Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed

DOI: Physics of Fluids, 2026. 10.1103/tnxb-ckr5 ( About DOIs ). Tracking Roman shipwreck repairs Credit: Adriboats © L. Damelet, CNRS/CCJ Credit: Adriboats © L. Damelet, CNRS/CCJ Back in 2016, archaeologists discovered a shipwreck from the Roman Republic, the Ilovik–Paržine 1. The wreck has been the subject of much study of the actual ship, enabling scientists to determine it was constructed in what is now Brindisi on Italy’s south-eastern coast. Most recently, analysis of pollen trapped in the ship’s waterproofing layers have yielded insight into repairs made successively in other locations throughout the Adriatic Sea, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Materials. Per the authors, prior research had largely ignored studying non-wooden materials like seawater-resistant coatings, so they used mass spectrometry and similar methods to examine the molecular makeup of ten coating samples. The results showed that pine tree resin or tar (pitch) was the main component. But one sample was a combination of beeswax and tar, a mixture unique to Greek shipbuilders known as zopissa . The combination makes the coating easier to apply when heated and also makes the pitch adhesive more flexible. Because pitch’s adhesive nature easily traps and preserve pollen, the researchers were also able to identify which plants had been present when the coating was applied, so they could in turn identify the regions where the pitch had been produced. …