Scientific Discoveries

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Pregnant mandrill monkeys are more likely to miscarry when also nursing an infant
Science News

Pregnant mandrill monkeys are more likely to miscarry when also nursing an infant

Female mandrills are more likely to experience pregnancy loss when they are simultaneously nursing an infant, which may reflect a physiological trade-off between current and future offspring, according to a study by Nikolaos Smit at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, and the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues, published in PLOS Biology.

📅 2026-11-03 19:00:15    •    Phys.org
Cold without consequences? Short-term climate fluctuations appear to have had less impact on early farmers
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Cold without consequences? Short-term climate fluctuations appear to have had less impact on early farmers

Cold conditions may not have been responsible for the centuries-long pause in the spread of farming across south-eastern Europe during prehistory, according to a new study by the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) in Germany, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers found no evidence of extreme cold at the Greek archaeological site of Franchthi, nor any statistically significant link between local temperature fluctuations and changes in how people obtained their food.

📅 2026-11-03 18:40:22    •    Phys.org
Bee nest linings could inspire plastics that break down in soil
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Bee nest linings could inspire plastics that break down in soil

Hundreds of millions of metric tons of plastics are produced every year, and most of them end up sitting in landfills or polluting natural environments after use. These plastics endure for dozens to hundreds of years. But some scientists are on the lookout for solutions to this problem. And now, one team of researchers might have found a potential solution in bee nests. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that a natural plastic made by bees may offer design lessons for plastics that degrade naturally in far less time.

📅 2026-11-03 18:30:01    •    Phys.org
Iridium catalyst activates chemotherapy drug directly at targeted cancer cells
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Iridium catalyst activates chemotherapy drug directly at targeted cancer cells

Conventional chemotherapy treatments often attack not only cancer cells but also healthy tissue, leading to severe side effects such as hair loss or nausea. The team led by Dr. Thomas Ward from the Department of Chemistry and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) at the University of Basel is therefore pursuing an approach that uses artificial metal compounds as catalysts that specifically bind to tumor cells and then convert so-called prodrugs into the active ingredient at the tumor site.

📅 2026-11-03 18:20:16    •    Phys.org
'Double mutualist' birds are key to mistletoe reproduction
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'Double mutualist' birds are key to mistletoe reproduction

Some bird species act as "double mutualists" for a common mistletoe, both pollinating its flowers and dispersing its seeds. These double mutualists play an effective role in mistletoe reproduction.

📅 2026-11-03 18:00:11    •    Phys.org
Tell this AI what you want a protein to do—and it designs one
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Tell this AI what you want a protein to do—and it designs one

In a short space of time, artificial intelligence has become a whiz at designing proteins, molecular machines that perform various functions such as speeding up reactions, producing fluorescent signals and breaking down plastic. But getting AI to design the specific protein you want usually requires the user to have a strong understanding of molecular structures and geometric constraints to guide the models correctly.

📅 2026-11-03 17:40:17    •    Phys.org
AI is changing what's in store for new hires and managers alike
Science News

AI is changing what's in store for new hires and managers alike

AI is screening résumés, prompting some managers to hire fewer entry-level workers and leading others to expect beginners to tackle more advanced work, Northeastern University's AI & Society Survey found. The report is the latest in a series that opened with an analysis of how people across the political spectrum view AI training.

📅 2026-11-03 17:40:01    •    Phys.org