https://phys.org/science-news/sci-other/ en-us The latest news on chemistry, math, archaeology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and science technologies. Citywide measures of urban sustainability can conceal sharp differences between neighborhoods. A city may appear to provide good streets overall while some areas lack greenery, openness or pedestrian-friendly space where diverse populations live. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-tokyo-streets-reveal-hidden-gaps.html Other Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:30:01 EDT news711865906 In baseball, a borderline pitch is more likely to be called a strike when the batter has three balls and no strikes than when the count is no balls and two strikes. The official strike zone hasn't changed. The umpire's judgment has. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ball-baseball-umpire.html Other Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:40:10 EDT news710765903 Research into molecules that regulate sleep and appetite or methods for editing genes could be among the contenders for the Nobel Prize in chemistry, to be announced Wednesday, commentators say. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-appetite-gene-experts-contend-nobel.html Other Wed, 07 Oct 2026 03:00:01 EDT news710558901 Dr. Karl Deisseroth spent hours fielding congratulatory calls after learning early Monday that he had won a Nobel Prize for medicine for helping to open a new field of brain science called optogenetics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-california-scientist-nobel-prize-school.html Other Tue, 06 Oct 2026 02:20:09 EDT news710469823 In optogenetics, scientists control neurons by stimulating them with light—potentially unlocking breakthroughs for conditions such as dementia, depression and blindness. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-brain-cells-nobel-science-optogenetics.html Other Tue, 06 Oct 2026 02:20:04 EDT news710469904 The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to U.S. psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-german-trio-medicine-nobel-optogenetics.html Other Mon, 05 Oct 2026 06:32:02 EDT news710400687 Research into hormones that regulate appetite is on everybody's lips for the Nobel medicine prize, to be announced on Monday when the 2026 Nobel season kicks off. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-weight-loss-drugs-nobel-award.html Other Mon, 05 Oct 2026 02:50:01 EDT news710386725 In 1960, Science, one of the world's leading science journals, published an article with an unambiguous title: Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026. It predicted that on this future date—just over a month from today—the human population would approach infinity and effectively annihilate itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-friday-november-doomsday.html Mathematics Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:10:01 EDT news710004362 Have you ever stopped and listened to the background sounds in a room you are in? The hum of the ventilation? The buzz of electricity? While most of the time we are barely aware of these sounds, Arthur Jinyue Guo, a researcher at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Rhythm, Time and Motion, has revealed that they nevertheless affect our behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-background-affect-human-behavior.html Other Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news708953761 When two popular science magazines—out of about 17 in circulation—ceased publication in the same year, one commentator said, "The science magazines didn't shake out. They fell apart." The general manager of one of the failed magazines said, "There was a perception that they were irrelevant." One of the publishers remembered being in a "state of shock" as the failures emerged. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-science-journalism-dying-years-today.html Other Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:30:04 EDT news708697715 Anyone who has ever woken up with a hangover will recognize its physical and psychological effects: headache, nausea, self-loathing, regret and perhaps even some shame at the uninhibited behavior that accompanied the intoxication. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-history-hangover-remedies-cabbages-cloves.html Other Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:00:01 EDT news708347759 An Anthropic researcher said he is resigning from the company over concerns the artificial intelligence firm and its competitors are not acting responsibly in AI development, echoing concerns raised inside and outside of the industry about the technology's potential to elude human control. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-anthropic-resigns-dangers-ai.html Other Thu, 10 Sep 2026 03:47:33 EDT news708230819 Fed up with funding restrictions surrounding her research on links between climate change and health, American epidemiologist Sheryl Magzamen has left the United States for Canada. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-canada-eyes-hostile.html Other Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:40:02 EDT news708154850 Babies smell wonderful—at least to their parents. An international research team of Ilona Croy, Tomasz Frackowiak, Thomas Hummel and Agnieszka Sorokowska investigated why teenagers lose this special olfactory advantage and has now been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for the research. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ig-nobel-prize-winners-reveal.html Other Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:10:06 EDT news707670735 Ten research teams were honored Thursday at a satirical science awards ceremony that was hosted outside the U.S. for the first time due to travel concerns. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-cockroach-nose-ig-nobel.html Other Thu, 03 Sep 2026 14:47:53 EDT news707665654 Japanese scientist Hideki Shirakawa, co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering and developing conductive polymers, has died. He was 90. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-japanese-scientist-shirakawa-winner-nobel.html Other Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:20:40 EDT news707656814 Walk into a corner of a newsroom somewhere and you can often find it affixed to a bulletin board, perhaps peeking out from behind the coffee pot: the Society of Professional Journalists's Code of Ethics. It's less than a thousand words, fitting neatly on a poster. