Phys.org news

Phys.org / Ancient ground squirrel droppings reveal Arctic's rich evolutionary history

Ground squirrel droppings, preserved for millennia in the Yukon's deep permafrost, have yielded an enormous amount of environmental DNA from dozens of species of plants, insects, microbes and large mammals, offering detailed ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / New dating of Spain's Sala Keimada rock art sanctuary reveals thousands of years of continuous use

The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on Sala Keimada, one of the rock art sanctuaries in Cueva Palomera, ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / These underwater 'living pink rocks' help store carbon: Scientists just found four new species

Rhodoliths may look like small rocks on the seafloor, but they are actually living algae that create habitats for marine life and contribute to long-term carbon storage. A new study found that the deeper, low-light waters ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / How climate shapes the meanings of words across languages

When English speakers say "rose" and Chinese speakers say "玫瑰," do they mean the same thing? A Peking University team led by Professor Bi Yanchao explored this question using word embeddings from 53 languages, behavioral ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / 3D-printed nozzle array could streamline production of drug-delivery microparticles

MIT researchers have demonstrated a low-cost design for specialized electronic nozzles, called triaxial electrospray emitters, that could be used to manufacture time-release drug-delivery particles or self-healing materials ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / Some drugs 'fail' because of unrealistic testing conditions, scientists discover

A drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists uncovered a hidden ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / Koala population crash came before humans, genomic study reveals

A genomic study has reshaped our understanding of the evolutionary history of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), revealing the iconic Australian marsupial experienced a severe population decline around 100,000 years ago, ...

Jun 9, 2026
Phys.org / Black hole feeding bursts may explain JWST's Little Red Dots in early universe

A new theoretical study may have cracked one of the most puzzling discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): Little Red Dots, spotted across the early universe. The paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server on ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Tabletop experiment helps reconcile fundamental physics

Assistant Professor Haocun Yu is something of a scientific diplomat. In a recent Physical Review Letters publication, she and her colleagues show how a tabletop experiment can bring together two bedrock physics theories that ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / California's tectonic stress has reached record level, earthquake model reveals

Earthquakes usually occur along fracture zones in Earth's crust, where large tectonic plates slide past one another and become locked. Stress builds up over long periods and is suddenly released in the form of an earthquake. ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Critically endangered Chinese pangolin found in Nepal's sacred forest

The rare Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) has been spotted for the first time in Sunsari District in eastern Nepal. This brings the total number of districts in the country where the critically endangered species has ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Newfound sound wave scattering rule may lead to less bulky, more effective soundproofing

Researchers in China recently uncovered a quantum-inspired rule governing how sound is scattered by certain physical properties of a material. Their research, published in Physical Review Letters, may lead to the ability ...

Jun 8, 2026