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 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 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 A new AI framework, known as SHIC-XE, has been developed to detect signs of pain in horses from video analysis while providing stable, anatomically consistent explanations for its decisions. The framework was developed by an international team of researchers led by Dr. Marcelo Feighelstein, head of the Artificial Intelligence Systems Engineering Program at Tel-Hai University's new Cluster of Engineering and Advanced Computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-pain-animals-theyre.html Biotechnology Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:30:04 EDT news706291501 Humpty Dumpty had all the king's horses and all the king's men, but it wasn't enough to put him back together again. This raises the question: How many horses and men did he actually need? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-math-humpty-dumpty-simply-mismanaged.html Mathematics Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:20:01 EDT news706178070 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 You walk in a park. Children are playing, people are walking their dogs, and then you hear someone say, "Who's my little sweetie?" You turn around expecting to see a stroller. But someone is sitting beside a dog, speaking in the same voice they would use with a baby. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-humans-baby-voice-pets.html Social Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news705735555 Far from their origins in the Arabian desert, hundreds of thousands of camels roam outback Australia, where they are used for wild races, an alternative milk source and even to make beer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-camels-home-outback-australia.html Agriculture Fri, 07 Aug 2026 02:33:05 EDT news705288753 Babies start out life helpless and stay that way for a long time. They cannot walk, feed themselves or survive without an adult's continued care. Our dependency timeline has no clear parallel elsewhere in the animal kingdom. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-born-helpless-humanity-greatest-strengths.html Social Sciences Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news705150421 A cat-training program for children with developmental disabilities fostered healthy behaviors in children, strengthened relationships between children and their family cats and improved cats' social behavior, a new study published in the journal Animals has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cat-children-developmental-disabilities-cats.html Social Sciences Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:20:07 EDT news705060827 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 Researchers have found that an arginine vasopressin stimulation (AVP) test offers a reliable way to assess endocrine function in sick foals. The work, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, could lead to faster identification and treatment, improving survival rates for foals with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal gland axis (HPAA) dysfunction. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tool-endocrine-dysfunction-sick-foals.html Veterinary medicine Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:20:02 EDT news704375702 Five young Pallas's cats—dubbed the world's grumpiest felines for their sullen facial expressions—went on display at a zoo in Japan on Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-grumpy-pallas-kittens-display-japan.html Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:07:02 EDT news704369196 Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are playing a key role in the summer exhibition wONDERLAND at the Yper Museum. Thanks to interdisciplinary research on more than 1,000 excavated skeletons, they have succeeded in giving the anonymous medieval city dweller a face and a voice once again after centuries. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-migration-lifestyle-health-social-status.html Archaeology Fri, 24 Jul 2026 21:20:01 EDT news704104742 New World screwworm, a concerning pest that mainly affects livestock and wildlife, was detected in South Texas in June 2026. It has since expanded northward in Texas, and there was one case in New Mexico as of July 23, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-colorado-screwworms-pest-eradicated.html Ecology Fri, 24 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news704102941 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 Members of the Horse Microbiome Research Group recently published a new study in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, led by Dr. Joy Leng, who is currently undertaking the Alborada Well Foal 2 project. This research aims to understand how the foal gut microbiome develops by investigating the microbiomes of mares and their foals. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rapid-bacterial-community-profiling-equine.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:20:04 EDT news703857261 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 Texas Tech University's School of Veterinary Medicine fourth-year students Kayden Tanner and Marshall Mays have both been published in international journals after putting hundreds of hours into their research papers. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fourth-year-vet-students-reveal.html Biotechnology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:00:04 EDT news703748101 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 Permafrost usually hits the news as a hazard, a planetary risk. When this ice-rich ground thaws, it damages roads and building foundations. It drains lakes and tips trees into drunken forests. It releases greenhouse gases that have been locked in carbon-rich soils for thousands of years, amplifying warming and driving further thaw. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earth-deep-memory-arctic-permafrost.html Earth Sciences Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:40:01 EDT news702820801