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Phys.org / Poop as medicine? A Roman vial's chemistry backs up ancient medical texts

When some ancient Romans were feeling a little under the weather, they were treated with human feces. While this practice was mentioned in ancient Greco-Roman medical texts by figures such as Pliny the Elder, there was no ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Rare 'universal paralog' genes may reveal a pre-LUCA evolutionary record

All life on Earth shares a common ancestor that lived roughly four billion years ago. This so-called "last universal common ancestor" (LUCA) represents the most ancient organism that researchers can study. Previous research ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Skua deaths mark first wildlife die-off due to avian flu on Antarctica

More than 50 skuas in Antarctica died from the high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5N1 in the summers of 2023 and 2024, marking the first documented die-off of wildlife from the virus on the continent. That is confirmed ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Two-day-old babies show brain signs of rhythm prediction, study finds

Babies are born with the ability to predict rhythm, according to a study published February 5 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Roberta Bianco from the Italian Institute of Technology, and colleagues.

Feb 5, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Snowball Earth: Ancient Scottish rocks reveal annual climate cycles

Scientists at the University of Southampton have uncovered evidence from ancient rocks that Earth's climate continued to fluctuate during its most extreme ice age—known as Snowball Earth. During the Cryogenian Period, between ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / DNA provides a solution to our enormous data storage problem

Since the dawn of the computer age, researchers have wrestled with two persistent challenges: how to store ever-increasing reams of data and how to protect that information from unintended access. Now, researchers with Arizona ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Medical Xpress / Mental health and heart attacks: What a 22-million-person review suggests

The Department of Medicine at University of Calgary led an analysis comparing several clinical mental disorders with risk of acute coronary syndrome, a term that includes heart attack and emergency chest pain resulting from ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Medical Xpress / Mutation in one Parkinson's protein eases cellular traffic jams caused by another

A hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the buildup of Lewy bodies—misfolded clumps of the protein known as alpha-synuclein. Long before Lewy bodies form, alpha-synuclein can interfere with neurons' ability to transport proteins ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Neuroscience
Tech Xplore / Why light poles failed in Hurricane Ian despite meeting design standards

When Hurricane Ian moved across Florida in 2022, several aluminum light poles on a Central Florida bridge collapsed or cracked, even though wind speeds remained below the structures' design limits. A new University of Florida ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Engineering
Medical Xpress / How 'invisible' vaccine scaffolding boosts HIV immune response

One of the biggest hurdles in developing an HIV vaccine is coaxing the body to produce the right kind of immune cells and antibodies. In most vaccines, HIV proteins are attached to a larger protein scaffolding that mimics ...

Feb 5, 2026 in HIV & AIDS
Phys.org / 'Red Potato' galaxy discovered by astronomers

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new massive and quiescent red galaxy, which they dubbed "Red Potato." The discovery was reported in a research paper published ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Capturing gravity waves: Scientists break 'decades of gridlock' in climate modeling

Global climate models capture many of the processes that shape Earth's weather and climate. Based on physics, chemistry, fluid motion and observed data, hundreds of these models agree that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ...

Feb 5, 2026 in Earth