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. The mystery of why some amphibian populations recover following outbreaks of a deadly fungus has been solved in a new study led by University College London (UCL), ZSL and Imperial College London. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mystery-toads-survive-deadly-fungus.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:00:06 EDT news703173454 Scientists have unveiled a new fabrication technique for the ultra-clean manufacturing of 2D heterostructures—materials just a few atoms thick—that could be used in quantum technology and electronics. Experts from Southampton and Singapore say the method could be used to develop next-generation devices that accelerate research in quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-technique-ultra-thin-material-stacks.html Nanomaterials Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:00:12 EDT news703245651 Astronomers at Durham University have made a major advance in understanding how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe. Using powerful new observations, the team discovered the most distant example ever found of a compact, star-forming structure at the heart of a galaxy, dating back more than 9 billion years. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-uncover-earliest-galaxy-action.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:00:07 EDT news703229466 Lithuania was famously the final pagan state in Europe. While the rest of the continent converted to Christianity, Lithuania remained officially pagan until Catholicism was adopted in AD 1387. Despite this, the extent to which Lithuania's population remained pagan or converted to Christianity was unclear, as was the extent of migration from the wider Christian world. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-europe-pagan-state-diverse-medieval.html Archaeology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:00:02 EDT news702720625 When most people hear the phrase "ocean acidification," they think of coral reefs, shellfish or declining fisheries. Those concerns are real. But while working on our recent research, I found myself asking a different question: What if ocean acidification is telling us something much bigger than the health of marine ecosystems? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ocean-acidification-emerging-planetary-linking.html Earth Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:00:04 EDT news703232476 Ocean tides push upstream along coastal rivers, in some cases reaching hundreds of kilometers (hundreds of miles) inland. These inland stretches are known as tidal rivers, and they're the scene of complex interactions between the river current and tidal oscillations. When rivers flood, tidal dynamics can sometimes add to a river's height, increasing overall peak water levels and amplifying flooding. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tides-river-combine-amplify.html Earth Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:20:03 EDT news703250317 New research by lunar scientists from Brown University provides critical new insights into the thickness of the moon's regolith, the layer of loose dust and rock that drapes the entire lunar surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-eye-exploration-moon-regolith-thickness.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:00:09 EDT news703263513 Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere has risen sharply in recent decades. Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane to the atmosphere, but large uncertainties remain about how much methane comes from wetlands and how these emissions may increase in response to a changing climate. Tropical wetlands, including those in the Amazon, produce substantial amounts of methane, but accurately estimating their emission sources and magnitudes remains difficult. One reason is the lack of measurement data, especially in the tropics, where extensive cloud cover interferes with satellite observations and ground-based measurements are sparse. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-altitude-flights-reveal-amazon-methane.html Earth Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:40:02 EDT news703263441 Scientists in China have developed a smart coating that could make it easier to remove tritium (a radioactive form of hydrogen) from nuclear power plant wastewater. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-smart-coating-cleanup-nuclear-wastewater.html Biochemistry Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:20:07 EDT news703257909 Within every muscle of every living species with a backbone, a protein called myosin tugs on a partner protein to generate a muscle contraction. This function, discovered in mammals a century ago, has been presumed by scientists to operate the same way among birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hidden-muscle-machinery-reveals-gene.html Evolution Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news703255180 Cells are crowded, dynamic places where thousands of molecules interact in tight quarters. Until now, scientists lacked a reliable way to see many of these molecular interactions as they happen. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have now developed a new imaging method that allows scientists to see previously hidden enzyme activities in small regions across the whole cell. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, open new possibilities for understanding how cells process information. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cell-imaging-method.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:40:05 EDT news703255069 How do black holes at the centers of galaxies form and grow over time? To answer this question, scientists need to detect and study supermassive black holes at great distances that existed much earlier in the universe's history. New research suggests NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is on track to launch Aug. 30, 2026, will be able to detect these distant, ancient black holes that existed up to 11 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-roman-telescope-distant-black-holes.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:20:06 EDT news703254967 Researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have developed a new method for trapping and controlling atoms near an ultrathin glass fiber. This has significantly improved the atoms' ability to store quantum information—an important step forward for future quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-atomic-boosts-quantum-surface.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:00:07 EDT news703250168 New research involving Queen Mary University of London reveals that amphibians can change what they eat to cope with rising temperatures, but that this natural survival strategy has limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-climate-amphibians-diet.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:50:01 EDT news703255297 The age-old question asks, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" While philosophers and scientists alike have pondered this question for centuries, the more relevant question for today's recreation and wildlife managers is: Does it matter what makes the sound? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-human-noise-alaska-predators-night.html Ecology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:40:05 EDT news703246996 When grizzly bears clamber onto the talus slopes high in Glacier National Park, they're searching for an abundant, fatty meal: army cutworm moths. The inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) moths hatch on the Great Plains and fly en masse to escape the heat in the stony upper reaches of the Rocky Mountains. Grizzlies hoover them up by the thousands—at about a half-calorie each—as they fatten up for winter. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-amazing-moths-insect-habitat-grizzlies.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:20:07 EDT news703246082 Honey bee larvae lack the sophisticated olfactory capabilities of adult honey bees, a new study finds. Scientists point to this temporary loss of function as a side effect of the nurse bees' heroic level of brood care, calling it a consequence of social evolution. The new findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-honey-bees-larval-adult-life.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:10:01 EDT news703255278 A new tool that allows researchers to create realistic full-body animations of monkeys has provided the first evidence that nonhuman primates experience the "uncanny valley" phenomenon for body avatars, according to a study by Lucas Maximilian Martini at the University Clinic Tübingen in Germany and colleagues at KU Leuven in Belgium, published in PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-uncanny-valley-effect-macaques-3d.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:00:07 EDT news703229447 Faster and more effective ways to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most life-threatening pathogens, could be possible thanks to a first-of-its-kind 3D computer model developed by the University of Surrey. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-kind-tackles-antibiotic-resistance.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:40:07 EDT news703246076 Evidence of the slowing of Charon's spin period (despinning) is recorded in tectonic features on the surface of Pluto's icy moon, according to a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The findings offer insights into the early thermal evolution of Charon and other icy satellites in the outer solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-pluto-moon-charon.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:38:00 EDT news703255062 Astronomers have made a series of landmark observations of one of the universe's most violent events. Using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) radio telescope, which is operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), the team detected polarized light from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow for the first time at radio wavelengths. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-magnetic-fingerprint-cosmic-explosion.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news703250496 Plants do not wait hours to respond to intense sunlight—they react within minutes. Researchers at Bielefeld University and the Australian National University have discovered a new signaling pathway that enables plants to directly adjust their protein production before genes in the cell nucleus change their activity. The findings open new perspectives for climate-resilient crops. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mechanism-rapidly-intense-sunlight.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:20:03 EDT news703245753 Two types of carbohydrates are important to plants—structural carbohydrates (which form cell walls) and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs). The latter group represents plants' stored energy reserves, which can be used to survive cold or drought; regrow after damage; recover from insects and disease; produce new leaves; and flower and reproduce. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-evolutionary-history-carbon-storage-strategies.html Evolution Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:10:02 EDT news703250507 A research team led by Seil Kim of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) Energy & Environmental Materials Research Division has developed an Ag–PTFE composite plating technology that produces silver coatings with greater hardness and wear resistance than conventional silver plating by stably dispersing PTFE nanoparticles in a cyanide-free acidic silver plating bath. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-harder-longer-silver-plating.html Nanomaterials Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:00:07 EDT news703245686 Researchers have demonstrated a novel AI model that can predict which DNA molecules bind with other DNA molecules. A more thorough understanding of these hypercomplex binding relationships has utility in applications ranging from biomedical diagnostic tools to DNA computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-scientists-dna-sequences.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:50:02 EDT news703250253 Female farm managers are hidden in plain sight in ancient Roman texts, mentioned in laws, literature and grave inscriptions across five centuries. Modern historians have generally assumed they were housekeepers, in charge of domestic tasks and household meals, and segregated from the productive business of the farm. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-roman-farm-women-wine.html Archaeology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:40:11 EDT news703245669 Choosing friends may involve more than clicking with others who share our interests or outlooks. According to new research, people may select friends based on traits that made them valuable survival partners in our evolutionary past. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-friends-stone-age.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:30:02 EDT news703250145 Researchers at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have developed the world's first achromatic lens for neutron imaging. The lens overcomes a longstanding obstacle in the field: focusing neutrons of different wavelengths well enough to form a sharp, magnified image. With the lens, researchers can now image thick samples and follow processes inside bulky equipment such as furnaces, cryostats or pressure cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-world-neutron-lens-sharp-focus.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:20:06 EDT news703241976 The interactions between microscopic algal cells and bacteria in the oceans play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now taken an important step toward deciphering the chemical language that brokers these interactions. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-onion-chemical-halos-phytoplankton-power.html Environment Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:00:06 EDT news703241962 A technique for judging whether a common mineral formed through biological activity could aid the search for ancient life on Earth and Mars. Apatite is a ubiquitous phosphate mineral found in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. It is a major component of teeth and bones, but it also occurs in igneous rocks and sedimentary phosphorites. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-driven-tool-mineral-biosignatures-worlds.html Astrobiology Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:50:01 EDT news703246314