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-century-journalists-voluntary-ethics-code.html Other Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:05:44 EDT news707483127 Do you sometimes wish that you had telepathic or other supernormal powers? About 100 years ago, some of the greatest minds in philosophy thought there were people who had such abilities. In fact, they even suggested that perhaps horses and dogs could have them too. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-psychic-horse-clever-hans-science.html Other Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:00:11 EDT news707042461 Watchdog science journalism has become a fundamental tool to counter scientific malpractice, such as publication fraud, abuse and political and corporate manipulation of science. A study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has mapped for the first time the rise of this type of journalism in Ibero-America through interviews with 15 journalists from the region who have investigated prominent cases of bad science. The work, the first to study this practice in the region, has just been published in the journal Media and Communication. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-journalism-key-combating-bad-science.html Other Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:20:04 EDT news705841336 Skin appearance plays an important role in the perception of age, health and attractiveness. Of course, skin appearance is affected by actual skin condition, but previous research has also found that it is affected by adjacent surfaces (e.g., eyebrows, eyes and lips). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-beauty-contrast-hair-background-skin.html Other Tue, 11 Aug 2026 20:00:01 EDT news705684181 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 the findings of a study published recently in Nature Human Behaviour by Ziliang Xiong and Konstantina Kilteni of the Donders Institute at Radboud University in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ticklish-cultures-complex.html Other Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:40:01 EDT news705587401 This week, researchers reported finding nanoplastics in Antarctic soils for the first time, suggesting they were delivered via long-range atmospheric transport. A study associates the use of hormonal birth control with the risk of brain tumors. And researchers developed a new drug against metastatic prostate cancer using human proteins. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-saturday-citations-blue-zone-longevity.html Other Sat, 11 Jul 2026 09:00:04 EDT news702889645 More than half of publicly accessible restrooms in key areas of Atlanta are unavailable to the public, according to a new study by researchers at the Georgia State University School of Public Health. The consequences of inadequate public sanitation are more than just an inconvenience, said Assistant Professor April Ballard, who co-leads the school's Center on Health and Homelessness. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-atlanta-restrooms-inaccessible.html Other Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:00:04 EDT news702647599 Howdy, pards, here's a quick roundup of the week's science news: Moose, previously thought to be a transplanted species, are actually native to Colorado. A digital twin of a two-year-old child's brain revealed neural signatures linked to autism. And a new gel treatment for severed spinal cords restored mobility in lab animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-saturday-citations-earthquakes-event-horizons.html Other Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:10:01 EDT news701696929 Dare to jump up close to the defender, aim for a long jump distance, and use your time in the air to read the game. These are some of the keys to the perfect wing shot in handball, according to a bachelor's thesis from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, conducted in collaboration with the handball team Redbergslids IK. The study identifies five success factors for the best wing shots, while also showing that different players can succeed with very different technical solutions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-wing-shot-handball.html Other Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:00:04 EDT news701603293 Researchers reported this week a deadly outbreak of plague in Siberia 5,500 years ago, revealing that Yersinia pestis evolved lethal genetic traits far earlier than suspected. A drug developed for heart tissue repair may also help kidney tissue repair and regeneration. And neighborhood socialization opportunities could shape children's brain development. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-saturday-citations-intermittent-fasting-chronic.html Other Sat, 20 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news701085204 A paper on new research into the cause of death of Simonetta Vespucci, model for the world-renowned Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, has been published by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and the University of California in the journal Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-explanation-mystery-death-botticelli-birth.html Other Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news700844162 The Dan David Prize will award nine historians and archaeologists with $300,000 to recognize their work and support future research, the foundation announced Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dan-david-prize-awards-scholars.html Other Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:18:25 EDT news700845490 This week's notable citations: Astronomers believe collapsing stars could spawn mini universes. Chimpanzees do not like unfairness. And a single dose of psilocybin temporarily restored function in an 80-year-old with Alzheimer's disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-saturday-citations-jaxa-collaboration-toy.html Other Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news700486404 A model built by researchers from the University of Liverpool's Management School predicts an England-Spain FIFA World Cup 2026 final, with Spain the favorite to lift the trophy—a repeat of recent major tournament history. The supercomputer correctly predicted England's second-place finish at Euro 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-supercomputer-world-cup-results.html Other Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:40:05 EDT news700488901