All News

Phys.org / Urine tests confirm alcohol consumption in wild African chimpanzees

Aleksey Maro knows far more than he cares to know about the urination habits of chimpanzees. But if you want to measure the alcohol intake of chimps in a Ugandan rain forest, where a breathalyzer is impractical, collecting ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / 'Tiny' dinosaur, big impact: A 90-million-year-old fossil rewrites history

A team co-led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researcher Peter Makovicky and Argentinean colleague Sebastian Apesteguía has identified a 90-million-year-old fossil that provides the "missing link" for a mysterious ...

Feb 25, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Mysterious Greek inscription reignites debate on whether a Syrian mosque stands atop Roman Emperor Elagabalus' Temple

A recently discovered Greek inscription at the base of a column inside the Great Mosque of Homs in Syria has rekindled a longstanding scholarly debate about the exact location of the Temple of the sun, whose high priest ascended ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Language barriers slow down the international diffusion of knowledge, study finds

Rapid technological and scientific advances have fueled a huge wave of innovation over the past decades. The speed of global innovation is known to be dependent on the exchange of knowledge and skills between different nations ...

Feb 22, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Major gap in Earth's rock record likely due to tectonics—not glaciers

The Great Unconformity is a major gap in Earth's geologic record. The missing layer between Precambrian and Cambrian rocks represents a gap of around a billion years of history. Among much debate surrounding the cause of ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / New generation of climate models sheds first light on long-standing Pacific puzzle

Researchers have long been puzzled by the observed cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific and the Southern Ocean accompanying global warming. Existing climate models have failed to capture this pattern. At the Max Planck ...

Feb 20, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Thunderstorms conjure ghostly coronae in treetops, observed outdoors for the first time

For the first time, researchers have observed and measured weak electrical discharges, known as coronae, on trees during thunderstorms. A new study describes the near-invisible sparkles appearing similarly on branches of ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Supercomputer simulations reveal rotation drives chemical mixing in red giant stars

Advances in supercomputing have made solving a long‐standing astronomical conundrum possible: How can we explain the changes in the chemical composition at the surface of red giant stars as they evolve?

Feb 20, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / Superagers' brains have a 'resilience signature,' and it's all about neuron growth

Brains of older adults with super-healthy cognition grow more new neurons than those of their peers, according to a study from UIC, Northwestern University and the University of Washington. Researchers found that the brains ...

Feb 25, 2026 in Neuroscience
Phys.org / Martian volcanoes could be hiding massive glaciers under a blanket of ash

When we think of ice on Mars, we typically think of the poles, where we can see it visibly through probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are hard to access, and even more so given the restrictions on exploration ...

Feb 22, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / The physics of sneaker squeaks: High-speed imaging shows how they arise from supersonic detachment pulses

Basketball shoes on a gym floor, bicycle brakes in need of a tune-up, or the squeal of tires are everyday examples of squeaking sounds. Such sounds have long been attributed to stick-slip friction, or a cycle of intermittent ...

Feb 25, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Mother's breasts may protect a newborn from the cold—a new perspective on breast evolution

Humans differ from other primates due to their relatively large, permanent breasts, and their development has so far not been conclusively explained. According to a study conducted at the University of Oulu, Finland, the ...

Feb 25, 2026 in Biology