Deborah Bloomfield

A collection of particles known as a quasiparticle has been detected behaving as if it has mass when it moves in one direction, but becomes massless when moving at right angle. Improbable as this sounds, the scientists who detected it are already contemplating applications in batteries and sensors. It sounds like a stretched joke about […]

On Olkiluoto island in the west of Finland, a tomb will soon be opening. When it is sealed, the hope is that it will remain so for over 100,000 years. Nuclear fuel, though far cleaner and less polluting than the fossil fuels that have powered our economies for the past 150 years, comes with a […]

A new study has warned that consuming more ultra-processed foods could potentially accelerate biological aging. Ultra-processed foods have been getting more media attention in recent years as they continue to be a staple of many people’s diets. These foods are tricky to categorize, even though the term has become increasingly popular. According to the authors […]

Palolo worms must have one of the strangest life cycles in the animal kingdom, although there is plenty of competition. Driven by the cycles of the moon, the spindly worms split themselves into two separate parts. Their back ends, loaded with eggs and sperm, break off and swim to the ocean surface, while the rest […]

On a cold morning, if you can think anything beyond “I’m cold”, you may have noticed that frost doesn’t form very much in areas underneath large trees. Why is that? First, what is frost? Well, there are a few types, including frozen dew, but the most common is “hoar frost”. Advertisement “Depositional frost is also […]

The Antarctic ice sheet has experienced periods of sudden melting, according to a new climate record from over 20 million years ago. This research demonstrates how sensitive the planet’s early ice ages were and that the Antarctic ice sheet is less stable than previously thought. It also offers a glimpse of how the Antarctic could […]

There’s a lot to be jealous about when it comes to lizards. Some can climb walls, some are ridiculously good at hide and seek, they’ve got tails, and – perhaps coolest of all – many can drop and regenerate said tails when in a bind.  Yes, the regenerative skills of lizards are well known, but […]

Monarch butterflies are one of the most iconic insects in North America – but they might also be at risk of disappearing. Now, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is proposing that they be added to the Endangered Species Act in order to help them stick around. Split into two populations, monarch butterflies are […]

The rings of Jupiter might not be as spectacular as Saturn’s (whose are?) but they are there. However, one of them may not have existed before just a few decades ago. A new hypothesis suggests that the breaking apart and eventual collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 – the first space rock ever directly observed hitting […]

If the yellow brick road leads to the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, then where pray tell do you end up if you cross Azerbaijan’s beautiful candy cane-striped mountains?  The “Candy Cane Mountains” (aka Şəkər əsası dağları in Azerbaijani) are part of the Greater Caucasus mountain range and emerge between Baku and Quba in Azerbaijan. The […]

Scientists have successfully sequenced the genomes of seven people who lived in Europe between 42,000 and 49,000 years ago, revealing that they belonged to the earliest known group of humans to split from the original “Out-of-Africa” lineage. The ancient individuals were also part of the very first population to mix with Neanderthals, picking up sections […]

Materials tend to have very distinct magnetic properties. For some, being in a magnetic field means developing strong magnetic properties, in others they are weak, and in others still they are non-existent. Scientists have recently discovered a new class of magnetism called altermagnetism, and in new research, they have shown how to control it. Materials […]

Long ago, the Grand Canyon wasn’t a land of plunging ravines and gaping gullies, but the site of towering mountains, not dissimilar to South America’s Andes of today. They are known as the Vishnu Mountains. Although they no longer stand proudly, evidence of their existence can be found in the ancient crystalline rocks at the […]

In the world of mathematics, two things always hold true: firstly, some of the most stubborn and complex problems often have surprisingly real-world applications; and secondly, for people who spend all their time actually in that real world, those problems can seem… well, pretty silly. Take, for example, the “sofa problem”: a conundrum that has […]

A team of scientists have suggested a possible solution to the famously tricky black hole information loss paradox, first proposed by Professor Stephen Hawking nearly 50 years ago. Black holes are strange objects which (though we have learned plenty about them) confound our understanding of physics. Formed when massive stars collapse, black holes are areas […]

Internet search giant Google has released the top searches of 2024, revealing what the world wanted more information about this year. 2024, like many of its recent predecessors, has been an eventful year. For instance, a South Korean president declaring martial law only to repeal 24 hours later and face impeachment procedures is not what […]

Amateur astronomers in Dwingeloo in the northeastern Netherlands have picked up a signal from NASA’s ailing Voyager 1 spacecraft, around 24.9 billion kilometers (15.5 billion miles) away. The Voyager probes, launched in 1977, have performed spectacularly well over nearly half a century, flying past various planetary bodies and studying them on their way to the […]

The USA’s various internal and external borders have been changed and rejigged countless times over the years, and it has the odd little panhandles and extra states to show for it. But we tend to think that by now, things have basically settled down – that the country, with a few exceptions of various overseas […]

A remarkable tale of determination, hope, and the tiger equivalent of “love” has blossomed in the far-flung reaches of Russia. After being reintroduced to different parts of the Pri-Amur region, a Siberian tiger named Boris walked over 200 kilometers (124 miles) to reunite with Svetlaya, a female he had been raised alongside in semi-captivity. Within […]

When we talk about death, we often say things along the lines of “it’s a fact of life,” but the view can be very different when you’re facing the real and imminent prospect of no longer existing. Given the chance, can we be so sure that we wouldn’t try anything for a little more time? […]