🔎

Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

Insects are essential to vertebrate life—as food, shelter and medicine
Science News

Insects are essential to vertebrate life—as food, shelter and medicine

While insects provide an essential food source for many vertebrate species, they're more than just a protein-laden snack. Chimpanzees use them to sterilize wounds, and herons use them as fishing bait. Sloths rely on moths to maintain the algae in their fur, which they then eat. Birds and reptiles lay their eggs inside the temperature-controlled sanctuary of termite mounds, while some desert frogs reside in ant nests because of the humidity.

📅 2026-09-30 04:10:01    •    Phys.org
Dinosaur snacked on seaweed washed up on North American coasts, fossil teeth suggest
Science News

Dinosaur snacked on seaweed washed up on North American coasts, fossil teeth suggest

Storms routinely wash marine material ashore, providing food for land animals and other organisms. This is known as marine subsidization (MS). Today, MS is particularly common in coastal ecosystems and is especially important to animals when land ecosystems produce less food than usual, such as during droughts. A new Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution study has shown that dinos and their prey, too, may have eaten seafood washed onto beaches.

📅 2026-09-30 04:00:05    •    Phys.org
Crystal spacing predicts magnetic states in complex alloys better than electron count
Science News

Crystal spacing predicts magnetic states in complex alloys better than electron count

In materials chemistry, identifying common parameters that can organize magnetic ground states across complex intermetallic compounds remains a central challenge. Researchers have long used chemically tunable parameters to control magnetic properties. One is valence-electron concentration, commonly discussed as the electron-per-atom (e/a) ratio. The e/a ratio has been widely used to classify magnetic ground states in metallic systems such as Heusler alloys and approximant crystals.

📅 2026-09-30 04:00:02    •    Phys.org
Sharks can hear nearly 250 feet away and pinpoint the source
Science News

Sharks can hear nearly 250 feet away and pinpoint the source

Wild blacktip sharks can detect low-frequency sounds from nearly 250 feet away, according to experiments conducted off the Florida coast. The sharks not only heard the sounds but sharply changed direction away from them, suggesting they could pinpoint where they were coming from.

📅 2026-09-30 03:58:33    •    ScienceDaily
Camera system sheds new light on bird collisions at sea
Science News

Camera system sheds new light on bird collisions at sea

Research into bird collisions with offshore wind turbines has taken an important step forward. A yearlong pilot study at an offshore wind turbine has shown that thermal cameras and artificial intelligence can be used to directly observe potential collisions at sea. The technology proved effective under challenging conditions while also generating rare real-world data on bird movements around a wind turbine.

📅 2026-09-30 03:20:01    •    Phys.org
Creatine may help build muscle even without exercise, researchers find
Science News

Creatine may help build muscle even without exercise, researchers find

Creatine helped middle-aged adults gain muscle and strength even without a structured workout program in a new 12-week study. When combined with exercise and a calorie-reduced diet, it produced even greater strength gains while helping participants add lean tissue and lose fat. Researchers say the results strengthen the case for creatine as a potentially useful tool for maintaining muscle with age.

📅 2026-09-30 03:12:34    •    ScienceDaily
Unlocking AI as a research tool for plant microscopy
Science News

Unlocking AI as a research tool for plant microscopy

Software created by University of Queensland scientists could help AI platforms overcome a blind spot limiting their value in plant research. UQ Ph.D. student Tianqi Wei said even advanced vision-language models (VLMs) had difficulty interpreting images of microscopic plant details.

📅 2026-09-30 01:40:05    •    Phys.org
Small fields, great diversity: How a diverse patchwork of crops helps birds
Science News

Small fields, great diversity: How a diverse patchwork of crops helps birds

Birds are not only beautiful to look at and listen to; they also play important roles in nature. They eat pests and disperse seeds. They are generally considered indicators of a healthy environment. When birds thrive, soil and water quality often benefit as well. A new study published in the journal Landscape Ecology shows that growing a variety of crops in small field patches creates better habitats for birds.

📅 2026-09-30 00:20:05    •    Phys.org
Engineered coating lets mitochondria retain their ability to produce energy
Science News

Engineered coating lets mitochondria retain their ability to produce energy

Researchers have coated mitochondria with innovative materials without compromising their function, according to a study by IRCCS Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta (FINCB) and Politecnico di Milano. The research was conducted as part of the BraiNs joint laboratory, inaugurated in 2023.

📅 2026-09-29 23:40:07    •    Phys.org
Beyond temperature: How people experience urban heat
Science News

Beyond temperature: How people experience urban heat

Urban heat is more than a matter of temperature. It can affect how people sleep, work, travel through the city and dress, and even how safe or comfortable they feel in public spaces. Yet these everyday consequences often remain invisible in conventional assessments of urban heat.

📅 2026-09-29 23:20:04    •    Phys.org
Revisiting a Young Isaac Newton
Science News

Revisiting a Young Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton is typically portrayed as a solitary scientist with intense focus who was obsessed with power and deeply egotistical. But a new book by Caltech historians Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold takes a deeper look at Newton's life in the two decades leading up to the 1687 publication of his groundbreaking text, Principia Mathematica, when he was 44. Using newly digitized scans of Newton's early writings, Buchwald and Feingold uncover a portrait of the young polymath as a curious and social scholar whose interests were often fleeting.

📅 2026-09-29 23:00:01    •    Phys.org
Why monkeys handle conflicts better than we do
Science News

Why monkeys handle conflicts better than we do

Conflicts with our colleagues, loved ones or team members can quickly stifle communication, heighten tensions and undermine relationships. However, a decision or compromise is not always enough to restore cooperation—for a solution to last, we must also repair the bond that will allow people to continue moving forward together.

📅 2026-09-29 22:40:04    •    Phys.org
Rethinking liquid hydrogen storage with metal-organic frameworks
Science News

Rethinking liquid hydrogen storage with metal-organic frameworks

Liquid hydrogen (LH₂) is attractive for long-distance energy transport because of its high volumetric energy density. But even well-insulated tanks cannot completely prevent heat from entering. As the liquid warms, hydrogen evaporates and pressure builds, leading to boil-off losses during storage and transport.

📅 2026-09-29 22:40:01    •    Phys.org
Wild tomatoes still hold the flavor we bred away: New map shows breeders where to look
Science News

Wild tomatoes still hold the flavor we bred away: New map shows breeders where to look

Modern tomatoes are a breeding success story. Generations of selection have made them bigger, firmer, more productive and easier to ship. But that progress came at a cost. Domestication and breeding reduced much of the crop's genetic diversity, and flavor has proven stubbornly hard to breed back in.

📅 2026-09-29 22:20:02    •    Phys.org