https://phys.org/science-news/sci-other en-us The latest news on chemistry, math, archaeology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and science technologies. This week, researchers reported an effective way to protect working dogs from heat stress: training them to dunk their heads in cool water. A new computational technique provided a breakthrough in understanding the so-called "pseudogap" in quantum physics, a development that could lead to room-temperature superconductivity. And a bunch of scientists agree: Evidence now supports global action to combat microplastics. And a few other things happened, too. Among them: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-football-metaphors-physics.html Other Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:30:02 EDT news646053484 This week, a billionaire made a spacewalk, archaeologists found a new, isolated Neanderthal lineage and the James Webb Space Telescope revealed the extreme outskirts of the Milky Way. And a few other things happened: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-permian-triassic-mystery.html Other Sat, 14 Sep 2024 08:50:01 EDT news645449751 A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-pigeon-missiles-abilities-dead-fish.html Other Fri, 13 Sep 2024 04:12:04 EDT news645419479 If you're not susceptible to urban myths and misinformation, there's a new study from the World Health Organization that will ease your 2010s-era anxieties about cell phones. There were a lot of other developments this week, including the return of Boeing's trouble-plagued Starliner capsule to Earth with a surprising number of astronauts ( https://phys.org/news/2024-09-saturday-citations-teen-photobomb-site.html Other Sat, 07 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news644848648 It's the last day of August, which means that in the Northern Hemisphere, tomorrow will be 50 degrees and cloudy; conditions are expected to be hot and humid south of the equator. In science news this week, we reported on nanoplastic contamination, spacetime dragging, corn sweat and an AI technique to read ancient papyrus scrolls nondestructively. Take your pick: https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-corn-nanoplastics-massive.html Other Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:00:02 EDT news644237928 It was an interesting week for the study of human behavior as a team of cognitive scientists at MIT found what they believe is the reason that laws are written in an incomprehensible style—because it confers what they describe as a "special kind of authority" and because legislators feel compelled to follow tradition. And a team of archaeologists at the University of California, Berkeley, dispelled the myth of groups of early human hunters flinging spears at mammoths to bring them down—they found evidence that the large beasts were instead brought down by spikes planted into the ground at angles. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-week-humans-mammoths-ai-smarter.html Other Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:50:01 EDT news643884073 So much science news this week. It's like a torrential deluge of information bursting explosively through a levee of ignorance. Who built that levee, anyway? How did they get that through the legislature? Anyway, of the hundreds of stories we reported this week, here are capsules of three interesting ones. Two of them involve bugs. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-tarantulas-homies-mosquitoes.html Other Sat, 24 Aug 2024 07:30:02 EDT news643631506 Statistical analysis of classic literature has shown that the way punctuation breaks up text obeys certain universal mathematical relationships. James Joyce's tome "Finnegans Wake," however, famously breaks the rules of normal prose through its unusual, dreamlike stream of consciousness. New work in chaos theory, published in the journal Chaos, takes a closer look at how Joyce's challenging novel stands out, mathematically. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-finnegans-spacing-punctuation.html Mathematics Other Tue, 20 Aug 2024 11:00:01 EDT news643302781 Good morning! Here are a few of this week's most interesting science stories to read while you're settling into the couch with your cup of General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-citizen-scientists-fast.html Other Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:00:02 EDT news643028349 This week's headlines include the extended sleepover for astronauts in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, insight into our imitative behaviors, and the Olympic form of mice. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-rare-misstep-boeing.html Other Sat, 10 Aug 2024 08:30:01 EDT news642422417 An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Another showing human legs with way too many bones. An introduction that starts: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic". https://phys.org/news/2024-08-junk-ai-scientific-publishing.html Other Sat, 10 Aug 2024 02:41:07 EDT news642476460 This week, researchers reported on the implications of a warp drive containment breach in case you're interested in theoretical space-borne disasters. Scientists in the U.K. report the cardiovascular benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in an extremely thorough analysis of basically the entire adult population of England. And the American Cancer Society is out with numbers related to rising cancer risk in younger generations in the U.S. So it's not all good news. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-saturday-citations-warp-disasters-cancer.html Other Sat, 03 Aug 2024 09:00:01 EDT news641831721 This week, we reported on new epigenetic findings in memory formation as well as a dramatic spike in micromobility-related head injuries, so there's a whole lot of head-related science on the front burner these days. There were new findings regarding an increasingly terrifying and awesome apex predator and the future of coffee is getting a little bit brighter—the best part of waking up is climate-resilient cultivars in your cup. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-saturday-citations-bike-accident-spike.html Other Sat, 27 Jul 2024 09:00:01 EDT news641213430 This is not a rerun of last week's roundup; another group of astronomers found a second intermediate-mass black hole in the Milky Way and I can't avoid highlighting it. They're cool! They may have formed in the primordial universe, they comprise the seeds of supermassive black holes, and may be formed by the accretion of multiple stars in a cluster rather than through stellar collapse. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-saturday-citations-scientists-monkey-cat.html Other Sat, 20 Jul 2024 08:30:02 EDT news640614477 This week: Physicists conducted a biological study, engineers built a waste-recycling suit for astronauts (and worm riders), and astronomers identified the first known intermediate-mass black hole, and it's right here in our own galactic back yard. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-saturday-citations-goldilocks-black-hole.html Other Sat, 13 Jul 2024 09:30:01 EDT news640007335 The complexity of the melodies of the most popular songs each year in the U.S.