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. A University of California San Diego research team has found a better way to understand and stabilize hydroxyapatite, the calcium phosphate mineral that makes up much of our teeth and bones. By adding tiny amounts of europium, a rare-earth element that mimics calcium, the team discovered a way to make the material potentially more useful for medical imaging. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bone-minerals.html Biochemistry Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:20:03 EDT news704633811 The first documented case of a fixed bone bridge unearthed in Portugal was presented in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology by researchers Ms. Steffi Vassallo and her colleagues. The item is estimated to date to the 19th century and is likely to have served a more aesthetic than functional purpose. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-portugal-burial-reveals-bone-dental.html Archaeology Wed, 20 May 2026 09:20:04 EDT news698487394 Unretouched triangular microlithic projectile points have been identified from their impact traces in the oldest occupation layers of the Obi-Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan, dating to 80,000 years ago. Their size corresponds to small arrowheads, which are directly comparable to those produced by Homo sapiens during an incursion into Neanderthal territory in the Rhône Valley, 25,000 years later. This new study, published in PLOS One journal, provides a strong argument that could rewrite history on Homo sapiens' first settlement in Europe. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-arrowhead-central-asia-homo-sapiens.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:20:01 EST news691773061 You might think that glass has no business acting as a replacement for bone, but it turns out the two materials have many similarities. For a new study published in ACS Nano, researchers developed a 3D printable bio-active glass that served as an effective bone replacement material. In rabbits, it sustained bone cell growth better than regular glass and a commercially available bone substitute. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-bone-substitute-3d-glass.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:07:44 EDT news677855261 Last year, a Stegosaurus nicknamed Apex sold at auction for US $40.5 million. A juvenile Ceratosaurus fetched US $30.5 million just last month. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-fossils-scientific-evidence-shouldnt-auctioned.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 13 Aug 2025 22:10:01 EDT news674316251 According to UNESCO, plastic waste makes up 80% of all marine pollution, with 8–10 million metric tons of plastic making its way into our oceans each year. USC Viterbi School of Engineering researchers have discovered a mineral commonly found in seashells could be the key to a safer plastic alternative. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-eco-friendly-plastic-mineral-seashells.html Biochemistry Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:22:03 EDT news664021321 Pioneer Fellow Hao Liu uses lasers to produce microfilament structures to grow biological tissue in the lab for research and medicine—from muscle tissue to cartilage. Now he's working to ready this technology for the market. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-biological-tissue-lab-lasers-microfilaments.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:14:04 EDT news649350841 An important chapter of the history of human occupation on the coast of Brazil is being rewritten by Brazilian researchers affiliated with the University of São Paulo's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE-USP). https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hypothesis-occupation-brazil-southern-coast.html Archaeology Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:12:04 EDT news637920721 Scientists have combined laser 3D printing technology and an alternate soaking process to construct complex 3D structures that mimic bone microstructure. This is the first demonstration of this fabrication method, and it will lead to the development of 3D cell culture systems that can support bone grafts or create artificial bone marrow. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-team-fabrication-method-3d-mimic.html Biochemistry Mon, 12 Feb 2024 16:20:04 EST news626977201 In the 19th century, the market for ivory products increased to an alarming point. This high demand led to the search for artificial substitutes, but ivory properties were nearly impossible to replicate. The most important substitutes came from Alexander Parkes and John Wesley Hyatt, inventors of the first artificial plastics: Parkesine and celluloid. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-successful-substitutes-ivory-billiard-balls.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 24 Nov 2023 12:50:01 EST news620037832 The ancient Egyptians believed that when we died, our spiritual body sought out an afterlife similar to this world. But entry into this afterlife wasn't guaranteed; it first required a perilous journey through the underworld, followed by an individual last judgment. For this reason, relatives and embalmers did everything they could to ensure that their loved one might reach a happy destination. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-golden-boy-mummy-precious-amulets.html Archaeology Tue, 24 Jan 2023 00:10:01 EST news593710741 Dating is everything in archaeology. Exciting discoveries of ancient burial sites or jewelry might make headlines, but for scientists, this kind of discovery is only meaningful if we can tell how old the artifacts are. