Research review: 6 science stories we almost missed

DOI: Physics of Fluids, 2026. 10.1103/tnxb-ckr5 (About DOIs).

Following the repair of a Roman shipwreck

Credit: Adriboats © L. Damelet, CNRS/CCJ

Back in 2016, archaeologists discovered a shipwreck from the Roman Republic, called Ilovik–Paržine 1. People have been studying a lot about this wreck, which has helped scientists to know that it was built in what is now called Brindisi, in the southeast of Italy. Recently, the analysis of pollen trapped in the ship’s water barrier has helped identify successive renovations in the rest of the Adriatic Sea, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Materials.

According to the authors, previous research neglected to study non-wood materials such as waterproof coatings, so they used mass spectrometry and similar methods to analyze the molecular structure of ten coating samples. The results showed that pine tree resin or tar (tar) is the main component. But one example was a mixture of pitch and pitch, a special mixture of Greek shipbuilders called in zop. The combination makes the coating easier to apply when heated and makes the adhesive more flexible.

Because tar adhesives trap and store pollen easily, the researchers were also able to determine which plants were present when the tar was applied, so they could also identify the areas where the tar was produced. They found pollen from different places, such as holly oak, pine, and matorral forests, all along the Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts. Other examples were alder and ash, common in rivers, and fir and beech common in the mountains of Istria and Dalmatia. This provides concrete evidence of the central renovation of the ship.

DOI: Frontiers in Materials, 2026. 10.3389/fmats.2026.1758862 (About DOIs).

Crushing soda cans for science

Who doesn’t love watching YouTube videos of people using hydraulics to break things? This includes physicists at the University of Manchester, who were interested in the difference between the crushing of plain soda and that of water. The empty capacity fell immediately; the filler can slowly fall into a series of rotating rings. Physicists in Manchester wanted to know why a stuffed animal could do this. They investigated using a combination of mathematics and laboratory experiments, reporting their findings in paper published in the journal Communications Physics.