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. 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 Could wound healing dressings adhere better, and could drug delivery patches become more sophisticated? A KAIST research team has developed a technology that leverages natural ingredients derived from plants to increase the strength of a seaweed-based hydrogel (a gel material that contains a large amount of water while maintaining its shape) by more than fivefold, while also controlling its adhesiveness and degradation rate. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tea-compound-boosts-seaweed-hydrogel.html Polymers Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news700229281 Ocean currents are not just horizontal motions that flow from side to side. There are also vertical currents that act like deep-sea elevators, pushing heat and carbon down into the deep, while bringing up vital nutrients and dissolved gases to the surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-satellite-reveal-southern-ocean-vertical.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:50:02 EDT news700230994 Though rural women entrepreneurs make up only a small portion of the self-employed across the United States, new West Virginia University research shows they are crucial to overall economic success. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rural-women-entrepreneurs-linked-economic.html Economics & Business Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:40:05 EDT news700227181 Solar flares are the most explosive energy-release events in the solar corona, leading to intense particle acceleration, plasma heating and bulk plasma motions on short timescales. Core questions during solar flares remain unresolved, including how and where particle acceleration occurs, and how energized electrons propagate through coronal magnetic structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-meerkat-reveals-electron-sites-solar.html Astronomy Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:40:01 EDT news700228561 Elon Musk's SpaceX holds sway over the emerging space economy in a way that has more in common with notorious colonial-era trading companies than the competitive markets of today's textbooks, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-spacex-orbit-east-india-company.html Space Exploration Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:20:08 EDT news700224121 When English speakers say "rose" and Chinese speakers say "玫瑰," do they mean the same thing? A Peking University team led by Professor Bi Yanchao explored this question using word embeddings from 53 languages, behavioral ratings from speakers of eight languages and exploratory multilingual brain imaging data. Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that word meanings are organized along shared neurocognitive dimensions, while differences across languages are associated with climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-climate-words-languages.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:20:03 EDT news700223522 Archaeologists excavating Maya sites at Kaxil Uinik and Ayiin Winik in Belize have discovered the first reported Late Postclassic altar in the region, along with additional evidence that Postclassic Maya people continued to visit abandoned locations. The study, published in Latin American Antiquity, indicates that these activities fit into a broad pattern of Postclassic veneration of earlier Maya civilization after its decline. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-maya-altar-abandoned-belize-sites.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:07:59 EDT news700229260 Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, will be the pilot of NASA's Artemis 3 mission, the first European to join one of the program's missions, the U.S. space agency announced Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-italian-luca-parmitano-european-artemis.html Space Exploration Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:01:53 EDT news700228853 The world's tropical rainforests are edging towards collapse. But knowing how to stop deforestation isn't enough to drive action. The challenge is aligning all the pieces of the puzzle to initiate substantial change. Now our research suggests the key is to persuade enough people to make the system tip in the right direction. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-positive-key-tropical-rainforests.html Environment Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:00:10 EDT news700223943 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 Homelessness in the UK is reaching critical levels, with more than 380,000 people estimated to be without a home in England alone as of late 2025. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gaps-welfare-neurodivergent-people-homelessness.html Economics & Business Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:40:08 EDT news700223881 Our novel artificial intelligence model can predict extreme storm surges with high accuracy, including under future climate conditions. Because the AI model runs much faster, it can help researchers and practitioners better assess coastal flood risk for adaptation planning. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-coastal-cities-seas-extreme.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news700223161 Archaeologists working at the ancient Maya site of El Palmar in Campeche, Mexico, have discovered what may be the earliest known Long Count calendar date in the Maya lowlands. It is carved into a stone monument and is interpreted as Aug. 31, AD 180, in our modern calendar. The finding could reveal insights into how the earliest Maya rulers used time to stake their claim to the throne. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-oldest-maya-calendar-date-reveal.