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. Researchers announced that they have achieved the world's first elucidation of how hydrogen produces free electrons through the interaction with certain defects in silicon. The achievement has the potential to improve how insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are designed and manufactured, making them more efficient and reducing their power loss. It is also expected to open up possibilities for future devices using ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hydrogen-role-generating-free-electrons.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:59:35 EST news688399092 Scientists have long sought to make semiconductors—vital components in computer chips and solar cells—that are also superconducting, thereby enhancing their speed and energy efficiency and enabling new quantum technologies. However, achieving superconductivity in semiconductor materials such as silicon and germanium has proved challenging due to difficulty in maintaining an optimal atomic structure with the desired conduction behavior. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-scientists-semiconductor-superconducting.html Condensed Matter Thu, 30 Oct 2025 06:00:08 EDT news680887201 When a storm or tropical cyclone impacts mainland Australia, would you get behind the wheel of a vehicle? https://phys.org/news/2025-10-behaviors-extreme-weather-events-explored.html Social Sciences Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:57:04 EDT news679222622 A research team led by Prof. Guo Bin from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has designed and optimized an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system specifically for recovering low-grade waste heat from the steady-state Chinese Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CFETR) based on organic fluid R245fa, achieving enhanced thermal efficiency and reduced heat loss. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-optimized-recovers-fusion-reactor.html Plasma Physics Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:36:48 EDT news673519005 The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has completed the "major item of equipment" phase for the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night), a moon-based radio telescope set to make history. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-scientists-craft-radio-telescope-bound.html Astronomy Thu, 24 Jul 2025 09:10:07 EDT news672567001 Diamond is one of the most prized materials in advanced technologies due to its unmatched hardness, ability to conduct heat and capacity to host quantum-friendly defects. The same qualities that make diamond useful also make it difficult to process. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-simpler-method-refines-ultrapure-diamond.html Condensed Matter Fri, 23 May 2025 12:39:04 EDT news667222742 Improving energy conversion efficiency in power electronics is vital for a sustainable society, with wide-bandgap semiconductors like GaN and SiC power devices offering advantages due to their high-frequency capabilities. However, energy losses in passive components at high frequencies hinder efficiency and miniaturization. This underscores the need for advanced soft magnetic materials with lower energy losses. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-quantum-eyes-energy-loss-diamond.html Condensed Matter Fri, 23 May 2025 05:00:03 EDT news667146403 The manufacturing and deployment of hybrid and electric vehicles is on the rise, contributing to ongoing efforts to decarbonize the transport industry. While cars and smaller vehicles can be powered using lithium batteries, electrifying heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and large buses, has so far proved much more challenging. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-pt-nano-catalyst-graphene-pockets.html Nanomaterials Fri, 11 Apr 2025 07:00:01 EDT news663494164 Scientists from the University of Sheffield will warn policymakers that the shrinking glaciers of the Andes threaten the water supply of 90 million people on the South American continent at the first-ever World Day for Glaciers hosted by UNESCO in Paris. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-andean-glaciers-threaten-million-people.html Earth Sciences Fri, 21 Mar 2025 09:58:04 EDT news661769881 So-called "infinite-layer" nickelate materials, characterized by their unique crystal and electronic structures, exhibit significant potential as high-temperature superconductors. Studying these materials remains challenging for researchers; they have only been synthesized as thin films and then "capped" with a protective layer that could alter properties of the nickelate layered system. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-layers-exploring-capping-effects-nickelate.html Condensed Matter Fri, 17 Jan 2025 11:25:04 EST news656335501 As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-contaminated-cities-wildfires.html Environment Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:02:22 EST news656071337 The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America, experts said Monday. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-amazon-forest-area-size-germany.html Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 04:08:35 EDT news646369710 University of Manchester scientists have linked one of the ways that cells respond to stressful conditions with restricted healthy hair growth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-link-ancient-biology-restricted.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:18:03 EDT news638115481 Early in 2023, a series of storms dumped record-breaking amounts of rain and snow across California. Flooding, power outages, and mudslides from the deluge resulted in 21 deaths and more than $3 billion in losses. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-clusters-atmospheric-rivers-costlier.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 Jan 2024 09:54:04 EST news625139641 The precision of obtaining abundant light-matter-interact information with a snapshot measurement makes optical spectroscopy indispensable for modern industries and scientific research. The miniaturization of traditionally bulky spectrometers has been strongly motivated by the vast applications, including bio/medical sensing, material analysis, optical communication, and light source characterization. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-leaky-mode-picometer-microtapers.