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. Around 80 million years ago, a stretch of tropical coastline in what is now northeastern Italy was lashed by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Those storms swept dinosaur carcasses, crocodiles, plants and river mud onto a tidal flat, where the tides and a film of microbes sealed everything away with extraordinary preservation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-storms-built-graveyard-ancient-monsoons.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:20:09 EDT news703938783 An international research team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) investigated how the shape of black corals influences the functions of their cilia. The findings are published in the journal Communications Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-black-coral-microscopic-cilia-food.html Ecology Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:00:02 EDT news703931701 Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have developed a new way to help gravitational-wave observatories see farther into the universe by solving one of their biggest challenges: tiny heat-induced distortions in the massive mirrors at the heart of the detectors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-technique-enables-ligo-peer-distant.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:30:07 EDT news703868521 A new study from Edith Cowan University (ECU) confirms that the presence of fungal food resources is important for supporting the reintroduction of two threatened marsupials to the Shark Bay World Heritage area, which could simultaneously advance species conservation and ecosystem restoration. This study, led by Edith Cowan University Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Quah, took place at six sites across Western Australia and the Northern Territory, including Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-truffles-menu-threatened-marsupials-world.html Plants & Animals Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:00:09 EDT news703862221 Artificial intelligence faces an energy crisis stemming from a physical traffic jam inside modern computer chips. Processors must continually shuffle data, such as the billions of parameters in complex models, between separate computing and memory nodes. This traffic jam, known as the "von Neumann bottleneck," hinders the speed and energy efficiency of advanced processors. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-microscope-illuminates-transistor.html Condensed Matter Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:20:11 EDT news703858561 Controlling interactions between molecules and their functions from the molecular level to the macroscopic scale is challenging in supramolecular and materials chemistry. To this end, a research team led by associate professor Yosuke Tani from WPI-ITbM at Nagoya University and Keisuke Wada from Kyoto University designed a vapor-controlled, reversible host–guest chemistry system that controls the optical and physical properties of a functional molecular liquid (FML)—nonvolatile fluids that can feature optical, electronic and catalytic properties. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-vapor-supramolecules-phase.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 21 Jul 2026 15:00:03 EDT news703855021 Researchers have developed a new type of optical fiber by freezing a glass capillary filled with liquid. It guides light and sound waves simultaneously and enables highly efficient coupling between them. The high coupling strength lowers the energy consumption of photonic neuromorphic computing schemes and quantum signal processing applications by several orders of magnitude. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-frozen-fiber-couples-strongly-standard.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:00:03 EDT news703854301 One of the deepest ambitions in modern physics is understanding how the fabric of space and time could emerge from fundamental quantum degrees of freedom to establish a quantum theory of gravity. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-error-emergent-gravity-probing.html General Physics Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:10:02 EDT news703850636 The end-Triassic mass extinction, 201 million years ago, is linked to volcanism that resulted from the break-up of Pangea and which pumped out vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing extreme global warming of 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. As a result, tree-dominated vegetation collapsed and the highly disturbed landscapes were colonized by ferns that formed savannahs across large swaths of what is now Northwest Europe. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-triassic-inferno-raged-europe-millennia.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:20:05 EDT news703842721 QUT researchers have overcome a challenge that has limited next-generation energy-harvesting materials for more than two decades, opening the door to more powerful wearable electronics and new ways of turning wasted heat into electricity. The breakthrough centers on carbon nanotubes, which are flexible, conductive microscopic rods that have long shown promise for wearable technologies but have been difficult to control. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-molecules-carbon-nanotubes-clumping-electricity.html Nanomaterials Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:40:06 EDT news703781761 A new study by Queen Mary University of London mathematician Professor Ginestra Bianconi proposes a new perspective on one of the deepest questions in modern physics: How can the universe become increasingly structured and complex while still obeying the second law of thermodynamics? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gravity-entropy-theory-law-thermodynamics.html General Physics Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:00:01 EDT news703512912 A new review in Limnology and Oceanography led by scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography warns that the rapid loss of oxygen from the ocean and other aquatic ecosystems is pushing Earth toward an "unsafe space," with consequences that could be irreversible on human timescales. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-underwater-oxygen-loss-threatens-earth.html Earth Sciences Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:20:01 EDT news703501039 Cells are like metropolises, home to millions of molecular residents. If one were to stand atop a high-rise, trying to identify most of its inhabitants would seem an impossible task. Even with the sophisticated imaging tools currently available to scientists, it is challenging to zoom in on specific molecules and view them with a high degree of detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-proteins-scientists-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:20:06 EDT news703498960 A recent study examined a transparent material used in high-impact applications such as helicopter windshields at the molecular level to measure its toughness. