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Chris Packham

Chris Packham

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Chris has written and edited for newspapers and alt newsweeklies since 2003, including the Kansas City Star, The Pitch and the Village Voice. He has been copyediting and occasionally writing for Science X since 2013.

Articles by Chris Packham

Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Epiphanies and brain states; a baffling skull find; achieving well-being in old age

This week, researchers identified a key driver of pancreatic cancer spread. Oral bacteria were linked to Parkinson's disease via the gut-brain axis. And scientists are advising California legislators to prepare for destructive ...

Sep 27, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Exercise weight loss explained; chimpanzees like alcohol; auditing quantum computers

This week, researchers reported evidence of a cosmic impact at classic Clovis archaeological sites. Biologists in Texas discovered a rare hybrid bird, the offspring of a blue jay and a green jay. And a study suggests that ...

Sep 20, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: A mechanism for liver failure; LIGO black hole kick observed; primordial black hole explosions

This week, researchers reported on a new biopsy tool that can detect HPV-associated head and neck cancer up to 10 years before symptoms appear. Researchers developed a process to transform two-dimensional paintings into full-color, ...

Sep 13, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Ant species clones workers; a primordial black hole candidate; an anti-tumor carotenoid

This week: Researchers reported that evolutionary mutations are genome-driven, not random. Quantum physicists observed the magnetic nucleus of an atom switching back and forth in real time. And a new catalyst could simplify ...

Sep 6, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Human impacts on reef systems; testing AI systems; a woman with perfect memory

The week in science: UK fishermen are reporting a massive octopus bloom in the waters off southwest England. Researchers found a massive fossilized pearl in the Australian outback, the largest ever found in the country. And ...

Aug 30, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Beyond general relativity; gas giants and dark energy; the pleasures of difficult hobbies

This week, researchers pinned down the age of a complete Homo-genus skull found in Greece in 1960 to at least 286,000 years old. Medical researchers reported that the majority of chronic pain patients discontinue cannabis ...

Aug 23, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: A new category of supernovas; neurons beat machine learning; depression and vitiligo

Based on simulations, researchers report that the next big earthquake along the San Andreas fault is unlikely to resemble previous quakes. Researchers at the intersection of algebra, geometry, particle physics and cosmology ...

Aug 16, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Video games and brain activity; a triple black hole system; neutralizing Skynet

It's August, which means Hot Science Summer is two-thirds over. This week, NASA released an exceptionally pretty photo of Mars, a sharp panorama color altered to make the sky blue (???). California health authorities are ...

Aug 9, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Chatbots chat about suicide; ancient concrete recipes; depression and brain morphology

This week, researchers at the University of Albany reported an extreme size difference between early human males and females, suggesting intense competition among males. Krill are so overfished in Antarctica this year that ...

Aug 2, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Hot, hot gold; mechanisms of face recognition; first pathway of gut-brain communication

It's Saturday! Let's review the last seven days of research findings: In a kind of logistics/transport breakthrough, archaeologists in Wales have determined that smaller megaliths surrounding Stonehenge were transported by ...

Jul 26, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Dogs like TV; mRNA vaccine enhances cancer therapy; old rhyme inaccurate

This week in science news: Researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, digitally reconstructed the ribcages of four prehistoric Homo sapiens and theorize that climate influences ribcage evolution. ...

Jul 19, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Disproving string theory; interstellar comet arrives; lemurs age gracefully

Well, it's July 12, which means (a) the Steam Summer Sale is over and (b) it's really hot outside in the northeastern U.S. This week, researchers discovered a cool new fish and named it after Darth Vader. An analysis of the ...

Jul 12, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Upside-down sharks; brain network functioning in psychopaths; IQ associated with better predictions

This week, biologists discovered a new cellular organelle that's like "a new recycling center within the cell." Wild-growing tomatoes in the Galápagos are de-evolving. And geologists at the University of Southampton detected ...

Jun 28, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Genetic toggles, undersea farmers and exploding rockets

This week, medical researchers ruled out brainstem CT scanning alone for proof of neurologic death. Researchers at Yale presented new evidence that the brain stores and retrieves visuomotor associations in graph-like cognitive ...

Jun 21, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Chatbots easily tricked; better strength training; dynamics of a neural 'reward map'

This week, the state of Florida reached a "startling milestone" in the effort to eradicate invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades. Archaeologists found the 6,000-year-old remains of a teen girl with cranial modification. ...

Jun 14, 2025