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 09 May 2023 14:15:03 EDT news602860501 The promise of superconductivity for electrical power transmission and transportation has long been held back by high costs. Now researchers from the University of Houston and Germany have demonstrated a way to cut the cost and upend both the transit and energy transport sectors by using superconductors to move people, cargo and energy along existing highway infrastructure. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-superconductors-people-cargo-energy-combined.html Superconductivity Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:11:35 EDT news601567892 Under certain conditions, the fusion devices known as tokamaks can suffer a sudden loss of energy to the vessel walls. Researchers call this energy loss process a disruption. One cause is a magnetohydrodynamic (i.e., conducting plasma in a magnetic field) instability, or mode, coupling to the vacuum vessel. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-resistance-tokamak-vessel-walls-disruptive.html Plasma Physics Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:52:14 EDT news598117931 Seasonal temperature, moisture loss from plants and wind speed are what primarily drive fires that sweep across the same landscape multiple times, a new study reveals. These findings and others could help land managers plan more effective treatments in areas susceptible to fire, particularly in the fire-ravaged wildland-urban interfaces of California. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-re-burns-california-west.html Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Jan 2023 14:44:03 EST news593275441 Across virtually every sector, the greening of the global economy is unfolding far too slowly to stave off climate catastrophe, according to a sobering report Wednesday from a consortium of research organisations. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-global-economy-green-faster-dire.html Environment Wed, 26 Oct 2022 15:40:02 EDT news586016751 Across virtually every sector, the greening of the global economy is unfolding far too slowly to stave off climate catastrophe, according to a sobering report Wednesday from a consortium of research organizations. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-climate-crisis-transition-global-economy.html Environment Wed, 26 Oct 2022 10:00:01 EDT news585996197 Rapidly evolving floods are a major and growing hazard worldwide. Currently, their onset and evolution is hard to identify using existing systems. However, seismic sensors already in place to detect earthquakes could be a solution to this problem. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-seismic-reveals-potential.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Oct 2022 14:46:16 EDT news584891174 Climate models may be significantly underestimating how extreme precipitation will become in response to a rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a new Yale-led study finds. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-climate-underestimate-future.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:53:03 EDT news576427981 Migratory birds are declining globally because of the way that humans have modified the landscape over recent decades—according to new research from the University of East Anglia. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-infrastructure-climate-linked-huge-migratory.html Plants & Animals Fri, 24 Jun 2022 19:00:01 EDT news575296729 MIT research scientists Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez and Nathan Howard have just completed one of the most demanding calculations in fusion science—predicting the temperature and density profiles of a magnetically confined plasma via first-principles simulation of plasma turbulence. Solving this problem by brute force is beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced supercomputers. Instead, the researchers used an optimization methodology developed for machine learning to dramatically reduce the CPU time required while maintaining the accuracy of the solution. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-machine-harnessed-extreme-aids-fusion.html Plasma Physics Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:20:26 EDT news570295223 Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now identified the main bottlenecks in performance. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-bottlenecks-lithium-sulfur-batteries.html Materials Science Thu, 24 Mar 2022 09:40:47 EDT news567333644 Newcastle University research is helping to prepare for and mitigate storm damage before extreme weather occurs. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-impact-approaching-storms.html Earth Sciences Fri, 18 Feb 2022 10:34:09 EST news564402846 In a new paper published in Frontiers in Earth Science, researchers investigated how tropical cyclones' destructive power has changed over the eastern and southeastern regions of Asia between 1979 (hereafter) and 2016. They found that, during the last four decades, there has been a notable increase of tropical cyclone inland impacts over the studied regions. Future projections showed that by the end of the 21st century, western north Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclones could have doubled in destructive power over inland regions. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-tropical-cyclones-asia-destructive-power.html Earth Sciences Tue, 30 Nov 2021 03:50:52 EST news557466646 The photocathode drive laser is one of the key parts of the beam test system of the Platform of Advanced Photon Source (PAPS). Recently, the researchers from Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences obtained the output power exceeding 116 W after the main amplifier of the laser. The study was published in Optics Express. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-high-average-output-power-paps.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:26:47 EDT news550484806 In a new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances, researchers led by Professor Yan-Gang Bi from Jilin University, Changchun, China discuss tunable surface plasmon-polariton resonance in organic light-emitting devices based on corrugated alloy electrodes. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-tunable-surface-plasmon-polariton-resonance-light-emitting.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:04:08 EDT news550220646 Shirley Dyke doesn't see the moon as a crater-covered sphere. She expects lunar dwellings to begin emerging in a decade, helping reach out to further space habitation. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-pursuing-future-lunar-habitation.html Space Exploration Tue, 05 May 2020 08:10:04 EDT news507884854