https://phys.org/science-news/sci-other/ en-us The latest news on chemistry, math, archaeology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and science technologies. This week in science news: Are you a mosquito magnet? Here's why. Researchers using topological mathematics have uncovered a hidden rule in abstract art that corresponds to people's perceptions. And scientists developed a technology to create new electrical connections between specific neurons that could improve resilience to stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturday-citations-prehistoric-dentistry-aging.html Other Sat, 16 May 2026 09:00:02 EDT news698063559 This week, researchers reported that the human brain is capable of sophisticated language processing while in an unconscious state during general anesthesia. An informatics and computing professor found that the Climate TRACE consortium has underestimated vehicle carbon emissions in cities by a staggering 70%. And archaeologists excavated and photoscanned a prehistoric man-made island located in a Scottish loch. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturday-citations-psychedelic-therapeutics-interoception.html Other Sat, 09 May 2026 08:30:02 EDT news697453274 The Pentagon on Friday released a first batch of secret files documenting reported sightings of unidentified flying objects—some dating back to the 1940s—fanning speculation over whether alien life exists. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-flying-discs-orbs-newly-pentagon.html Other Fri, 08 May 2026 13:36:47 EDT news697466184 Researchers at the University of Vermont have uncovered a powerful new insight about how language works—one that overturns a cornerstone assumption in psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence that has stood for more than 70 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-human-language-deep-safety-bias.html Other Wed, 06 May 2026 14:00:02 EDT news697292341 We're focusing on space news this week, but we did cover the usual amount of local news down here in Earth's gravity well: A new Tokamak reactor regime sustained stable plasma fusion for one full minute. An anomaly in global sea level rise turns out to be due to deep ocean heating. And Chinese researchers report that they found microplastics in every part of both healthy and diseased human brains. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturday-citations-spaaa-aaace.html Other Sat, 02 May 2026 09:00:01 EDT news696857370 Artificial intelligence can undoubtedly help scientists with their academic papers by summarizing research and helping to improve writing. However, one downside is that it has led to a wave of poorly written submissions and reviews, according to a new study published in Organization Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-journal-ai-academic-publishing-quality.html Other Fri, 01 May 2026 14:40:06 EDT news696849537 This week, researchers reported that malaria influenced population distribution in Africa thousands of years ago. Mathematicians at MIT report that classical physics formulations can explain quantum phenomena. And a study found that electron spin causes mirror-image molecules to behave differently from one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-saturday-citations-cruise-ship-pathogen.html Other Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:50:01 EDT news696250389 Spanish Renaissance master El Greco is often considered one of the greatest painters of all time, and many of his artworks are displayed in galleries around the world. His painting The Baptism of Christ is generally believed by art historians to have been unfinished at the time of his death in 1614 and completed by his son, Jorge Manuel. But new research using AI suggests that the artist may have played more of a role in completing the work than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-brushstroke-ai-reopens-centuries-mystery.html Archaeology Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:35:52 EDT news695900068 People often solve simple arithmetic problems, such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, in their minds. The precise mental processes they rely on to solve these problems, however, are not entirely clear. Researchers at Université de Bordeaux and UCLouvain recently tried to better understand how humans tackle simple math mentally by tracking the size of their pupils. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mental-math-shortcut-pupil-dilation.html Mathematics Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:50:01 EDT news695482943 This week in science news: Researchers are calling to exploit sewage waste and manure to break U.S. synthetic fertilizer dependence. Wasps have begun disrupting the 10-million-year mutualism of ants and plants. And scientists have taken a step toward using CRISPR to silence the extra chromosome in Down syndrome. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-saturday-citations-neuroinflammaging-treatment-stuns.html Other Sat, 18 Apr 2026 09:10:01 EDT news695642585 In an analysis of a video-assisted, pitch-side review of soccer (UK football) referee calls in the English Premier League, referees overturned their original call 95% of the time. However, these decisions had no statistical link to crowd size, the score or quarter when the call was made, or whether the call was regarding the home versus away team. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-referee-decisions-soccer-frequently-overturned.html Other Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:00:08 EDT news695464857 Happy Saturday! This week, researchers reported on the familiar phenomenon of speeding away from a slower-driving car only to have it catch up at the next traffic light—they've named it Voorhees law, after the well-known movie slasher who always catches up to his victims. A study finds that nonpsychotropic cannabinoid CBD reverses brain damage in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. And scientists are testing methods to regrow joints damaged by arthritis. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-saturday-citations-octopus-behavior-children.html Other Sat, 11 Apr 2026 09:00:02 EDT news695044047 The history of science and technology is marked by major breakthroughs—the theory of evolution, the splitting of the atom, the development of antibiotics—and a research team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has developed a method to help pinpoint discoveries that reshaped the course of science. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-breakthroughs-science-large-scale-analysis.html Other Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:06 EDT news694194001 Magicians often talk while performing their acts, using a type of speech called "patter." This can include scripted dialog, storytelling, and interactions, and is often used to entertain and manage audiences, with many people—including magicians—believing that it can even misdirect spectators and make sleight-of-hand tricks harder to spot. But does patter actually pull focus and make it difficult for viewers to see what's happening? A new study published in Scientific Reports tests that assumption directly—and the results are surprising. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-magicians-doesnt-eyes-card-monte.html Other Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:40:01 EDT news694251354 To date, the main role of AI in scientific research has been to assist with narrow tasks such as discovering chemical structures, analyzing data or predicting protein shapes. But now, the technology has broken new ground with a fully AI-generated paper passing peer review at a major machine-learning conference workshop. