Phys.org news

Phys.org / Why Europe's rising plant diversity may signal habitat disruption, not ecological recovery

The number of plant species in many ecosystems in Europe has grown rather than shrunk over the last 100 years. However, this is not necessarily cause for celebration, as this local increase is primarily due to generalists ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / A goat's tooth may have solved a 100‑year debate about ancient Greek farming

The agricultural economy was the backbone of wealth in ancient Greece. Food brought people together, whether in smaller groups at a wine-drinking symposium or the entire community in a sacrificial feast of epic proportions. ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Childbirth is not uniquely difficult to humans

The tight fit of a baby's head through a mother's birth canal, which causes great difficulty in childbirth, is not unique to humans, as previously understood. Instead, some small-bodied primate babies have heads almost twice ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Great Barrier Reef drilling reveals repeated collapse, regrowth and migration since last ice age

An international expedition including University of Sydney researchers has pieced together the clearest picture yet of how the Great Barrier Reef responded to dramatic environmental change over the past 30,000 years. Multiple ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Analyzing avalanches on asteroid Vesta offers new method for understanding regolith processes

A study conducted at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris uses images from NASA's Dawn mission and a Bayesian inversion of the Hapke photometric model to analyze avalanches and ejecta deposits on the asteroid Vesta. ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Cultural values may decide when comforting others feels like real support

When someone you love is upset, your first instinct may be to comfort them. To reassure them. To make them feel better. But what if that instinct isn't universal?

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Cochlea network model reveals how inner ear may sort sound from noise

Over 70 million people in the U.S. are impacted by hearing loss, and age-related hearing loss is the second most common health problem in older adults, according to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. However, ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / There may be 3 times more insect species than previously thought

A new estimate of insect species globally finds that there may be 8 million to 14 million more species than people thought, with few of them discovered.

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Table sugar could hold a cheaper, quicker key to making vital drugs

Pioneering research has developed a new way of creating carbohydrate-based medicines that could ultimately replace costly drugs for common health conditions, using two cheap basic ingredients—table sugar and vinegar.

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Decline in plankton across Northeast Atlantic sends stark warning for ocean health

Microscopic plankton are among the most important organisms on Earth. Phytoplankton produce around half of the oxygen we breathe, while plankton as a whole underpin marine food webs, support fisheries, help regulate carbon ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Toward experiment-guided AlphaFold: Researchers overcome AI tool's single-conformation limitation

The AI-based program AlphaFold predicts a protein's 3D structure with remarkable accuracy. However, it tends to reduce heterogeneous structures to a single dominant conformation, or shape, and overlooks experimental conditions ...

Jun 29, 2026
Phys.org / Urban growth may slow by 2100, leaving big cities smaller than expected

The world is urbanizing fast. In 1975, about 11% of the global population lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. "Today, we estimate that share to be about 24%," says Andrea Musso, junior fellow at the Complexity ...

Jun 29, 2026