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. Swidden agriculture—often called "slash-and-burn"—has been practiced on every inhabited continent throughout human history, and for decades it has been blamed for the destruction of the world's rainforests. However, a new study of more than 18,000 forest patches around the world found that the environmental impact of swidden is more nuanced and less destructive than the term "slash-and-burn" suggests—and that unwritten social rules in small societies, not government oversight, often regulate land use closely enough to support both harvests and forest regeneration sustainably over time. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unwritten-social-oversight-forest-sustainable.html Environment Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:00:03 EDT news704037615 McGill researchers have found that dangerous crowd conditions leading to surges and stampedes may not emerge suddenly but instead develop gradually, as repeated physical contact and pushing accumulate and become synchronized among nearby individuals. Recognizing how these conditions arise could help organizers strengthen security, site management and evacuation planning, reducing the likelihood of injuries during large-scale public events. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-event-crowd-stampedes.html Mathematics Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:39:03 EDT news703773476 At first glance, bat sea stars, the nubbly, orange, many-footed creatures often found on the seafloor, seem about as far from humans as one can get. Appearances can be deceiving, however. Scientists have found evidence showing human and sea star ovaries share similar genetics, cell types and signaling processes, despite their ancient evolutionary split. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ovary-blueprint-ancient-sea-stars.html Evolution Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:40:07 EDT news701438461 Physicists in China have observed five phases in localization physics within a single quantum system. Using an advanced photonic platform, the team, led by Yucheng Wang and Jingyun Fan at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, has demonstrated that localization physics is likely far richer than physicists anticipated. Their results have been published in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-phases-localization-physics-quantum.html General Physics Fri, 19 Jun 2026 07:00:12 EDT news700992908 A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties introduces a pioneering, noninvasive technique that can distinguish authentic artworks from forgeries, offering museums, collectors, and auction houses a major advantage in tackling art fraud. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-art-museums-fake-van-goghs.html General Physics Thu, 11 Jun 2026 04:10:01 EDT news700296837 In a new open-access study that I published with my late colleague Kostya Trachenko from Queen Mary University of London, I propose a surprisingly simple nonlinear mathematical equation that unifies 12,000 years of human population growth and points to stark possible futures if global environmental crises intensify. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mathematical-global-population.html Mathematics Mon, 25 May 2026 10:00:02 EDT news698921136 Gene expression is controlled, in part, by the interactions between genes and regulatory elements located along the genome. Those interactions depend on the ability of chromatin—a mix of DNA and proteins—to move around within a crowded space. In a new study, MIT researchers have measured chromatin movement at timescales ranging from hundreds of microseconds to hours, allowing them to rigorously quantify those dynamics for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chromatin-tracking-reveals-motion-modes.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 04 May 2026 09:00:01 EDT news697101841 The electrons that power our society flow left and right through the circuitry in our electronics, back and forth along the transmission lines that make up our power grid, and up and down to light up every floor of every building. But the electrons in newly discovered "moiré crystals" move in much stranger ways. They can move left and right, back and forth, or up and down in our three-dimensional world, but these electrons also act as if they can teleport in and out of a mysterious fourth dimension of space that is perpendicular to our perceivable reality. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-electrons-moir-crystals-explore-higher.html Condensed Matter Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:00:03 EDT news694685941 Researchers studying the soft-bodied Ediacaran biotas of the world generally accept that there are three distinct assemblages. The 575–560-million-year-old (Ma) Avalon Assemblage is best known from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada, characterized by the weird and wonderful fractal Rangeomorpha like Charnia that thrived in the deep, dark waters around the ancient continent of Avalonia. The 560–550-Ma White Sea Assemblage is best known from shallow marine rocks of Australia, Russia, and China, marking the acme of Ediacaran biodiversity and including some famous animal ancestors such as Dickinsonia and Kimberella. And the 550–538-Ma Nama Assemblage is a low-diversity biota that persisted until the extinction event preceding the Cambrian Radiation event at 538 Ma. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-exceptionally-million-year-site-avalon.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:00:02 EST news691330727 In a recent paper, SFI Professor David Wolpert, SFI Fractal Faculty member Carlo Rovelli, and physicist Jordan Scharnhorst examine a longstanding, paradoxical thought experiment in statistical physics and cosmology known as the "Boltzmann brain" hypothesis—the possibility that our memories, perceptions, and observations could arise from random fluctuations in entropy rather than reflecting the universe's actual past. The work is published in the journal Entropy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-memories-illusions-disentangles-boltzmann-brain.html General Physics Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:10:01 EST news688230162 In Earth's fossil record, soft-bodied organisms like jellyfish rarely stand the test of time. What's more, it's hard for any animal to get preserved with exceptional detail in sandstones, which are made of large grains, are porous, and commonly form in environments swept by rough storms and waves. But about 570 million years ago, in a geologic time interval called the Ediacaran period, strange-looking, soft-bodied organisms died on the seafloor, were buried in sand, and fossilized in incredible detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-strange-ancient-remarkable-fossils.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 08 Jan 2026 13:35:40 EST news687101701 When a gas is highly energized, its electrons get torn from the parent atoms, resulting in a plasma—the oft-forgotten fourth state of matter (along with solid, liquid, and gas). When we think of plasmas, we normally think of extremely hot phenomena such as the sun, lightning, or maybe arc welding, but there are situations in which icy cold particles are associated with plasmas. Images of distant molecular clouds from the James Webb Space Telescope feature such hot–cold interactions, with frozen dust illuminated by pockets of shocked gas and newborn stars. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-icy-hot-plasmas-fluffy-electrically.html Plasma Physics Mon, 08 Dec 2025 10:02:59 EST news684410561 Most of us first hear about the irrational number π (pi)—rounded off as 3.14, with an infinite number of decimal digits—in school, where we learn about its use in the context of a circle. More recently, scientists have developed supercomputers that can estimate up to trillions of its digits. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ramanujan-formulae-pi-modern-high.html General Physics Wed, 03 Dec 2025 08:07:20 EST news683971621 While atmospheric turbulence is a familiar culprit of rough flights, the chaotic movement of turbulent flows remains an unsolved problem in physics. To gain insight into the system, a team of researchers used explainable AI to pinpoint the most important regions in a turbulent flow, according to a Nature Communications study led by the University of Michigan and the Universitat Politècnica de València. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-ai-turbulence-fresh-unsolved-physics.html General Physics Thu, 20 Nov 2025 09:46:04 EST news682854361 What makes art art? Is it the method or the creator? Does it need a color palette and oil paints, or a canvas laid flat on the floor and paint splattered across it? Does it require a critically acclaimed painter, or a toddler with crayons? And when it comes to the artist, can we even reliably tell if an artwork has been created by children or adults? https://phys.org/news/2025-11-kid-jackson-pollock-famous-child.html General Physics Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:02 EST news682704661 Researchers have for the first time created a reconfigurable polariton 2D quasicrystal. The team from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Iceland, the University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that this unique state of matter exhibits long-range order and a novel type of phase synchronization, opening new pathways for research into exotic phenomena such as supersolids and superfluidity in aperiodic settings. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-scientists-quasicrystal.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:03:03 EDT news680428981 Many people look at trees to relax, taking in the soothing fractal patterns to adjust their eyes from too many hours spent at a computer. Dominick "Dom" Ciruzzi, assistant professor of geology at William & Mary, takes tree watching to a whole new level. An ecohydrologist, Ciruzzi is fascinated by how ecosystems and water interact, and he's taken a special interest in arboreal life. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nature-language-video-analysis-tree.html Ecology Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:22:04 EDT news678460921 Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) is a material created by stacking two sheets of graphene onto each other, with a small twist angle of about 1.1°. At this "magic angle," electrons move very slowly, which can lead to the emergence of highly correlated electron states. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-hofstadter-butterfly-bilayer-graphene-reveals.html Condensed Matter Mon, 08 Sep 2025 11:20:07 EDT news676548681 New research published in the journal Science reveals the red planet's mantle preserves a record of its violent beginnings. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-mars-mantle-chaotic-features-colossal.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:00:08 EDT news675514621 Graphite is a key structural component in some of the world's oldest nuclear reactors and many of the next-generation designs being built today. But it also condenses and swells in response to radiation—and the mechanism behind those changes has proven difficult to study. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-graphite-pore-size-clues-nuclear.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 15 Aug 2025 10:07:05 EDT news674471221 Yellowstone, a popular tourist destination and namesake of an equally popular TV show, was the first-ever national park in the United States. And bubbling beneath it—to this day—is one of Earth's most seismically active networks of volcanic activity. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-machine-uncovers-earthquakes-yellowstone-caldera.html Earth Sciences Sat, 19 Jul 2025 07:31:54 EDT news672129103 Imagine being tasked with baking a soufflé, except the only instruction provided is an ingredient list without any measurements or temperatures. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-chemical-storm-fronts-framework-enables.html Polymers Wed, 11 Jun 2025 17:14:04 EDT news668880841 In a new Nature Physics study, researchers have provided evidence of universal conformal invariance in living biological cells. They show that a universal feature in the collective behavior emerges in groups of living cells. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scientists-evidence-universal-conformal-invariance.html General Physics Fri, 11 Apr 2025 06:30:03 EDT news663499272 We have developed a breakthrough method to convert carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from vehicular emissions into high-performance electrocatalysts. This innovation provides a sustainable approach to pollution management and energy production by repurposing harmful particulate matter into valuable materials for renewable energy applications. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-pollution-power-method-carbon-nanoparticles.html Nanomaterials Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:18:49 EST news660219521 A team of scientists from Princeton University has measured the energies of electrons in a new class of quantum materials and has found them to follow a fractal pattern. Fractals are self-repeating patterns that occur on different length scales and can be seen in nature in a variety of settings, including snowflakes, ferns, and coastlines. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-hofstadter-butterfly-quantum-fractal-patterns.html Condensed Matter Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:08:04 EST news659797681 You can learn a lot from a little slime mold. For Nate Cira, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in Cornell Engineering, the tiny eukaryotic organism provided inspiration for modeling "traveling networks"—connected systems that move by rearranging their structure. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-slime-molds-corporations-networks-path.html Mathematics Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:50:59 EST news659796651 The math that describes the branching pattern of trees in nature also holds for trees depicted in art—and may even underlie our ability to recognize artworks as depictions of trees. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-scientists-patterns-trees-art-da.html Mathematics Tue, 11 Feb 2025 11:55:02 EST news658497301 Many science fiction authors try to incorporate scientific principles into their work, but Ian Tregillis, who is a contributing author of the Wild Cards book series when he's not working as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, took it one step further: He derived a formula to describe the dynamics of the fictional universe's viral system. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-physics-george-rr-martin-fictional.html General Physics Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:00:09 EST news656758381 The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained elusive. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-brains-fruit-flies-monkeys-scientists.html Evolution Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:34:29 EST news650194465 Moiré materials, such as twisted bilayer graphene, are materials generally formed by stacking two or more layers of 2D materials on top of each other with a small lattice mismatch. This slight mismatch creates a unique pattern known as the moiré pattern, which is associated with desirable optical and electronic properties. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-quasiperiodicity-ground-state-properties-1d.html Nanophysics Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:30:01 EST news650193671