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Phys.org / Early snakes explored life underground, on land and at sea

Snakes are highly modified lizards, with more than 4,000 living species today. The origin of snakes has long been one of evolutionary biology's most debated questions. Their sparse fossil record has made it hard to pin down ...

Aug 9, 2026
Phys.org / New species of mountain horned dragon identified in Thailand's high-altitude forests

Scientists have described a new species of lizard from the high mountain forests of western Thailand and have given it a name straight out of an American fantasy drama television series: Acanthosaura syrax, named after Syrax, ...

Aug 10, 2026
Medical Xpress / Why a doctor saying 'it's normal' can backfire

A new study from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management suggests that when physicians try to reassure patients by saying their symptoms are "normal," patients may infer that treatment isn't necessary—and ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Real-time measurements reveal antiferromagnetic skyrmions move in line with an applied current

Skyrmions—essentially magnetic vortices—represent a promising approach in spintronics; in the future, they could serve as components in storage media or computers, potentially complementing established CMOS technologies. ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Climate change could mean four extra hours of extreme heat on hot days

Hot days could gain more than four additional hours of extreme heat by the end of the 21st century under a high-emissions scenario, according to a modeling study published in Nature Climate Change. The findings show that ...

Aug 10, 2026
Medical Xpress / Patient-derived organoids reveal which breast tumors may resist standard therapies

Researchers at UC San Francisco have developed a new method to predict how different types of breast cancer will respond to treatment, using patient data from the I-SPY2 breast cancer trial and rapid testing on lab-grown ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Fermentation emerges as key pathway for ammonium production beneath the Pearl River Delta

A study led by Professor Jimmy Jiujiu Jiao from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Professor Meng Li from Shenzhen University has identified microbial fermentation as the ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Slow spin could explain why planets become hellish

Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Ticklish spots are shared across cultures, but why they are ticklish is more complex than it seems

People from different cultural backgrounds are tickled in remarkably similar ways. They laugh, resist and are usually tickled by family members or friends. They are also ticklish in the same body regions. These are among ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations identified

People in communities thousands of miles apart have described the same strange experience after eating a mysterious mushroom: vivid visions of tiny humans moving through and interacting with the physical world around them. ...

Aug 6, 2026
Medical Xpress / AI framework decodes how brain regions talk to one another

For decades, neuroscientists have been able to record which parts of the brain show increased electrical activity during a behavior, such as when we form a memory or make a decision. But scientists haven't been able to determine ...

Aug 10, 2026
Phys.org / Swarms of tiny robots remove microplastics from soil and water

Microplastics, which are plastic particles under 5 millimeters, are a major and growing threat in both soil and water. They damage soil fertility, disrupt nutrient cycling, harm aquatic and terrestrial life, and can move ...

Aug 8, 2026