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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: 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
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Reality vs. imagination; rhinos vs. poachers; mathematics vs. the Big Bang

This week, Chinese researchers reported a nearly complete skull representing the first known sauropod species from East Asia. A team at the USDA identified viruses from a miticide-resistant parasitic mite causing honey bee ...

Jun 7, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Wages vs. welfare; origins of teeth; a search for primordial black holes

A new study of the Gobi Wall in the Gobi highland desert of Mongolia reveals a multifunctional role beyond defense; data from the James Webb Space Telescope is bringing physicists closer to resolving the Hubble tension; and ...

May 31, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Protoplanetary cornucopia; trees abound; the importance of diversity in corporate boards

This week, paleontologists reported finding new details in an Archaeopteryx fossil via CT scanning and UV light exposure. NASA engineers revived a set of thrusters aboard Voyager 1 that had been considered inoperable in 2004. ...

May 17, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: AI predicts cancer survival outcomes; Hubble spots a wandering black hole

This week, physicists at CERN reported the transmutation of lead into gold in the Large Hadron Collider, raising the possibility that a Science X alchemy vertical could be on the horizon. An international research collaborative ...

May 10, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Cancer precursor cell identified; Webb spots more old galaxies

This week, archaeologists identified depictions of the Milky Way galaxy in ancient Egyptian imagery. A mathematician found a new way to solve higher polynomial equations, one of algebra's oldest challenges. And climbing shoe ...

May 3, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Is the universe a computational process? Plus: Psychological benefits of gaming

This week, researchers uncovered the negative pressure mechanisms plants use to communicate stress. Linguists found that the melody of spoken language in English functions as its own, distinct language. And there was also ...

Apr 26, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: An exoplanetary biosignature; the diplomacy of body odor; personalities of bees

This week, the Curiosity rover found large carbon deposits on Mars, suggesting an ancient carbon cycle. Researchers exploring the domestication of cats believe they may have originally pounced out of Tunisia. And researchers ...

Apr 19, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Huge eruptions from a black hole; the largest-ever functional brain map; origins of human musicality

This week, researchers reported a brain circuit linked to the intensity of political behavior. Microbiologists found that the 2018 eruption of the Kīlauea volcano drove a rare, massive summertime phytoplankton bloom, the ...

Apr 12, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Leaky continental plates, talking monkeys and a spectacular Einstein ring

This week, researchers reported on nine rivers and lakes in the Americas that defy hydrologic expectations. Geologists report that Earth's first crust probably had chemical features similar to today's continental crust. And ...

Apr 5, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: When the universe was young and cute. Plus: Southern Ocean cooling trend explained

One of the strangest facts in computer science is that it's really hard to generate true random numbers. For a computer, anyway. I can do it just fine: 173, 401, 530. That's right off the top of my head, true randomness. ...

Mar 29, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: The universe doesn't care about your precious standard model

This week, ALMA researchers reported the discovery of oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Geologists believe unusual structures in rock in the desert regions of Namibia, Oman and Saudia Arabia may be evidence of an unknown ...

Mar 22, 2025
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: A baffling discovery from Webb; the face of an early human; humans and dogs like to chill together

This week, we reported on the difficulty humans experience trying to read their dogs' emotions. Researchers reported that male blue-lined octopuses paralyze females before mating with them to avoid being eaten. And physicists ...

Mar 15, 2025