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 at Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) have succeeded in controlling the magnetism in the nucleus of a single atom with radio waves. This came as a surprise: until now, physicists believed that this nuclear spin could not be manipulated directly. The discovery could open up new possibilities for storing and reading quantum information. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-magnetic-core-atom.html General Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:20:08 EDT news712399742 High on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the ground stays frozen, with only the top few meters melting each summer. Although the region is warming about twice as fast as the global average, a new study finds that more than a third of its permafrost, mainly in the central plateau, has gained ice since 2000. Stronger westerly winds bring more rain and snow, which seeps into the ground in summer and freezes again in winter. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-tibetan-plateau-frozen-ground-gaining.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:20:04 EDT news712396621 The human brain accounts for roughly 2% of total body weight but uses approximately 20% of our body's energy. Relative to our body size, human brains are much larger than those of other mammals and take a lot of energy to keep humans going. The evolution of our unusually large "social brain" is thought to have given us advanced intelligence and enabled the formation of large, complex societies. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ants-prioritize-brain-energy-starvation.html Plants & Animals Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:00:10 EDT news712396381 When two objects touch and then separate, they can swap tiny amounts of electric charge, even if they are made from exactly the same material. This 'triboelectric effect' is the source of everyday static electricity, but it is still poorly understood in large samples of powder, where vast numbers of particles are constantly colliding with each other. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-levitated-particles-reveal-static.html General Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:00:09 EDT news712326851 In a new study published in Chemical Science, researchers from the University of Oxford's Department of Chemistry have used machine learning simulations to trace how a common polymer transforms into hard carbon, revealing the atomic-scale processes that give this technologically important material its disordered structure. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-machine-simulations-reveal-plastic-hard.html Polymers Wed, 28 Oct 2026 07:00:08 EDT news712321141 The Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW)—a vast layer of fresh water spanning much of the Southern Hemisphere's ocean—has rapidly reversed its long-term trends in salinity and density, according to new research. The AAIW helps store carbon, supply oxygen and drive global ocean currents. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-major-southern-hemisphere-ocean-layer.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:01 EDT news712321742 The 2026 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change finds that many of the health risks and harms of climate change grew faster in the decade since the Paris Agreement was introduced (2016–2025) than in the decade before it (2006–2015). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climate-health-outpace-action-prompting.html Environment Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:10:02 EDT news712229643 Life arose on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago, and our planet has remained habitable ever since—not too hot, not too cold. These life-sustaining conditions are possible in part thanks to a built-in, carbon cycle–based climate "thermostat" that controls the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-earth-thermostat-pangea-era.html Earth Sciences Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:20:06 EDT news712329541 All water comes from somewhere. Researchers who want to know where it comes from rely on water isotopes, variants of water molecules with slightly different masses, as location identifiers. In particular, the specific ratio of heavy to light water isotopes is unique to the water's origin and processes it has undergone and can provide information on how water travels across the globe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-database-tracks-earth-standardizing-decades.html Earth Sciences Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:20:13 EDT news712323841 Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a photocatalytic system that can selectively capture reacting molecules and hold them close to the active sites that absorb energy from light. This innovation addresses a long-standing challenge of having the photocatalyst maintain a high reaction rate even when the reacting molecules are present at very low concentrations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-counteranion-captures-reactants-boost-driven.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:10:01 EDT news712335541 Red tide, a harmful algal bloom that produces toxins, is known for causing respiratory irritation in humans and killing fish in coastal waters. Recent research shows that the conversation is also shifting to include a more subtle neurological threat. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-satellite-florida-earlier-toxic.html Environment Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:50:01 EDT news712335061 Envision a material whose magnetic properties and electronic topology can be toggled by exposure to light, paving the way for future electronic devices that do not rely on traditional electrical switching, which wastes energy by producing heat. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-uncover-magnetism-topology-atomically.html Condensed Matter Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:40:06 EDT news712244365 University of Missouri researchers have created rice plants that resist bacterial blight, a devastating disease that threatens one of the world's most important food crops. The advance could help farmers in parts of Asia and Africa, where the disease can destroy harvests and threaten livelihoods. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rice-devastating-disease-gene-ai.html Biotechnology Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:20:15 EDT news712320002 A study analyzing the effects of climate change on vascular plants in the United States finds that the fate of individual plant species tends to be a regional phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-species-climate-regional-strategies.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 15:50:01 EDT news712332481 Making complex molecules often means joining smaller chemical building blocks together, a process facilitated by catalysts, compounds that make such reactions possible or speed them up without being consumed themselves. Many widely used reactions also require chemists to modify their starting molecules before joining them. These added chemical "handles" make the molecules reactive, but preparing them means extra steps and, often, additional waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-reusable-palladium-catalyst-enables-chemical.