https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Thirty-five years on—well, 12 million, technically—Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park continues to offer important glimpses of prehistoric life in Nebraska. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tracks-tooth-reveal-bone-dogs.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707135102 Ancient Egypt has left us a wealth of artistic treasures, including wall paintings, wooden coffins and limestone reliefs. Many retain their vibrant colors despite the passage of time, a testament to the ingredients used to make the paint mixtures. A new study published in the journal Science Advances has taken a closer look at some of the organic materials used in these painted artworks, including paint binders and adhesives. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ingredients-ancient-egyptian-complex-previously.html Archaeology Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:30:01 EDT news707051771 A mule has helped researchers build the most complete reference genomes to date for horses and donkeys, giving scientists access to complex regions of DNA that earlier versions could not fully capture. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mule-scientists-clearest-horse-donkey.html Evolution Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:20:04 EDT news706792861 Letting late-summer weeds grow could help honeybees when they find it most challenging to gather nectar, according to new research published in the journal, Functional Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-honeybees-struggle-nectar-august-reveal.html Plants & Animals Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:10:01 EDT news706281421 Charting a better future will require redressing the problems of the past. That's one reason many countries have begun to return dispossessed land to Indigenous peoples. The goal of Indigenous land restitution is to empower disadvantaged communities and entrust land management back to the region's traditional stewards. In many cases, these programs also carry expectations of broad environmental benefits. However, there's been relatively little research testing this assumption. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-indigenous-restitution-empowers-communities-environmental.html Environment Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:00:07 EDT news705840061 At first glance, it looks exactly like a seahorse. It has the same horse-shaped head tilted down from the body, the same curled, grasping tail and, in the males, a fully enclosed pouch for brooding the young. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-museum-nature-seahorses.html Evolution Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:20:06 EDT news704976241 University of Maryland researchers discovered a new approach to treating venomous snakebites—using the same toxin-blocking proteins that snakes evolved to protect themselves. The team found that specific combinations of blood proteins from western diamondback rattlesnakes provided unprecedented neutralizing power against the venom of multiple dangerous snake species. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-combined-rattlesnake-proteins-potent-current.html Biotechnology Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:40:05 EDT news704641381 Until the Panamanian isthmus formed about 2.8 million years ago, North and South America were isolated continents with unique groups of animals. A riot of marsupials—mammals with brood pouches—and sloths in the south contrasted with camels, horses, pronghorn antelopes and saber-toothed cats in the north. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-north-south-america-mammals-intermingle.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:00:01 EDT news704548501 Excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Swabian Jura in southwestern Germany have again yielded two spectacular 40,000-year-old depictions of birds carved from mammoth ivory. The two figurines are the smallest discovered so far and are the size of a thumbnail, while still including many details. These remarkable finds come from the rich Aurignacian layers at Hohle Fels, which have produced some of the oldest figurative art known and date to the initial arrival of modern humans in the Upper Danube region. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ice-age-artists-thumbnail-size.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news704550903 A moth caterpillar identified by the agribusiness sector as one of the most destructive pests of soybean, cotton and corn crops may harbor fungi and bacteria in its gut that can degrade expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam. In an article published in the journal BMC Microbiology, researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil presented the results of a study investigating the gut microbiota of Helicoverpa armigera and its role in degrading this petroleum-derived plastic. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-destructive-crop-caterpillar-harbors-fungi.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:30:01 EDT news704039282 When you first step into Japan's Kyushu tombs, the first thing you notice is nothing at all. "When you enter, you're engulfed by darkness; you can smell earth and stone, and you have the sensation of being enclosed …," said Claudia Zancan, a Ph.D. candidate who examined these sixth to seventh-century tombs. "Without a torch, you can't move at all." https://phys.org/news/2026-07-kyushu-tombs-humans-meant-individuals.html Archaeology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 08:00:08 EDT news703772285 Iñaki Intxaurbe, a researcher at the EHU-University of the Basque Country, analyzed the distribution of images in nine caves in the Basque Country using network-based analysis and statistical techniques. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-animals-prehistoric-reveal-hidden-pattern.html Archaeology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 15:40:06 EDT news703857472 A truly useful quantum computer must be able to run any algorithm, with the same versatility an ordinary laptop offers. Physicists have now shown a new way to give a quantum computer exactly that flexibility, harnessing the capabilities of exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-braided-exotic-particles-reliable-universal.html Quantum Physics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:50:01 EDT news703406691 Horses know a predator when they see one—even if it's only on a video screen while they're standing in a stall, with no sounds, smells or previous experience providing context for what they're viewing, a new study suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-eyeing-predator-horses-poker-hearts.html Plants & Animals Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:00:07 EDT news703325708 A University of Auckland scientist has uncovered the fates of chimpanzees who starred in seminal psychological studies of the early 20th century. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-famous-puzzle-chimps-lost-years.