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Irvine, followed a crack along a grain boundary in magnesium aluminate spinel, or transparent aluminum, adding new data about this unique crystal-structured material. Their paper is published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tough-material.html Materials Science Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news703497162 University of Arizona researchers have demonstrated a promising new application for graphene nanoribbons, a nanoscale semiconductor material with the potential to withstand extreme environments. The team's findings could help clear a key hurdle to bringing fusion energy to the electric grid. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-graphene-nanoribbons-survive-gamma-revealing.html Nanophysics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:23:15 EDT news703437770 For the first time, researchers have developed a way to create chilled molecules containing the radioactive element radium. The resulting laboratory concoctions, generated in part through steps similar to those used to make candy, are poised to help researchers solve one of the biggest mysteries of our universe: How did matter in the early universe come to dominate over its antimatter counterpart? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cold-radioactive-molecules-prepped-readied.html General Physics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:00:14 EDT news703345902 For more than 25 years, lab-on-a-chip technology has allowed researchers to model human organs and blood vessels using real human cells in artificial microscopic environments. These microphysiological systems (MPS) may replicate human cells and mimic organs or even full organ systems under numerous conditions. They have become key to studying everything from heart disease to the effectiveness of new drugs. However, they have been held back by one major limitation: an inability to accurately re-create the blood flow waveforms generated by the human heart. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-recreates-human-heartbeat-blood-lab.html Biotechnology Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news703410569 Researchers from the University of Basel have published details of how electrons within a cluster of molecules interact with one another and can be controlled. Their findings pave the way for new approaches to developing quantum components and electronic circuits on the nanometer scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-schrdingerlike-sixmolecule-clusters-quantum-components.html Quantum Physics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:40:13 EDT news703407232 Nanocrystals are so useful that they formed the basis of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But despite their usefulness, scientists have so far been able to make these microscopic crystals from only a limited palette of materials. A group of chemists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has announced a way to make nanocrystals from a useful class of materials known as metal nitrides—a previously impossible task. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-chemists-gallium-nitride-material-nanocrystals.html Nanomaterials Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:20:07 EDT news703405455 As homelessness increases around the world, more unhoused people are turning to parks and other urban green spaces to seek shelter. However, these places are also home to animals that live in and around urban areas. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unhoused-people-wildlife-contact.html Ecology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:40:01 EDT news703329023 Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have discovered that tiny photosynthetic bacteria band together into protective "herds" when attacked by predators—a survival strategy that could also influence how carbon is stored in the world's waters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bacteria-herds-survive-predators-fresh.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:20:04 EDT news703340944 A new way of converting stubborn plastic waste into high-value chemicals using only water and oxygen has been developed by an international team of scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tiny-droplets-stubborn-plastic-valuable.html Biochemistry Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:00:05 EDT news703340193 Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor host a broad range of rare and unusual ecosystems. They can be spread far apart, yet there is often overlap among the creatures that inhabit them. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, are answering a long-standing question in this field about how creatures migrate between hydrothermal vents. Their approach involves inspecting the chemical nature of limpet shells to reconstruct their likely journeys, yielding some surprising results. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-deep-sea-larvae-sunlight-hydrothermal.html Ecology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news703318177 Driving an electric current through a molecule can create a magnetic field. Yet in practice, such fields are often too weak to be detected experimentally. Through theoretical modeling, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) show how quantum effects can turn single molecules into effective magnets—including one shaped like a microscopic soccer ball, just in time for the FIFA World Cup final. The findings are published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-currents-nano-soccer-ball.html Nanophysics Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:20:10 EDT news703326458 Quantum materials could transform technologies ranging from powerful computers and ultrasecure communications to advanced energy systems. But there has always been one major obstacle. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-physicists-room-temperature-quantum-material.html Quantum Physics Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:00:35 EDT news703314539 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 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 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 When playing the classic game "20 Questions," one may begin with the common opener: "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?" https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bio-metal-exploring-metallic-mystery.html Materials Science Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:00:11 EDT news703141728 A research team has presented a roadmap for developing an "artificial olfactory system" that detects odors like the human nose and analyzes them using artificial intelligence (AI) by leveraging metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The team systematically organized and reviewed key research trends in electronic nose technology, from MOF material design to sensor implementation and AI-based odor pattern recognition. The research was led by Hyuk-Jun Kwon's in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science of Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology. The work is published in the journal Progress in Materials Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-powered-electronic-nose-distinguish.html Biochemistry Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news703169645