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. It is difficult to identify funerary practices in Iron Age (c. 800 BC–AD 43) Britain, as human remains rarely survive. However, evidence is particularly prominent in north-west Scotland, because environmental conditions support the preservation of bone. To take advantage of this, a team of researchers from the U.K. and U.S. examined two individuals (one adult female and one juvenile male) buried in a low stone cairn at Loch Borralie in Sutherland, close to the north-west extremity of the Scottish mainland. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-brain-iron-age-scotland-burial.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:00:05 EDT news699715472 Proteins are how cells get work done. They carry out nearly every important cellular task, from ferrying messages to controlling which genes are turned on or off. And in order for proteins to perform their various roles, the strings of amino acids that make them up need to be folded into the correct shape. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-uncover-rna-hidden-role.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:40:05 EDT news700234098 A major new study led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London has revealed that noncognitive skills—such as motivation, curiosity, academic interest and self-belief—play a key role in translating children's genetic dispositions into academic achievement. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-children-attitudes-play-key-role.html Education Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:40:05 EDT news700233370 Farmed oysters are mixing with and potentially adding to populations of wild oysters—a once-abundant species in New York's estuaries and rivers that has declined drastically over the last century. A new study, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, offers genetic evidence and the first documented proof that farmed eastern oysters are adding to and breeding with wild eastern oyster populations in the western and central Long Island Sound. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-farmed-oysters-boost-york-dwindling.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news700227902 A study led by a UAB research team of Biological Anthropology has analyzed the genome of 54 newborns with the aim of tracking the genetic history of their culture since it developed in the Early Iron Age until the start of the Roman period, some 2,700 to 2,100 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-iberian-dna-largely-unchanged-centuries.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:00:02 EDT news700223461 Sloths are the slowest mammals on the planet, but living in dense jungles has made them notoriously difficult to study. For the first time, scientists have now sequenced and analyzed the two-toed sloth genome and revealed the genetics behind its extremely slow metabolism. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sloths-dna.html Evolution Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:03 EDT news700222262 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 It's surprising how easy it is to see a koala every day in Australia's major cities. The cute, gray marsupial can be found on T-shirts, hanging off people's bags and pencils, and decorating any decent souvenir shop. But seeing a real koala in the wild has become increasingly tricky in some parts of the country. The iconic marsupial is now listed as endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-koala-australia-years-global-glacial.html Plants & Animals Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news700221301 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 off Japan's Tanegashima Island harbor a surprisingly distinct and diverse community of these living pink rocks, including four species completely new to science. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-underwater-pink-carbon-scientists-species.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:48:35 EDT news700217282 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, before the arrival of humans on the continent. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-koala-population-humans-genomic-reveals.html Plants & Animals Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:02 EDT news700128486 On a blazing hot day in South Africa, female southern pied babblers can't think straight. The medium-sized black-and-white birds are trying to get at tasty mealworms behind a see-through barrier. On cooler days, the birds can quickly figure out that all they have to do is go around the small wall of plastic. But when the mercury goes up, the birds just keep stubbornly pecking at the barrier. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-stupid-hot-animal-brains.html Ecology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:00:05 EDT news700146061 Similar to the way DNA damage can contribute to human diseases such as cancer, it can also disrupt growth, development and survival in plants. Every day, plants endure environmental stresses such as sunlight, radiation, drought and soil stress—all of which can damage their DNA. However, they cannot move away from danger. How do plants handle all that damage? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-survive-constant-dna-newly-protein.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:30:01 EDT news700157401 Almost a quarter of all freshwater species are threatened with extinction. The removal of human-made barriers from rivers, such as dams and weirs, is a popular way to restore water flow and sediment transport to its natural state and allow fish and other aquatic wildlife to move more freely. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-river-wildlife-freely-invasive-species.html Ecology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:20:01 EDT news700148254 From the air, you see it only through the constant jolt, tilt, and shudder of the low-flying Cessna aircraft. The landscape of the Llanos de Moxos, northern Bolivia, appears as a disconnected patchwork of open grassland savannahs, forest islands, and lakes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-great-mysteries-archaeology-ancient-amazonian.html Social Sciences Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:00:04 EDT news700144861 A publication has revealed the first photographic evidence and confirmed sighting of the Cozumel dwarf fox in more than 20 years. Published in the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation by researchers Travis D. Bayer, Maggie A. McGreal and A. Rafael Chacón D., the short communication details the rescue of an adult male Cozumel dwarf fox on the morning of Sept. 14, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-elusive-cozumel-dwarf-fox-reappears.html Plants & Animals Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:20:07 EDT news700144682 Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) have demonstrated that larvae of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, are suitable as an alternative infection model for investigating the pathogenicity of bacteria on a larger scale. This could significantly reduce testing on mammals in the future. The results of the study were published in The Lancet Microbe. