Articles by Chris Packham
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Lead, microplastics and coal on our filthy planet—plus, faster-charging lithium-ion batteries
This week, we reported on new developments in lithium-ion batteries, and a real industrial pollution hat trick with stories on coal, lead and microplastics.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Bronze-Age gender representation, gamma rays, nice bonobos in your neighborhood want to meet you
This week's news roundup includes a Bronze Age discovery that calls into question existing ideas of gender representation from the period. More research confirms that bonobos are actually nice. Plus: Actual good climate news?
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: A big old black hole, polar bears in bad decline, building a jail for electrons
This week, we covered developments about a record-breaking black hole, the continued plight of polar bears, ChatGPT trying to learn intuition and more. Don't worry if you missed those stories. We've got you covered here.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Moon origins, rat whimsy, microgravity orientation. Plus: Starfish are bodiless heads, it turns out
Good morrow and a cheerful week's end to you. This week, we reported on notable developments in the lack of starfish body development. Physicists used a new method to revisit the planetary collision that likely formed the ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Mars limnology, phage immunology, quantum technology. Plus: The mushrooms are coming
This week, we reported on LIGO upgrades, parasitic fungi and a new analysis of Curiosity rover data. Also, did you know that viruses also attack bacteria? But at that scale, it's a lot less like catching a cold and a lot ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Hope for golden retrievers and humans. Plus: Cosmologists constrain the entire universe
This week, we reported on the totality of the universe. We reported on some other subjects, as well, but since they're obviously encompassed by that first thing, enough said.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Gravitational waves, time travel and the simulated universe hypothesis
This week, researchers proved empirically that life isn't fair. Also, you'll notice that, in a superhuman display of restraint, I managed to write a paragraph about the simulated universe hypothesis without once referencing ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Hippo maxillofacial issues; implicit biases in the game of kings; AI masters Street Fighter
They announced the Nobel prizes this week! But did any of the recipients teach an AI to play Street Fighter? Here are a few of this week's stories not yet lauded by international committees of scientists, but which we thought ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Volcano vs. asteroid; NASA's supernova time lapse; immortal chemicals
This week, we're highlighting a study involving toxic chemical contaminants, and just for fun, a second study involving other toxic chemical contaminants. But NASA made a cool time-lapse video using the good old Hubble space ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Cutting the middleman out of spider silk synthesis; hungry black holes; Osiris-Rex is back!
This week, we reported on spider silk synthesis without spiders, and how policymakers are pursuing a wish-based approach to a global economy under climate change—what the kids call "manifesting" a green-growth future. Plus, ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Wear a helmet around supermassive black holes. Also, cute koalas and quantum therapy for cancer
This week, we looked at the swirling chaos around supermassive black holes, anthropogenic climate effects over the Atlantic ocean and the threats to koalas.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Quantum coherence; rising coal emissions; 'more uses of snail mucus are being discovered every day'
This first week of September, researchers reported on burned-out sharks, a method for maintaining quantum coherence and some positive market news for old-timey coal barons. Plus: Snail slime is really impressive if you look ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Ancient corvids, tetraquarks, and researchers who aren't bored hearing about your dreams
This week, researchers reported on two-dimensional gold sheets, a tidy little meson made of four quarks (and its buddy!) and a big and almost unimaginably dense exoplanet with an exciting backstory.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Comparing teenagers to bonobos, babies to dogs, ancient cats to modern cats. Plus: Photons!
This week, scientists contemplated teenage hormones, described cat noises, visualized photon entanglement and—oh!—landed on the moon.
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Ancient anarchists, filthy tycoons and a new state of matter
This week on Phys.org, we published news about ancient anarchists, a hidden phase transition, dark matter developments, hot oceans and pollution taxes.