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ai-paper-peer.html Other Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:40:06 EDT news694094745 This week, we learned that across the animal kingdom, sperm cells have a short shelf life. A study implicated autoantibodies in the development of long COVID. And among its other drawbacks, the weedkiller glyphosate may foster the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-saturday-citations-birthday-cetaceans-quantifying.html Other Sat, 28 Mar 2026 09:00:02 EDT news693831274 This week, among a lot of other important findings, we learned that emperor cichlid fish have gaze sensitivity and dislike it if you look at them—or especially their children. England is looking for a solution to its 5-billion-liter water deficit. And a high-fiber diet isn't only healthy for you—it also benefits your parasitic tapeworms! https://phys.org/news/2026-03-saturday-citations-merging-brown-dwarfs.html Other Sat, 21 Mar 2026 08:30:01 EDT news693226847 Humans really do rule the world. We took over fast and far, more than any other wild vertebrates. We inhabit nearly every corner of the world, and can thrive in deserts, tropical rainforests and even extremely cold climates. But how? Scientists say we did it through not only biological evolution, but another system: cultural evolution. That is what makes us so special. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-humans-planet-role-cultural-evolution.html Other Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:30:03 EDT news692981821 The More You Know: This week, researchers successfully reconstructed videos from the brain activity of mice. According to a new study, female birds are more likely to sing when their extended families help with childcare. And mathematicians have disproven a decades-old classical geometry rule by constructing two compact, self-contained torus objects that have the same metric and mean curvature but are structurally different on a global scale. So that's neat. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-saturday-citations-neurology-huge-croc.html Other Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:00:02 EDT news692620799 What we learned this week: Left-handed people may have a psychological edge in competition. Humanoid robots can now do creepy parkour through the uncanny valley. And if you've ever cared for an elderly cat, a new study highlights a biological quirk that could explain why they're so prone to kidney disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-saturday-citations-bad-news-footballers.html Other Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:30:01 EST news692017248 When scientists employ generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help with tasks such as editing and translation for their academic writing, many journals now ask them to disclose this assistance. The rules are intended to maintain transparency in scientific publishing. But many researchers are failing to acknowledge their reliance on these programs, according to a new report published in the journal PNAS. Yongyuan He and Yi Bu at the Department of Information Management, Peking University, analyzed more than 5.2 million papers published in 5,114 journals between 2021 and 2025. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-scientists-ai-disclose.html Other Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:00:01 EST news692010988 This week, astronomers reported that one of the biggest observed stars in the universe could soon explode. A study compared long-term COVID-19 brain effects to the flu. And a new eco-friendly battery could theoretically last for centuries (or for several hours if you put it into a Steam Deck, haha). https://phys.org/news/2026-02-saturday-citations-rex-tiptoe-subduing.html Other Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:30:01 EST news691413577 Will humanity extend into the far future? It's likely many of us think it should. The problem is that each of us, individually and collectively, act otherwise—we are destroying the environment and climate at every turn. Now a group of scientists is arguing that civilization needs to specifically and systematically study how our species can ensure its survival, even for millions of years, via a new interdisciplinary field they call "Future Dynamics." Their study is published in Habitable Planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-scientific-discipline-humanity-deep-future.html Other Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:00:01 EST news691407766 A comprehensive game plan and strategic tactics are critical to winning soccer, but how much does a team's unpredictability in moving the soccer ball around the pitch matter? In a new article published in PLOS One, an international team of researchers analyzed event data from top-tier association soccer competitions to provide insights into match analysis, player tactics and game strategy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-sports-stats-unpredictable-play-winner.html Mathematics Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:20:01 EST news691413601 Live music can engage more than just one sense, despite it being an auditory medium. Lighting and visual effects can enhance the listening experience, but it is unclear if they can also affect the impression of the sound. In a study appearing in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, researchers from Germany's Technical University of Berlin found that the color of a concert hall has an impact on the sound perception of a listener. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-theater-affects-perception.html Other Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:00:01 EST news691071541 This week in the scientific process: researchers reported the first-ever shark sighted in Antarctic waters. Penguins beware! Biologists report that honey bees navigate more precisely than previously thought. And not all humans scare wildlife, it turns out. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-saturday-citations-virus-proteins-spinosaurus.html Other Sat, 21 Feb 2026 08:50:01 EST news690808584 This week, researchers reported on a juvenile great white shark caught by fishermen in Spanish Mediterranean waters. China's clean air initiatives have resulted in major public health gains, but may have one unintended consequence. And satellite data revealed that boreal forests expanded globally by 12% but have shifted north since 1985. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-saturday-citations-pig-boar-hybrids.html Other Sat, 14 Feb 2026 09:00:01 EST news690133301 First names in Western countries today are more diverse than they were before early modern states evolved. This difference started to emerge in the 17th century in response to a change that took place in the naming system in large parts of Europe and the English-speaking world. Societies moved away from attributive last names—based on occupation or appearance like John (the) Short—to inherited surnames. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-parallels-cultures-repercussions-asian.html Other Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:10:15 EST news689965801 This week in science news: Nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, may break down more rapidly in the atmosphere than previously thought due to climate change. A new, experimental pill dramatically reduces bad cholesterol. And physicists believe they detected an exploding black hole, representing scary new behavior from what we once thought was a more limited arsenal of gravity-based terror and awe. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-saturday-citations-bonobos-cannabis-brain.html Other Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:30:11 EST news689601416 Keeping up with the latest research is vital for scientists, but given that millions of scientific papers are published every year, that can prove difficult. Artificial intelligence systems show promise for quickly synthesizing seas of information, but they still tend to make things up, or "hallucinate." https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ai-openscholar-scientific-cites-sources.html Other Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:00:13 EST news689420235