—according to the Billboard year-end singles charts—has decreased since 1950, a study published in Scientific Reports suggests. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-song-melodies-simpler.html Other Social Sciences Thu, 04 Jul 2024 11:00:01 EDT news639238262 The coolest news this week concerns anthropological research combining state-of-the-art imaging technology, medical diagnostics, genetics and sociology. We covered the implications of a black hole in an expanding universe and the eternal question researchers like to ask about children: Are they actually good people? We could go back and forth on that, but current research has landed on "yeah, pretty good, we guess." Also: Forget everything you ever knew about armadillos, the Abrams tank of mammals. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-saturday-citations-armadillos-neanderthals-anthropologists.html Other Sat, 29 Jun 2024 08:30:02 EDT news638799199 What did scientists do this week? Exactly four things, all of which are summarized below. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-saturday-citations-bulking-black-holes.html Other Sat, 22 Jun 2024 08:30:01 EDT news638190326 There's a lot of science news in seven days, so just because a new study isn't cited here on Saturday morning doesn't mean it didn't happen. A lot more has happened. But also, check out these four stories: https://phys.org/news/2024-06-saturday-citations-bacterial-warfare-language.html Other Sat, 15 Jun 2024 09:00:01 EDT news637600172 If there's one thing I've learned about dogs, it's that praise is super-effective for training; a new Hungarian study confirms these anecdotal findings and reinforces that notion that praise is more effective as a pedagogical approach than, for instance, scolding or criticism or deliberately placing one infraclass of mammals above another one with a childish insult like this one: https://phys.org/news/2024-06-saturday-citations-dogs-evolution-brown.html Other Sat, 08 Jun 2024 08:30:02 EDT news636981516 In the small fishing village where I grew up, we didn't have much. But we helped our neighbors, raised our children to respect the sea, and embraced an inclusive scientific methodology with a cross section of sex, race and gender among study participants that enriched the results of our research. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-saturday-citations-music-sneaky-birds.html Other Sat, 01 Jun 2024 09:30:01 EDT news636378316 A pioneering, national-level study has been conducted by the research group of Paleogenomics and Evolutionary Genetics of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas (FORTH). The 18 civilians from the village of Adele (Rethymnon) that were executed on June 2, 1941, were identified, utilizing ancient DNA and genomic analysis techniques. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-world-war-ii-civilians-adele.html Archaeology Other Mon, 27 May 2024 10:28:01 EDT news636024460 Sometimes, science requires traveling into hazardous environments; sometimes it requires a vast influx of state capital and an army of researchers and technicians. But sometimes, science has to call in the Marines. We reported on that this week, along with news about a new cathode for electric batteries made from an Earth-abundant element that will stun you into silence, and the No. 1 fear of animals globally. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-saturday-citations-cheapness-horizon-electric.html Other Sat, 25 May 2024 08:30:02 EDT news635772167 This week, we reported on the birth throes of black holes, the questionable assertions of a study about vegan dogs and a technique for observing entanglement without breaking quantum coherence. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-saturday-citations-mediterranean-diet-racks.html Other Sat, 18 May 2024 09:00:01 EDT news635167375 The onset of solar maximum has resulted in severe geomagnetic storms, with the possibility of aurora borealis events this weekend as far south as the northern United States. Do not be alarmed if you see awesome displays of light over your neighborhood, it is just a solar wind disturbance passing through the magnetosphere. This week, we reported on a cute but endangered marsupial, the table manners of supermassive black holes and what ultra-processed Tostitos Scoops may be doing to your heart. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-saturday-citations-dietary-habits-humans.html Other Sat, 11 May 2024 08:30:01 EDT news634562769 We field a torrent of science news updates every week and on Saturday morning, we highlight three or four of them based on the observed preferences of a panel of dogs as shown by the Paired-Stimulus Preference Assessment, a standardized evaluation of preferred stimuli. This week, the dogs selected stories about parrot-to-parrot video calling, loud human noises, and a new neural map of human wakefulness. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-saturday-citations-parrots-internet-human.html Other Sat, 04 May 2024 09:00:01 EDT news633961102 Hello, stakeholders. (This is the nongendered term of address I've been workshopping because I see "folks" in too many social media posts.) Researchers this week reported on an AI model that attempts to emulate human irrationality in decision-making, which has to be the best approach toward building a human-equivalent general AI, right? Like, if you told Siri "Thank you," and she replied "You, too" instead of "You're welcome," and then felt embarrassed about it. That would seem deeply human to me. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-saturday-citations-irrationality-genetic-basis.html Other Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:30:01 EDT news632750522 It's Saturday, which means that in a universe where the arrow of time moves backward, people have to go to work tomorrow. In such a hypothetical universe, Garfield hates Fridays—tough to imagine. This week, we looked at several hundred breaking science developments, four of which I've highlighted here, including a new geoengineering study, a quantum infosec breakthrough, and listening in on the melodious dreams of birds. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-saturday-citations-bird-qubits-impossible.html Other Sat, 13 Apr 2024 08:30:01 EDT news632144179 While I was assembling and formatting all these links, we had a 4.8-magnitude earthquake here on the East Coast, so apologies in advance for any misaligned text. This week: Gravitationally accelerated stars! AIs that exhibit cooperative and selfish behaviors! And another edition of "Would You Eat This?" https://phys.org/news/2024-04-saturday-citations-ai-prisoner-dilemma.html Other Sat, 06 Apr 2024 08:30:01 EDT news631537403 Is the milk sold today similar to the milk available 100 years ago? Here, drink this and give me your results. Also, physicists achieve superconductivity at a temperature slightly higher than 0 degrees Kelvin and slightly lower than 2 degrees Kelvin. The Event Horizon Telescope project released a glamorous new portrait of Sagittarius A*, while a separate group of physicists reported on a pair of black hole pals. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-saturday-citations-year-hot-qubits.html Other Sat, 30 Mar 2024 09:30:01 EDT news630938069