Articles by Chris Packham
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: E-bike accident spike; epigenetics in memory formation; Komodo dragons now scarier
This week, we reported on new epigenetic findings in memory formation as well as a dramatic spike in micromobility-related head injuries, so there's a whole lot of head-related science on the front burner these days. There ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Scientists study monkey faces and cat bellies; another intermediate black hole in the Milky Way
This is not a rerun of last week's roundup; another group of astronomers found a second intermediate-mass black hole in the Milky Way and I can't avoid highlighting it. They're cool! They may have formed in the primordial ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: The first Goldilocks black hole; Toxoplasma gondii metabolism; pumping at the speed of muscle
This week: Physicists conducted a biological study, engineers built a waste-recycling suit for astronauts (and worm riders), and astronomers identified the first known intermediate-mass black hole, and it's right here in ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Armadillos are everywhere; Neanderthals still surprising anthropologists; kids are egalitarian
The coolest news this week concerns anthropological research combining state-of-the-art imaging technology, medical diagnostics, genetics and sociology. We covered the implications of a black hole in an expanding universe ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Bulking tips for black holes; microbes influence drinking; new dinosaur just dropped
What did scientists do this week? Exactly four things, all of which are summarized below.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Bacterial warfare, a self-programming language model, passive cooling in the big city
There's a lot of science news in seven days, so just because a new study isn't cited here on Saturday morning doesn't mean it didn't happen. A lot more has happened. But also, check out these four stories:
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Praising dogs; the evolution of brown fat; how SSRIs relieve depression. Plus: Boeing's Starliner
If there's one thing I've learned about dogs, it's that praise is super-effective for training; a new Hungarian study confirms these anecdotal findings and reinforces that notion that praise is more effective as a pedagogical ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: The sound of music, sneaky birds, better training for LLMs. Plus: Diversity improves research
In the small fishing village where I grew up, we didn't have much. But we helped our neighbors, raised our children to respect the sea, and embraced an inclusive scientific methodology with a cross section of sex, race and ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: The cheapness horizon of electric batteries; the battle-worthiness of ancient armor; scared animals
Sometimes, science requires traveling into hazardous environments; sometimes it requires a vast influx of state capital and an army of researchers and technicians. But sometimes, science has to call in the Marines. We reported ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Mediterranean diet racks up more points; persistent quantum coherence; vegan dogs
This week, we reported on the birth throes of black holes, the questionable assertions of a study about vegan dogs and a technique for observing entanglement without breaking quantum coherence.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Dietary habits of humans; dietary habits of supermassive black holes; saving endangered bilbies
The onset of solar maximum has resulted in severe geomagnetic storms, with the possibility of aurora borealis events this weekend as far south as the northern United States. Do not be alarmed if you see awesome displays of ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Parrots on the internet; a map of human wakefulness; the most useless rare-earth element
We field a torrent of science news updates every week and on Saturday morning, we highlight three or four of them based on the observed preferences of a panel of dogs as shown by the Paired-Stimulus Preference Assessment, ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Irrationality modeled; genetic basis for PTSD; Tasmanian devils still endangered
Hello, stakeholders. (This is the nongendered term of address I've been workshopping because I see "folks" in too many social media posts.) Researchers this week reported on an AI model that attempts to emulate human irrationality ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Listening to bird dreams, securing qubits, imagining impossible billiards
It's Saturday, which means that in a universe where the arrow of time moves backward, people have to go to work tomorrow. In such a hypothetical universe, Garfield hates Fridays—tough to imagine. This week, we looked at several ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: AI and the prisoner's dilemma; stellar cannibalism; evidence that EVs reduce atmospheric CO₂
While I was assembling and formatting all these links, we had a 4.8-magnitude earthquake here on the East Coast, so apologies in advance for any misaligned text. This week: Gravitationally accelerated stars! AIs that exhibit ...