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 Fraunhofer IAF have developed a laser-enhanced quantum sensor that combines high magnetic-field sensitivity with a large dynamic range. Using laser threshold magnetometry, they improved the ratio of sensitivity and dynamic range by a factor of up to 590 compared with state-of-the-art approaches. The breakthrough is enabled by the first demonstration of 100% optical contrast, combined with strong laser readout signals. The results, published in Nature Communications, open up new prospects for medical diagnostics, navigation, and resource exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-diamond-laser-optical-contrast-magnetic.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:20:08 EDT news711893942 The moment we take a sip of our morning coffee or our first bite of lunch, the brain begins interpreting what we taste. Is it sweet? Sour? Or something else entirely? But the brain does not create flavor based solely on signals from the tongue. That is the finding of a new study from the Department of Food Science, published in Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-music-flavor-food.html Social Sciences Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:00:15 EDT news711877524 Transmitting electricity without losing any energy may sound impossible, yet this is precisely the promise of superconductivity. For nearly 40 years, scientists have been working to understand materials that exhibit this remarkable property at relatively high temperatures. Unlocking their secrets could one day help make power grids more efficient, enhance medical technologies and support the development of quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hidden-rivalry-quantum-states-heart.html Superconductivity Tue, 20 Oct 2026 18:00:07 EDT news711721321 Superconductivity has many important practical applications, including creating powerful magnets used in high-resolution medical scans, transporting electricity efficiently and building ultrasensitive measuring devices. Until now, understanding exactly what lay behind this unique phenomenon at high temperatures has eluded scientists over many decades. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gun-mystery-high-temperature-superconductivity.html Superconductivity Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:07 EDT news711718201 For scientists, breakthroughs often stem from unexpected turns. A research team led by Oscar Dahlsten, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), set out to prove a theoretical limitation, only to discover a quantum solution. The finding breaks traditional physical constraints and introduces a strategy for harvesting energy from fluctuating sources. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-quantum-pathway-entropy-free-energy.html General Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news711706981 For the first time, scientists have observed bleached corals on the brink of death fully recover through brief contact with healthy clones. Ghostly white corals returned to full health in a laboratory setting within seven weeks, the fastest documented recovery to date, according to a study published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reverse-coral.html Ecology Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news711300075 Physicists at Auburn University have used flashes of laser light to bring order to tiny electrically charged "islands" inside a crystal. The discovery helps answer a decades-old question about how the material organizes itself and shows how light could be used to control its behavior—a step toward exploring new technologies for processing and storing information. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-laser-pulses-quantum-material-tiny.html Condensed Matter Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:00:07 EDT news711286681 An international collaboration led by a research group from GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany, has achieved the first measurement of the chemical stability of a superheavy element compound. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-superheavy-element-compound-reveals-weaker.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:40:02 EDT news711197821 When the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 turned our world upside down, mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 brought a breakthrough. Their success established modified mRNA as a powerful foundation for vaccines and opened the way for new mRNA-based technologies, with potential applications ranging from vaccines against other infectious diseases to cancer immunotherapy. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sequence-mrna-protein-errors-vaccine.html Biotechnology Tue, 13 Oct 2026 16:40:07 EDT news711120361 Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have uncovered an unusual bacterial immune system that operates in reverse of known defenses. The discovery, published in Molecular Cell, details the mechanics of "type VI retrons"—a counterintuitive class of bacterial defenses. More than just a biological curiosity, decoding these complex systems provides a molecular blueprint that scientists can adapt to engineer more efficient DNA-editing tools for human health and therapies. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-newly-antiviral-bacteria-strangest-kind.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:20:12 EDT news711116521 The cells of higher organisms such as mammals, flies and fungi enclose their genetic material in a nucleus. A nuclear envelope, consisting of two stacked membranes, protects it. For the cell to survive, the nucleus must constantly exchange molecules with the rest of the cell. This exchange relies on channels called nuclear pores, which act as selective gates that transport proteins or messenger RNA in or out. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cells-center-accessible.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:20:08 EDT news711099061 Researchers at National Taiwan University (NTU), working across the College of Engineering, College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), have developed a new method for producing aerogels, introducing what they describe as the world's first purely gaseous-born aerogel fabrication platform. The study is published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-vapor-based-method-ultralight-aerogels.html Polymers Mon, 12 Oct 2026 17:00:10 EDT news711037681 A new study led by researchers at the University of Limerick (UL) has identified a new battery material from a renewable wood industry byproduct that could help reduce reliance on scarce and expensive materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-based-wood-industry-byproduct-carbon.html Nanomaterials Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:00:18 EDT news711036421 In the deep sea, it never stops snowing. The type of snow that falls in the ocean, known as marine snow, is very different from the flaky geometric wonders that fall on land. Marine snow describes tiny clumps of organic and inorganic detritus—think mucus, poop, silt, dead plankton, etc.—that rain from the shallows into the deep. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gooier-marine-carbon.html Earth Sciences Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711015241 A new paper published in the journal Phytotaxa describes a new species in the genus Victoria, the Colombian giant water lily (Victoria colombiana). With only three other known species in the genus, V. colombiana joins the pantheon of nature's giants with pads measuring up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) across. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-chance-instagram-sighting-discovery-rare.html Plants & Animals Thu, 08 Oct 2026 19:10:06 EDT news710667361 A new approach to producing ammonia using renewable electricity has overcome a fundamental energy limitation of the technology, opening new possibilities for cleaner and potentially more cost-effective production of one of the world's most important chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-electrode-key-barrier-greener-ammonia.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:00:11 EDT news710605261 Two studies on critical topology have recently been published in the journal Nature. These studies were led by the teams of Prof. Baile Zhang at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Prof. Jianhua Jiang at the University of Science and Technology of China, respectively. Prof. Xue-Jia Yu from the School of Physics at the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo (EIT), served as a co-corresponding author on both papers and provided key theoretical guidance in the related experimental collaborations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-acoustic-topology-persist-gapless-critical.html Condensed Matter Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:40:20 EDT news710599631 Modern technological breakthroughs like lasers, MRI scanners, semiconductors and quantum computers rest on the study of quantum mechanics. However, the field has predominantly focused on (sub)atomic phenomena far removed from our human senses. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-quantum-shifting-centimeter-scale-lab.html General Physics Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:50 EDT news710514722 As women go through menopause, their voices tend to become deeper. This is partly because the vocal folds may swell and the surrounding muscles lose elasticity, resulting in a lower pitch. Age-related physiological changes can also affect the pronunciation of certain vowels. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-linguists-madonna-voice-defies-age.html Social Sciences Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:40:01 EDT news710511870 Earth seems like a troubled place right now, but at least our cosmic surroundings appear peaceful. This is not universally true, as explosions, collisions and other dangers lurk in other places and times. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-life-cosmos-universe-supercomputer-yields.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:40:29 EDT news710498341 The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to U.S. psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-german-trio-medicine-nobel-optogenetics.html Other Mon, 05 Oct 2026 06:32:02 EDT news710400687 Working in close collaboration, researchers from Paderborn University, the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum have made a breakthrough in quantum communication. In their recently published paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, they demonstrate how special semiconductor nanostructures can be used to generate individual photons and pairs of photons that are almost perfectly identical. These "indistinguishable" particles form the basis for quantum entanglement and quantum interference. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-method-generates-indistinguishable-photons-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:40:10 EDT news710077741 Northwestern University scientists have developed remarkably long, precisely patterned molecular threads that could open new possibilities for designing advanced materials. The scientists also discovered that these threads—called supramolecular polymers—can dramatically enhance brain cell activity. The study is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-precisely-patterned-molecular-threads-boost.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:00:13 EDT news709985941 Pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals are produced industrially using a wide range of chemical reactions. These processes need to become more efficient, less expensive, and more sustainable. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-driven-nickel-catalyst-chemical-bonds.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:00:07 EDT news709915682 The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has shown for the first time that it can detect the faint glow of hydrogen gas from deep in the universe's past using only its own data. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-hydrogen-distant-dark-energy.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:00:04 EDT news709825988 At the southwest tip of Sweden, the Falsterbo Peninsula stretches into the Baltic Sea, creating a natural bottleneck for hundreds of millions of birds traveling south for the winter each year. Falsterbo is particularly known for raptor migration. One autumn morning, I stood with a group of others by the lighthouse, watching birds gather to cross the open sea—a sight to take your breath away. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-avian-odysseys-tracking-raptor-migrations.html Plants & Animals Mon, 28 Sep 2026 18:20:06 EDT news709803549 In the 1960s, a miner working at a mineral extraction site in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, struck something far more valuable than any mineral in the area: a skull with distinctly humanlike features. After an initial examination, archaeologists excavated further and uncovered more remains, which they estimated to be around 40,000 years old. They identified the main skull as an African Neanderthal and named it Irhoud 1. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-human-emerges-pieced-moroccan.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:00:02 EDT news709546556 Galaxies are enormous and hold hundreds of billions of stars. These stars form from cold, dense gas. Every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, is wrapped in a huge envelope of gas called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. This reservoir of raw material stretches 10–20 times the size of the visible portion of the galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-black-hole-jets-galaxies-visible.html Astronomy Sat, 26 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news709472146 A cell's ability to repair its damaged DNA is one of the most fundamental processes in biology, helping protect us from diseases like cancer. Over the years, researchers have unraveled many of the mechanisms cells use to repair DNA, ultimately leading to precision cancer treatments. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cells-machinery-dna.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:40:11 EDT news709467781 U.S. artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled the first discovery from its molecular biology lab, a previously unknown enzyme system spotted by its Claude model and touted by the company as proof that AI can speed up basic research. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-anthropic-touts-ai-biology-discovery.html Biotechnology Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:40:01 EDT news709442390