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-radiocarbon-dating-solution.html Archaeology Thu, 08 Sep 2022 10:54:50 EDT news581853287 Over-the-counter pain relievers, physical therapy, steroid injections—some people have tried it all and are still dealing with knee pain. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-stiff-achy-knees-lab-made-cartilage.html Materials Science Thu, 11 Aug 2022 16:09:09 EDT news579452943 In the Stone Age, pendants with potent symbolism were made from animal teeth and bones, adorning clothes or accessories and serving as rattles. Human bones were also used as a raw material for pendants, as demonstrated by a study where burial finds dating back more than 8,200 years were re-examined after 80 years. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-human-bones-pendants-stone-age.html Archaeology Thu, 07 Jul 2022 09:00:03 EDT news576403201 Composite hydrogels can incorporate natural polymers and bioactive glass as promising materials for bone regeneration. However, the applications of such constructs are limited by poor compatibility between organic and inorganic phases. In a new study now published in Science Advances, Xinxin Ding, and a research team in medicine, in Shanghai China, formed an electrostatically reinforced hydrogel (abbreviated CAG) with improved interfacial compatibility. To accomplish this, they introduced amino-functionalized bioactive glass to the alginate/gellan gum matrix. When compared with bioactive glass, the electrostatically reinforced hydrogel indicated a more uniform porous structure with a pore size of 200 µm and an optimal compressive strength of 66 kPa. Using the reinforced hydrogel, the team promoted the phenotype transition of macrophages and upregulated the osteogenic gene expression of stem cells. They showed how new bone formation was also accelerated in vivo with enhanced biomineralization of the electrostatically reinforced hydrogel, with biocompatibility ideally suited for bone regeneration. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-biopolymer-hydrogel-amino-functionalized-bioactive-glass.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Dec 2021 11:40:03 EST news558960680 Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a new biomaterial made entirely from discarded bullfrog skin and fish scales that could help in bone repair. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-scientists-aquaculture-biomaterial-tissue.html Materials Science Thu, 27 May 2021 10:18:56 EDT news541329530 A new paper published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies presents the results of and images from the resuming of the archaeological seasons in the Mons Smaragdus region in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. The region is known for Roman-era emerald mines, chronicled by authors like Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemy, rediscovered in the 19th century by the French mineralogist Fréderic Cailliaud. During the 1990s, a team from the Berenike Project surveyed the area and conducted the first excavations, focusing on the main site identified, Sikait; archaeological digs resumed in January of 2018 and January 2020. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-evidence-emerald-production-roman-egypt.html Archaeology Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:26:28 EDT news537693986 For centuries, ivory was often used to make art objects. But to protect elephant populations, the ivory trade was banned internationally in 1989. To restore ivory parts of old art objects, one must therefore resort to substitute materials—such as bones, shells or plastic. However, there has not been a really satisfactory solution so far. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-3d-printed-material-ivory-artifacts.html Materials Science Wed, 14 Apr 2021 10:22:13 EDT news537614530 The current gold standard for bone grafting surgery includes autografts and allografts, although a growing demand exists to develop synthetic biomaterials for enhanced bio-integration in bone tissue engineering. In a new report now published on Nature Communications Materials, Hideo Fushimi and a research team in bioscience and engineering, and reconstructive biotechnology in Japan and the U.S., developed a biodegradable scaffold material using recombinant proteins or polypeptides as a source of hydrogel-based graft materials. The team used human type I collagen alpha 1 chain (abbreviated RCPhC1) as a source to develop the recombinant polypeptide and demonstrated the flexibility of the material to engineer ideal characteristics for bone grafts. The team also developed RCPhC1 bone grafts using a highly scalable, streamlined production protocol for the robust generation of mature bone tissue in the lab. The bone graft completely resorbed after tissue regeneration in a preclinical animal model for effective biological integration. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-recombinant-collagen-polypeptide-versatile-bone.html Biochemistry Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:40:01 EST news525954790 University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have developed a safer and more efficient way to deliver a promising new method for treating cancer and liver disorders and for vaccination—including a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Therapeutics that has advanced to clinical trials with humans. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-tiny-mineral-particles-vehicles-gene.html Biotechnology Thu, 02 Jul 2020 10:17:56 EDT news512903869 The thin, slippery layer of cartilage between the bones in the knee is magical stuff: strong enough to withstand a person's weight, but soft and supple enough to cushion the joint against impact, over decades of repeat use. That combination of soft-yet-strong has been hard to reproduce in the lab. But now, Duke University researchers say they've created an experimental gel that's the first to match the strength and durability of the real thing. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-lab-cartilage-mimicking-gel-strong-knees.html Materials Science Fri, 26 Jun 2020 11:03:00 EDT news512388178 A team from the Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeology (ASOME) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has led an international study to reconstruct the diet of the El Argar society of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (2220-1550 BCE) and distinguish the subsistence strategies of the populations of this archaeological complex. Published in PLOS ONE, the study was conducted with biological material extracted from the excavation site of La Bastida in Totana, Murcia, one of the oldest cities in Europe, and from another smaller site known as Gatas, located in Turre, Almeria. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-intensive-crops-livestock-spurred-la.html Archaeology Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:00:08 EDT news503132937 A new way of making bone-replacement materials that allows for cells to grow around and inside them has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. https://phys.org/news/2020-02-scientists-chemical-gardens-bone-substitute.html Materials Science Fri, 07 Feb 2020 03:16:03 EST news500267758 Some materials show promise promoting bone regeneration by enhancing its natural electrical properties, according to a review in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2020-02-bone-natural-electricity-regeneration.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 04 Feb 2020 09:20:25 EST news500030419 Researchers at McMaster University have found that a person's first permanent molars carry a life-long record of health information dating back to the womb, storing vital information that can connect maternal health to a child's health, even hundreds of years later. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-adult-molars-fossils-health-dating.html Plants & Animals Mon, 11 Nov 2019 10:27:19 EST news492690427 The future of medicine is biological – and scientists hope we will soon be using 3-D-printed biologically functional tissue to replace irreparably damaged tissue in the body. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB has been working with the University of Stuttgart for a number of years on a project to develop and optimize suitable bioinks for additive manufacturing. By varying the composition of the biomaterial, the researchers have already succeeded in expanding their portfolio to include bone and vascularization inks. That has laid the foundations for manufacturing bone-like tissue structures featuring capillary networks. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-d-biological-tissue.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 02 May 2019 10:10:14 EDT news476008208 Prehistoric Iberians created "imitation amber" by repeatedly coating bead cores with tree resins, according to a study published May 1, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Carlos Odriozola from Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-examples-iberian-prehistoric-imitation-amber.html Archaeology Wed, 01 May 2019 14:00:01 EDT news475904928 Bioinspired materials mimic their natural counterparts for characteristic functionality in multidisciplinary applications forming a popular theme in biomaterials development. In bone tissue engineering, for instance, researchers focus on the natural composite architecture of bone, organically designed from complex structures of mineralized collagen. The resulting bioengineered constructs include inorganic/organic composites based on native mammalian bone components such as carbonated apatite and collagen. However, microparticle incorporation to material constructs can cause complications during premature in vivo resorbability, due to their brittle nature. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-differentiation-bone-precursors-hydroxyapatite-ormohap.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 26 Apr 2019 07:32:22 EDT news475482728 Advances in materials science and production technology have enabled bone tissue engineering (BTE) strategies that generate complex scaffolds with controlled architecture for bone repair. The novel biomaterials can be further functionalized with bioactive molecules for biocompatibility by enhancing osteoinductivity (induce osteogenesis to initiate bone healing). In a recent study published in Multifunctional Materials, IOP Science, Arun Kumar Teotia and co-workers at the Departments of bioengineering, orthopedics, chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, in India, Finland and Sweden developed a novel, multifunctional, bilayered composite scaffold (BCS). The novel material contained ceramic nano-cement (NC) and the macroporous composite scaffold (CG) to mimic bone architecture during bone repair. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-biofunctionalized-ceramics-cranial-bone-defect.html Materials Science Thu, 28 Feb 2019 08:19:26 EST news470564341 In bone tissue engineering (BTE), 3-D printing is a reliable and customizable method used to repair bone defects by producing biomimetic tissue scaffolds. In a recent study published online on Tissue Engineering Part A (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc), Qing Li and a team of scientists engineered a biomimetic substitute closest to the natural bone structure and composition for bone grafting. For this work, they used two different types of hydroxyapatite (HA) materials: nanohydroxyapatite (nHA) and deproteinized bovine bone (DBB) dispersed into collagen (CoL) to prepare a bio-ink and engineer composites of nHA/CoL and DBB/CoL as 3-D printed scaffolds. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-bioplotting-bone-mimetic-d-tissue-scaffolds.html Materials Science Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:13:58 EST news468753226