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-wax-moth-larvae-animal.html Plants & Animals Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:00:08 EDT news700144562 Astronauts on long space missions may one day use plants to produce fresh stocks of medicines on demand, thanks to new research by engineers at the University of California San Diego. The team developed a simple method to grow and repeatedly harvest pharmaceuticals from plants under space-like conditions, without destroying the plants or generating large amounts of waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-medicines-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news700143676 The fixed idea that DNA is only a molecule that stores genetic information is being challenged. KAIST researchers have developed a technology that controls the chemical environment around catalysts at the nanometer scale by designing DNA sequences—the arrangement of A, T, G and C that make up genetic information. The team has presented a new catalyst platform that can improve hydrogen production efficiency and increase the yield of desired chemical products by designing DNA much like writing a computer program. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dna-nanometer-scale-catalyst-cleaner.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:10:06 EDT news700152361 Maize (Zea mays L.) plays an important role in global food security. During 9,000 years of maize domestication and breeding, however, protein content was not a major breeding target. Consequently, many beneficial gene variants associated with higher protein content were gradually lost from cultivated maize. As a result, modern maize varieties often have low seed protein content, leading to a heavy reliance on imported soybean meal for livestock feed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-recovered-wild-maize-gene-boosts.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:20:06 EDT news700139643 Scientists in Japan have developed a rat-mouse hybrid embryo from a single frozen rat chromosome transplanted into a mouse egg cell. The achievement is proof that genetic material can sometimes remain functional after cryopreservation and be expressed inside the cells of a completely different species. This is giving renewed hope to the idea that we may one day be able to partially resurrect extinct species and study lost traits. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-frozen-rat-chromosome-life-mouse.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:12:12 EDT news700143085 A new study combining NASA satellite observations, ocean surveys and genetic testing of marine microorganisms found evidence that warming ocean waters may be limiting nutrient availability across much of the global ocean. The researchers report that this nutrient stress affects microscopic marine organisms and could influence marine ecosystems over time. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-satellites-reveal-major-ocean.html Earth Sciences Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:06 EDT news700137901 Hiroshima University researchers say a newly proposed three-step "detour" pathway for making dolichol, a molecule cells need to properly process proteins, may be more universal than scientists realized. Experiments in yeast suggest eukaryotes may rely on overlapping biochemical pathways, including the evolutionarily conserved detour and evidence of a possible backup route, to produce a molecule essential to life. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-yeast-reveal-evolutionarily-backup-route.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:55:17 EDT news700138501 A study, published in the journal Development, is the first to precisely map endogenous UTY occupancy across the human genome and demonstrate that UTY remains functionally involved in transcriptional regulation during early human development. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-chromosome-retain-uty.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:40:13 EDT news700132210 Most sharks and rays inhabit the oceans, but a small proportion thrive in freshwater. Approximately 4% to 5% of all shark and ray species live in tropical and subtropical rivers around the world. Two main ecological strategies can be distinguished among freshwater sharks and rays. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-km-journey-freshwater-stingray-held.html Plants & Animals Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:40:10 EDT news700134733 Researchers have characterized the oral microbiomes of the Japanese population across time by analyzing the DNA preserved in dental calculus of human skeletal remains. The researchers compared microbial composition in dental calculus primarily from Edo-period individuals with that of modern dental calculus, and identified differences associated with time period, region, and the phylogeny of several oral bacterial species. The findings show that dental calculus can provide new avenues for examining human history and the relationships between humans and microorganisms. The work appears in Scientific Reports . https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dental-calculus-uncovers-regional.html Archaeology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 05:00:04 EDT news699812161 A major goal of modern crop breeding is to efficiently combine multiple desirable traits by "stacking" the favorable gene variants (alleles) that contribute to those traits in a single crop variety. However, current strategies are often time-consuming and inefficient. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-platform-multiple-trait-stacking-crops.html Biotechnology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 18:00:02 EDT news699875763 Decomposers are crucial for keeping Earth habitable, breaking down dead biomass and returning key nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, to the ecosystem. Most decomposers, including fungi, survive through osmotrophy—a means of feeding by absorbing dissolved nutrients rather than engulfing prey. But how this method of feeding repeatedly arose across the eukaryotic tree of life remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gene-swapping-planet-decomposers.html Ecology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news699875427 Recent research showed that an artificially constructed self-replicating RNA system modeling primitive life at the origin of life evolved to become more prone to extinction under certain experimental conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-early-life-rna-extinction-prone.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:40:03 EDT news700065437 Typically, the information encoded in DNA allows organisms to develop, function, and pass traits across generations. Yet DNA alone does not explain how genes are switched on and off in different cells and environments. This regulation is partly controlled by other factors called epigenetics, such as DNA methylation, a chemical modification that can influence gene activity without changing the genetic code itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-epigenetic-inherited-dna-animals.html Evolution Sun, 07 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news699634336 Imagine a train parked at the station. Passengers climb aboard and find their seats. Conductors move up and down the aisles, checking tickets. But there's a problem—the engineer's watch is broken. As a result, the doors never close, the whistle never sounds, and the train never starts. Something similar occurs in cells when developmental timing is disrupted. Rather than making people late for work, it can mean the difference between maturing into a healthy adult and never growing up at all. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nonrepeating-biological-clock-elegans-growth.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:40:01 EDT news700029701