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Phys.org / Storms reveal rare 2,000-year-old footprints on Scottish beach

Storms that recently ravaged Britain's coastline have revealed 2,000-year-old footprints on an Angus beach—one of only a handful of locations in the U.K. where markings of this kind have ever been discovered. The imprints ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Forest loss can make watersheds 'leakier,' global study suggests

Forest loss does more than reduce tree cover. A new global study involving UBC Okanagan researchers shows it can fundamentally change how watersheds hold and release water. The research, published in the Proceedings of the ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Why some objects in space look like snowmen: Gravitational collapse may shed light on contact binaries

Astronomers have long debated why so many icy objects in the outer solar system look like snowmen. Michigan State University researchers now have evidence of the surprisingly simple process that could be responsible for their ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / AI tool debuts with better genomic predictions and explanations

Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm. In biology, AI tools called deep neural networks (DNNs) have proven invaluable for predicting the results of genomic experiments. Their usefulness has these tools poised ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Genetics
Medical Xpress / Ultraprocessed foods show addictionlike patterns comparable to tobacco, researchers say

That bag of chips you swore you'd only eat a handful of. The energy drink that somehow turns into three. The late-night fast-food run—whether it involves pizza, burgers or tacos—that feels impossible to resist. A new ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Health
Phys.org / Archived tree cores reveal why boreal forests are getting starved for nitrogen

Despite decades of industrial deposition, nitrogen availability in the boreal forest is steadily declining. In a new study published in Nature, researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences using decades ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Earth
Medical Xpress / Red blood cells soak up sugar at high altitude, protecting against diabetes

Scientists have long known that people living at high altitudes, where oxygen levels are low, have lower rates of diabetes than people living closer to sea level. But the mechanism of this protection has remained a mystery. ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Endocrinology & Metabolism
Phys.org / What 'housane' rings are and why a light-powered route may matter for drugs

When developing new drugs, one thing is particularly important: finding and producing the right molecules that can be used as active ingredients. The key elements of some drugs, such as penicillin, are small, tri- or quadripartite ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Widely used method underestimates forests' ability to prevent major floods, researchers argue

Researchers from the University of British Columbia argue that a widely used method to understand and predict flood risk has led scientists to miscalculate how forests can prevent major flooding. The paper, published in Ambio, ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / AI tool observes solar active regions to advance warnings of space weather

New research by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF-NCAR) has developed a new tool providing a first step toward the ability to forecast ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Colonists dredged away Sydney's natural oyster reefs. Now, scientists know how best to restore them

New research has identified optimal design for artificial habitats to support restoration of oyster reefs, based on a detailed understanding of natural oyster reef geometry. Published in the global journal Nature, the Sydney-based ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Webb maps the mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus

For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus's upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb's NIRSpec ...

Feb 19, 2026 in Astronomy & Space