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. Inside the cell nucleus, genes must be turned on and off with precision to regulate biological processes. The first models of gene regulation were developed in the 1960s, yet modern science continues to uncover new layers of control. A new study involving researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the Institut Pasteur and Princeton University, published in PNAS, suggests that genes obey an optimal switching principle—random at any given moment, yet precise on average. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-random-flickering-genes-energy-precision.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 10:00:10 EDT news703149643 Oil refining is necessary for transforming raw, unusable crude oil into valuable goods like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and petrochemical feedstocks. However, the usual distillation process is energy-intensive, spurring researchers to find better, more efficient ways of refining oil. A new study published in Science describes a potential solution to this problem in the form of a specialized membrane. So far, these membranes are proving to be a scalable and highly plausible industrial technology, and testing has shown promising results for significantly reducing the energy needs of oil processing. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nextgeneration-membranes-refine-crude-oil.html Materials Science Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:20:02 EDT news702814462 Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months mounted outside the International Space Station, where the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit tested their limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-lab-moon-lunar-cement-alternative.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news702724623 Superconductors have long been considered a promising technology for the energy systems of the future. They can conduct electricity without resistance, thus eliminating both conduction losses and waste heat. Up to now, however, superconductors have only been applied in special cases, as in the immensely powerful magnet coils of particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This is because superconductors must be well cooled, down to extremely low temperatures for some materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-pressure-3d-superconductivity-tantalum-disulfide.html Superconductivity Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news702646997 A new analysis sheds light on the most likely route for the Carthaginian general's famous crossing of the Alps. The study, led by the University of Oxford and iDiv/Friedrich Schiller University Jena, reveals that the Col de la Traversette would have been the least energy-intensive route. The findings have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-elephant-energetics-hannibal-alpine-route.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:00:16 EDT news702537909 Researchers from UNSW Sydney have built the first artificial protein motor capable of taking controlled, directional steps along a DNA track. The protein, dubbed Tumbleweed, moves by alternating between three "feet" that bind to specific DNA sequences. By changing the surrounding chemical environment, the researchers can control both when the motor steps and the direction it travels. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-synthetic-protein-motor-dna-programmable.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:20:07 EDT news702562593 Researchers in the Texas A&M University J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed a new method for producing graphene oxide, a high-value carbon nanomaterial used in batteries, electronics and advanced manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unexpected-discovery-yields-graphene-oxide.html Nanomaterials Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:40:07 EDT news702553665 In the world of market competition, having the best and brightest package could send company sales into the millions. On the other hand, the amount of colored plastic waste increases, adding to the growing challenge of recycling it. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-plastic-recycling-downgrading.html Polymers Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:30:04 EDT news702230521 Of the known things in the universe, black holes are among the most extreme. They pack huge amounts of mass densely into a small area, producing gravity that is so strong that even light cannot escape. To describe their properties, physicists have relied on complex equations from Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics. But in the early 1970s, Stephen Hawking and other physicists found parallels between the laws of thermodynamics describing ordinary things—like how a stovetop boils a pot of water—and black hole mechanics. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dynamic-black-holes-obey-hawking.html Astronomy Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:40:04 EDT news702218369 Published in Nature Climate Change, new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison finds that reaching net-zero emissions by midcentury would substantially improve public health in the United States. However, climate strategies that heavily depend on carbon dioxide removal are likely to lead to worse pollution, air quality and climate-related premature deaths than scenarios that prioritize direct emissions reductions and rely less on carbon dioxide removal (CDR). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-emissions-carbon-yearly.html Environment Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:20:04 EDT news702138790 A new analysis supports the previously overlooked "brain lag" hypothesis—the idea that, in some primate lineages, the evolution of larger body size preceded the evolution of larger brain size—while also building on that hypothesis by suggesting that some lineages' brain sizes then continued to grow beyond an expected baseline. Robin Dunbar of the University of Oxford presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-primate-brains-evolved-larger-bodies.html Evolution Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news702027061 Plants need nitrogen to grow. Many legumes meet this need through a symbiotic relationship: They harbor bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen and make it available to the plant. Until now, it was largely unclear how a perennial plant regulates this symbiosis without destroying its bacterial partners. An international team led by TU Braunschweig has now described a previously unknown mechanism: The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) employs a newly discovered family of small proteins that specifically "reprogram" its symbiotic bacteria for nitrogen fixation while keeping them alive. The findings are published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-black-locust-deploys-peptides-root.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:00:03 EDT news702042901 A University at Buffalo-led team of researchers has developed a method for producing advanced nanoparticles that could accelerate the discovery of new materials for energy and electronic applications. The study, published in Nature Communications, introduces a one-step process that rapidly combines multiple metals into uniform nanoparticles in milliseconds. This allows researchers to quickly produce and explore a wider range of material combinations than was previously possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-onestep-generates-high-entropy-alloy.html Nanomaterials Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:00:08 EDT news702042192 There is growing demand for smart materials that can change their physical properties in response to various external stimuli such as light, heat, pressure, magnetic fields and electric fields. One such physical property is the magnetic state of material complexes, which depends on electronic spin states. Metal atoms in these complexes can change their spin state—between magnetic and nonmagnetic configurations—in response to light, heat or mechanical pressure. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-synthetic-chemical-framework-magnetic-states.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:10:01 EDT news701965141 When the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned green with algae just days after a US$15 million renovation, the U.S. government scrambled for chemicals and expensive technical solutions to fix the iconic landmark. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pool-pond-green-algae-dont.html Environment Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:20:06 EDT news701674321 Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years, allowing astronomers to better evaluate the large-scale structure of the visible universe. After studying these data, astronomers Francesco Sylos Labini and Marco Galoppo say the universe may not look the same in all directions. Their results, published in Nature, contradict a fundamental assumption in modern cosmology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-universe-large-scales-desi.