerals, which will become pebbles, which might end up growing into planets. For the first time, researchers have […]

Excavations at a 2,000-year-old settlement in Spain have yielded the first ever trilobite fossil from Roman times. Found in a trash heap associated with a high-status household, the specimen appears to have been intentionally modified to form part of a necklace or bracelet, and was probably used as a magical pendant designed to protect its […]

Pigeons with missing toes and deformed feet are a disturbingly familiar sight in many cities. While it’s often assumed that these injuries stem from infections and grime, a 2019 study conducted by researchers in France suggested another, more unexpected factor: hairdressing salons.  Researchers from the Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences in Paris investigated the […]

Astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein were searching through archive images from the Dark Energy Survey at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile when they noticed a comet around 4.1 billion kilometers (2.6 billion miles) from the Sun. Comets are remnants of dust, ice, and rock left over from the formation of the Solar […]

Are you fed up of your commute to work, packing yourself onto busy underground trains only to rub shoulders with the same fatigued, bored, or otherwise stressed passengers each day? It’s a typical experience of the modern urban work life, but wouldn’t it be so much better if this situation included dogs? There are few […]

In a world that still contains some potent predators, you might think the deadliest animal would be something like a great white shark, or a grizzly bear, or another similar beastie. You would certainly be forgiven for thinking so, given how much media attention a rare big animal attack gets these days. However, the world’s […]

Pepper the pet cat has had his paws in the discovery of two viruses. After helping to find the first jeilongvirus in the US last year, he’s just doubled down and contributed to the identification of a new strain of orthoreovirus. Granted, Pepper isn’t breaking a sweat over a lab workbench, carefully processing samples and […]

There are a lot of worlds beyond the orbit of Neptune. Some are dwarf planets, while many others are much smaller rocks floating in the colder edges of our Solar System. But they do not orbit randomly. In particular, several bodies are in a complex dance with Neptune, including Pluto – but none quite like […]

How did supermassive black holes come to be? Astronomers have two hypotheses for their formation, and now one of them might have gotten the first tantalizing piece of direct evidence. Researchers report the observation of a supermassive black hole that might have formed by direct collapse. The work reported is a curious beast, part of […]

In 2006, NASA launched New Horizons on a long journey to study dwarf planet Pluto over 5 billion kilometers (3.1 billion miles) from Earth.  The spacecraft first headed to gas giant Jupiter for a gravity assist in 2007, in a maneuver which would increase its velocity by around 14,000 kilometers per hour (9,000 miles per […]

Influenza vaccine programs help to considerably lower the burden of disease, even when not everyone takes up the offer of a shot. A new study has confirmed this but also provides us with a stark warning: if we allow transmission to get too high, even the best flu vaccines can’t completely stop the disease in […]

Are we the last generation to witness the twinkling beauty of fireflies during the warm summer evenings? That’s a claim that has been circulating on social media for a while, but is it true? In short, not quite. Of course, our planet is currently caught in a bad situation. We can understand this as what […]

Have you been feeling a little low in energy lately? Are you looking for a quick (ish) fix? Attempt to find a solution on the internet, and you may well be told to try a vitamin B12 supplement – but is that actually going to work? Or will it end up being a waste of […]

Ever since JAWS hit screens 50 years ago, sharks have ranked pretty high on humanity’s nemesis list. If the eye-catching graphics of Shark Week or Sharknado are to be believed, the seas are simply swarming with toothy predators just desperate to get a taste of that sweet human meat.  But is that picture really true? […]

The oldest known bone spear tip in Europe has been identified in a cave in southwest Russia. Dated to between 70,000 and 80,000 years ago, the ancient artifact was crafted tens of millennia before modern humans arrived in the region, and was likely fashioned by Neanderthals as a hunting weapon. Such a find is remarkable […]

In 2016, a lightning storm rolled across the Hardangervidda plateau in Norway. When the skies cleared, wildlife officials stumbled upon a haunting scene: the bodies of 323 wild reindeer all huddled together. It seemed like a grim mystery, but the massive thunderstorm that afternoon led the Norwegian Environment Agency to suspect the mass death was […]

If you want proof that Mother Nature has a sense of humor, look no further than the squirting cucumber. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like; yes, it’s as funny as you’re imagining; and yes, thanks to new research out of Kiel University in Germany, you can now witness it for yourself. “We recorded the […]

A new digital reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman’s ribcage shows a number of “ambiguous” features that might have assisted him on his seasonal migration to the frosty Alpine peaks. By comparing the mummy’s thorax to those of several other ancient humans, the authors of a new study dispel a long-standing assumption that Homo sapiens trunks […]

Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system and the only other body with rivers, lakes, and seas. They are not made of water. With a temperature of -179°C (-290°F), these are not made of water but of liquid methane and ethane, as well as hydrocarbons. This is truly an alien environment; still, the […]

A female blanket octopus has to be up there as one of the most spectacular sea creatures to see alive in the wild. Growing to the length of an adult human, they trail an iridescent rainbow skirt as they glide through the water. They are big, they are bright, they are beautiful, but a blanket […]