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:10:02 EDT news703169610 As we move closer to Election Day 2026, voting preferences are moving back into focus—and with them, analyses of what drives partisanship at the polls. However, less frequently asked is when Americans show evidence of partisan behavior: shortly or well after reaching the legal voting age? As teenagers? In elementary school? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-children-group-evidence-privacy-bias.html Social Sciences Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:20:02 EDT news702833795 Around 1,800 years ago, a fossilized spinal bone lay on the windswept beaches of Roman Britain until a curious passerby picked it up and carried it far away, only to drop it in a pit. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-oldest-deliberately-fossil-ichthyosaur-roman.html Archaeology Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:40:01 EDT news702628012 A new analysis sheds light on the most likely route for the Carthaginian general's famous crossing of the Alps. The study, led by the University of Oxford and iDiv/Friedrich Schiller University Jena, reveals that the Col de la Traversette would have been the least energy-intensive route. The findings have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-elephant-energetics-hannibal-alpine-route.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:00:16 EDT news702537909 A new ancient DNA study published in Science Advances provides evidence that political power among Scythian elites may have been inherited through family lineages that extended across multiple burial sites. By combining archaeology, anthropology and genetics, the new study offers fresh insight into how social inequality and political authority developed among ancient nomadic societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-newfound-family-link-scythian-elite.html Archaeology Fri, 03 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news702200941 Researchers at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), in collaboration with researchers from The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) and Akita Prefectural University, have discovered a new insect pathogen that invades the gut symbiotic organ of stink bugs by mimicking their symbiotic microorganism, ultimately killing the host bugs. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-trojan-horse-microorganisms-exploit-symbiotic.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:00:02 EDT news702222902 New research led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist reveals that the earliest Native Americans had highly specialized diets, primarily hunting the largest animals on the landscape, and they targeted these megafauna consistently from Alaska to South America. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earliest-americans-specialized-megafauna-alaska.html Archaeology Wed, 01 Jul 2026 19:20:04 EDT news702144361 In spring 2024, more than 100,000 people protested in Taiwan's streets. On Threads, a parallel fight was underway. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-generated-cartoons-reshaped-taiwan.html Political science Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:20:04 EDT news701353781 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 genetic information about an environment that no longer exists. It is among the oldest ancient DNA ever recovered and sequenced. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-ground-squirrel-reveal-arctic.html Evolution Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:00:05 EDT news700130381 Research into a common environmental germ that can cause severe infections in people and animals has raised concern that horses are starting to develop antibiotic resistance towards it. The University of the Sunshine Coast study examined the prevalence of the bug P. aeruginosa in Australian wild birds, native wildlife, livestock and domestic animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-antibiotic-resistance-australian-horses-animal.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:00:07 EDT news699616830 The evolution of sex remains one of biology's greatest puzzles. While sexual reproduction dominates across the animal kingdom, scientists still debate why it persists despite its high costs. Even more mysterious is the loss of sex in favor of asexual reproduction whereby females give birth to copies of themselves without any contribution from males. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hybrids-virgin-birth-insects-reveal.html Plants & Animals Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:45:13 EDT news699547475 For the past three decades, a team of archaeologists have been uncovering some of the field's most recent monumental discoveries, relying on gut instinct, persistent hard work, and cutting-edge methods and technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-years-el-mirn-cave-uncover.html Archaeology Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:20:07 EDT news699535561 Horses were being ridden, worked, and traded long before anyone thought it possible. New research pushes back the accepted timeline of human use of horses by centuries, showing that humans used horses in organized ways as early as the 4th millennium BCE, if not earlier. The research is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-domesticated-horses-years-complex-story.html Archaeology Wed, 13 May 2026 15:26:02 EDT news697904274 Quantum bits (qubits) are the fundamental building blocks of quantum information processing. A novel qubit platform invented at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory exhibits noise levels thousands of times lower than those of most traditional qubits. "Noise" refers to disturbances in the environment that diminish a qubit's performance. The platform was built by trapping single electrons on the surface of frozen neon gas. The recent finding positions Argonne's platform as a strong contender in the field of high-performance quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-quantum-dark-horse-emerges-frozen.html Quantum Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:40:04 EDT news696769142 A quick heart trace taken during a warm-up trot could identify racehorses at risk of cardiac arrhythmias during high-intensity exercise, according to a new study led by the University of Surrey. The screening method analyzes short, routine electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings that could be used to help prevent cardiac events in otherwise healthy horses, where no obvious signs of arrhythmia have been detected. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-simple-ecg-flag-racehorses-arrhythmias.html Veterinary medicine Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news694177860 Khirigsuurs are Late Bronze Age monuments found across Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia. They are typically thought to be burial monuments or ritual spaces, consisting of a burial mound surrounded by satellite features beneath which horse and caprine (goat/sheep) remains were deposited. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-evidence-assumptions-mass-feasting-ancient.html Archaeology Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:10:01 EDT news694258066