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:50:01 EDT news701609313 Deep inside gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, hydrogen and helium coexist under pressures millions of times greater than Earth's atmosphere. Under those conditions, helium may separate from hydrogen and influence a planet's internal heat flow, structure and magnetic field. Understanding these processes and how these materials behave under extreme conditions is essential to building accurate models of planetary evolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-laser-helium-pressures.html General Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:50:01 EDT news701539261 The Netherlands is a major agricultural exporter. But look beyond euros to land, animal feed, calories and protein, and a different picture emerges. In a study published in Nature Food, researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) conclude that the Dutch contribution to the global food supply through net food exports is far more limited than is often assumed. The study shifts the focus from gross exports to the Netherlands' net contribution to food supply. It looks not only at the products the Netherlands exports, but also at the food, animal feed and agricultural land the country uses through imports from abroad. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-netherlands-world-familiar-view-dutch.html Agriculture Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:20:04 EDT news701517841 Multiferroics are materials that exhibit more than one prominent "ferroic" property, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. One of their most advantageous features is that they allow engineers to control their magnetic states with electric fields or vice versa, due to an effect known as magnetoelectric coupling. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-interlayer-doping-room-temperature-multiferroics.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:40:01 EDT news701346383 Polystyrene—common in packing peanuts and box inserts—is manufactured from fossil fuels. To develop a sustainable alternative, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials tested an unconventional starting material: sawdust. Their prototype foams incorporated cellulose binders and other additives to form rigid or flexible materials, and some versions matched polystyrene's strength and impact resistance. A simple beeswax coating made them water-resistant, producing biobased foams with potential for packaging and building materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sawdust-cellulose-binders-beeswax-combine.html Polymers Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:40:07 EDT news701434441 Two cups of warm water don't make one cup of boiling water. But in the quantum world, multiple low-energy photons can combine to produce a single, higher-energy photon. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-solid-state-material-visible-high.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:00:05 EDT news701347021 Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have examined a fundamental property of quantum mechanics in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they show that this theory does not necessarily need to be formulated with imaginary numbers—real numbers can, in fact, also be used. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-mechanics-theory-imaginary-analysis.html Quantum Physics Sun, 21 Jun 2026 18:20:01 EDT news701082298 Materials engineers have developed the ability to manipulate structure and matter at the nanoscale for solid-state alloys called intermetallics, making it possible to alter their properties for improved performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nanoscale-coal-gpa-strength-plastic.html Nanomaterials Sun, 21 Jun 2026 15:00:02 EDT news700932224 Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) usually capture what happens when atomic nuclei smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. But even when the nuclei don't collide, interesting things can happen. In a new paper just published in Physical Review Letters, members of RHIC's STAR collaboration describe a new way to use near-miss collisions at RHIC to study what's going on inside the nucleus. The approach advances the reach of RHIC, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, into the next frontier in nuclear physics—a journey into the inner workings of the building blocks of matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-flipped-quantum-clearer-gluon-nuclear.html General Physics Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:20:01 EDT news700920181 Life on Earth has evolved under an uninterrupted rhythm of day and night. While light provides the energy that powers countless molecular processes, periods of darkness often allow biological systems to reorganize, recover and transform that energy into functional outcomes. Inspired by this natural balance, an international team led by Javier Montenegro at the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela has demonstrated that the same principle can govern the behavior of simple synthetic molecular systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-darkness-nanotubes-responsive-molecular.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:10:01 EDT news700843622 A team of U.S. researchers has designed a passive quantum error correction technique that enables qubits to correct their own errors. Demonstrated by Shruti Shirol and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the protocol transforms the inevitable dissipation of energy in qubit systems from a hindrance into an advantage, offering a promising route toward practical quantum computing outside the lab. The research has been published in Physical Review X. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-passive-quantum-error-qubit-lifetime.html Quantum Physics Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:40:08 EDT news700480884 Steel and metal production are among the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 10% of global CO2 emissions. At the same time, modern technology relies on tailored steels and metals for applications in fields such as mobility, energy, infrastructure, safety and medicine. Hydrogen-based metal production offers a promising CO2-free alternative and goes even further by integrating reduction, alloying and microstructure design into a single production step. However, hydrogen-based metal production still faces a number of challenges on its path to widespread adoption, one of which is the relatively slow reduction kinetics of metal ores at temperatures below 800°C (1,472°F). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hydrogen-based-steelmaking-2x-boost.html Biochemistry Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:00:01 EDT news700414341 Most people have seen nylon listed as a material on their clothing tags, but nylon is used in an array of other products, too, including automotive parts, wire insulation and medical supplies. Unfortunately, one of the building blocks of nylon, adipic acid, is produced from petroleum-derived benzene through energy-intensive processes and has a rather high carbon footprint. However, there may be a better way to produce this ubiquitous polymer. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-years-overlooked-material-poised-reshape.html Biochemistry Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news700402907 Oxidation reactions are indispensable to the chemical industry, but from a process safety perspective, they are among the most challenging transformations. A research team at the University of Bayreuth, working in collaboration with international partners, has now introduced a fundamentally new approach to oxidation reactions in which carbon dioxide is used as the oxygen source for chemical synthesis. This makes the reaction both safer and more sustainable. The researchers report on this new approach in Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-carbon-dioxide-safer-oxidation-chemistry.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:40:10 EDT news700479241 Stars shine because atoms fuse in their interiors, releasing energy. When a very massive star has exhausted its nuclear fuel, radiation pressure can no longer provide sufficient counterforce to gravity. The star then collapses under its own mass until only a single point remains: the singularity. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-collapsing-stars-spawn-mini-universes.html General Physics Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:20:04 EDT news700401421