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 15:40:08 EDT news712319329 Scientists have developed a way for certain types of compostable plastic to break down much faster in marine environments, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. The breakthrough comes from tiny enzymes embedded in the plastic that help degrade it from within. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-embedded-enzymes-plastics-faster-deep.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:30:06 EDT news712326788 Researchers at the Osaka Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (ORIST), in collaboration with the University of Osaka and Tohoku University, have developed a flexible and stretchable silicon material whose response to terahertz waves can be mechanically tuned. By etching microscopic spiral springs into silicon, the team made the fragile material bendable and stretchable. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-microscopic-fragile-silicon-flexible-terahertz.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:20:06 EDT news712316161 Researchers in the U.S. and China have created a biocompatible, metal-free magnet that can be safely implanted and generate signals from deep inside the body. Led by Wubin Bai at the University of North Carolina, the team revealed how magnetism can emerge from the rearrangement of atoms in heated carbon nitride, which strengthens the coupling between unpaired electrons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-metal-free-magnetic-sensor-safely.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 13:20:03 EDT news712314189 Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging to samples of spacesuit materials that are carried aboard the rover, including particles small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could inform spacesuit and habitat design, dust-removal procedures and crew health standards for future NASA missions to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-perseverance-clues-crews-ultrafine-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news712314844 Earth may have produced much of its water during the planet's formation, as rocky pebbles reacted with the hydrogen-rich atmosphere surrounding the young planet, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience. The findings offer a potential explanation for how Earth acquired one of the essential ingredients for life and suggest that similar water-producing processes could be common on rocky planets beyond our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-earth-planet-grew.html Astrobiology Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news712312933 Bat populations across the United States face numerous threats, and one of the biggest may be the number of collisions with wind turbines. According to the most comprehensive study of the problem to date, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 18 million bats may have died at wind energy facilities between 1981 and 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reveal-staggering-deaths-turbines.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:29:50 EDT news712319317 Around 121 million years ago, somewhere in modern northeastern China, an early bird took to the skies. If you drew its silhouette, you'd notice something was missing. Unlike any bird alive today, it had no tail feathers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-million-year-fossils-longipteryx-tail.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:20:16 EDT news712312880 The well-known star Betelgeuse has a mysterious houseguest—and it's shaking the rafters, rattling the pipes and slamming the cupboards (metaphorically speaking). It's causing enough subtle atmospheric disturbance that it might as well be making ghost noises. Who's to blame? New data suggest that its recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, is the one doing the haunting. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-radio-images-reveal-disturbances-betelgeuse.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:00:08 EDT news712312561 Kaushik Bhattacharya is an engineer and materials scientist, but he has always been fascinated by seashells. Part of the draw is the "beautiful" idea that even simple organisms like mollusks can construct wonderfully complex structures over and over again, even in differing environments. He marvels at nature's engineering capabilities. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mathematics-shell-recreating-diverse-mollusk.html Mathematics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:40:24 EDT news712312261 A new platform, developed by researchers at the Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba, in collaboration with Mahidol University, makes molecular docking easier to access, understand, and integrate into experimental research. The work is published in the Journal of Cheminformatics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dock-molecular-docking-platform-protein.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:20:04 EDT news712311181 Advanced nanoscale imaging technology has revealed the diversity of living cells in human milk and uncovered new insights into how these cells are structured, what they contain and how they use nutrients. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reveal-hidden-world-cells.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 27 Oct 2026 09:00:06 EDT news712309321 Quantum networks, systems that connect devices using quantum mechanical effects, could potentially allow users to share information more securely and efficiently. Building these networks typically entails linking stationary qubits, units of quantum information encoded in trapped ions or other physical systems, using photons (particles of light) transmitted through optical fibers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bridge-wavelength-gap-quantum-communications.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 08:40:01 EDT news711967827 For the first time, a team of physicists in the U.S. has clearly demonstrated a "helicon current drive" in a nuclear fusion experiment. Led by Jeff Lestz at General Atomics, San Diego, the team took advantage of the latest advances in tokamak technology to show that radio waves steered to travel around the donut-shaped device can be absorbed by its confined plasma, driving an electric current inside it. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-radio-fusion-plasma-current-reactors.html Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 07:20:01 EDT news712244375 In a new study published today in Plants, People, Planet, scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and their international collaborators clarify the distinction between Ganoderma lucidum, a European bracket fungus described in 1781, and Ganoderma lingzhi, the East Asian species widely associated with medicinal lingzhi or reishi. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-false-lingzhi-unmasked-scientists-year.html Evolution Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:10:01 EDT news712231982 Generating hydrogen without releasing carbon dioxide sounds simple: pass electricity through water, split water molecules and generate green hydrogen. The hard part is the electrocatalyst. The best ones rely on platinum, ruthenium and iridium, which are scarce and expensive. We wanted to know whether a small amount of iron and nickel oxides, anchored on carbon nanofibers grown by chemical vapor deposition the right way on the right scaffold, could do the job instead. Our results are published in ACS Applied Nano Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fuel-nanomaterial-green-hydrogen.html Nanomaterials Mon, 26 Oct 2026 19:00:03 EDT news712234922