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:20:06 EDT news700225629 MIT researchers have demonstrated a low-cost design for specialized electronic nozzles, called triaxial electrospray emitters, that could be used to manufacture time-release drug-delivery particles or self-healing materials efficiently and at scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-3d-nozzle-array-production-drug.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:20:05 EDT news700222923 Japan is experiencing historically high numbers of foreigners. Its population is shrinking, and its workforce is aging, driving foreign labor to historic levels. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-japan-popularity-booms-survey-strong.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:20:02 EDT news700223642 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 Humans are the only species known to use fully symbolic language: a system capable of expressing abstract ideas, imaginary worlds and endless combinations of meaning. But how did we get there? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-language-theories-fascinating.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:01 EDT news700223402 Picture sea ice in your mind. You probably imagine brilliant white, snow-covered floes floating on the surface of the ocean, home to penguins in the south of the globe or polar bears in the north. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ponds-green-algae-sea-ice.html Environment Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:40:03 EDT news700222982 The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports on Sala Keimada, one of the rock art sanctuaries in Cueva Palomera, the main cave of the Ojo Guareña Karst Complex (Merindad de Sotoscueva, Burgos, Spain). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dating-spain-sala-keimada-art.html Archaeology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:40:01 EDT news700222021 Chimpanzees are the only great apes, apart from humans, that have adapted to living on savannas as well as in forests. However, it is not yet well understood how the harsh ecological conditions of the savanna—compared with those of the forest—affect the foods chimpanzees eat and how they obtain them. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain (IJGE) reveals for the first time the strategies savanna chimpanzees use to make tools and extract aggressive army ants—also known as marabunta—from their underground nests and eat them in these dry, hot habitats. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-savanna-chimpanzees-tools-capturing-army.html Evolution Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:20:06 EDT news700221962 When consumers pay down debt, many choose to put funds toward their oldest loans first—even when doing so may not make the most financial sense, according to recent research by Alicia M. Johnson, assistant professor of marketing at the Isenberg School of Management. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-consumers-suboptimal-loan-prepayment-choices.html Economics & Business Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:20:04 EDT news700221422 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 Young people with the most connections to other suspected offenders of any age are almost five times more likely to carry knives than the average youth suspect, according to a new analysis of more than 200,000 U.K. police records. This top 5% of "super-connected" children aged 10–18 are almost three times more likely to commit violent crime, seven times more likely to commit robberies and nine times more likely to be involved in organized crime than the wider youth suspect population. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-super-teenagers-key-tackling-violent.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:20:04 EDT news700217341 Teachers were more likely to accept an overly harsh grade given to a student by AI than when the unduly low grade was handed out by a human. As AI is increasingly integrated into decision-making, concerns about AI errors are often countered by assurances that humans will oversee and check the algorithm's work. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-teachers-ai-grades-equivalent-human.html Education Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:00:02 EDT news700216441 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 drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists uncovered a hidden rule of drug behavior. A medicine's effectiveness can change dramatically depending on the conditions inside our cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-drugs-unrealistic-conditions-scientists.html Biotechnology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:40:03 EDT news700213922 Mature and old-growth forests are vital for biodiversity, carbon storage, cultural traditions and economic activity. But in Alaska and British Columbia, these rich resources have not been reliably mapped, leaving much unknown about what land is protected. Now, University of Oregon researchers are leading a comprehensive mapping effort that sheds light on the location, makeup and conservation status of old-growth forests across the region. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-growth-forests-alaska-british-columbia.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:40:01 EDT news700215767 Astronomers have identified a possible new example of one of the universe's strangest galaxy types: galaxies that appear to contain little or no dark matter. The newly studied pair, FCC 224 and FCC 240, on the outskirts of the Fornax Cluster, share several unusual traits with the only known pair of controversial dark-matter-deficient galaxies. The findings were uploaded to the arXiv preprint server on May 22. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dark-deficient-twins-fornax-cluster.html Astronomy Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:20:03 EDT news700143095