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. The task of gently transporting a microscopic particle from one point to another along a winding path, and then bringing it back using nothing more than a single, compact chip is a challenge we set out to address in our new study, now published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-optical-metaconveyors-enable-programmable-nanomanipulation.html Nanophysics Wed, 13 May 2026 18:00:02 EDT news697800686 RIKEN physicists have found a way to speed up the readout of qubits in superconducting quantum computers, which should help to make them faster and more reliable. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-physicists-superconducting-qubit-readout-quantum.html Superconductivity Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:06:03 EDT news677930762 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)-led research team has adopted gyromagnetic double-zero-index metamaterials (GDZIMs)—a new optical extreme-parameter material—and developed a new method to control light using GDZIMs. This discovery could revolutionize fields like optical communications, biomedical imaging, and nanotechnology, enabling advances in integrated photonic chips, high-fidelity optical communication, and quantum light sources. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-gyromagnetic-index-metamaterials-enable-stable.html Condensed Matter Thu, 12 Jun 2025 16:04:19 EDT news668963055 From a small California winery to a large-scale energy project in China, floating photovoltaics—or "floatovoltaics"—are gaining in popularity. Commonly installed over artificial water bodies, from irrigation ponds and reservoirs to wastewater treatment plants, floating solar projects can maximize space for producing clean energy while sparing natural lands. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-birds-solar-energy-coexist.html Ecology Mon, 12 May 2025 05:00:02 EDT news666014941 An international team of polar ecologists, geographers, and marine scientists has found that global warming has, over the past 20 years, melted enough glacier ice in Greenland that an additional 1,620 kilometers of that country's coastline is now exposed to the elements. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-global-exposes-kilometers-greenland-coastline.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:30:08 EDT news662203476 A few things come to mind when we imagine the alpha male type. They're the ones calling the shots, who get all the girls. But there's a downside to being a strong and powerful alpha stud—at least if you're a baboon. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ladies-price-alpha-male-baboons.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:09:04 EST news656788141 A new, Yale-led study unlocks the science behind a key ingredient—namely oxygen—in some of the world's most violent volcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-oxidation-volcanoesa-magma-opus.html Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Mar 2022 12:00:03 EDT news566714975 Precise manipulation and transportation of micro-sized droplets is a challenging task, yet crucial for biomedical and industrial applications. A research team led by a scholar from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has successfully developed a novel droplet manipulation method called "WRAP" which can transport droplets of different sizes and compositions by electromagnets or programmable electromagnetic fields. The research team believes that this innovative method has great potential in developing next-generation microfluidics and in the detection of respiratory droplets bearing COVID-19 and other pathogens landed on the surface. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-scientist-droplet-method.html Soft Matter Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:42:47 EST news563798565 The rise of oxygen levels early in Earth's history paved the way for the spectacular diversity of animal life. But for decades, scientists have struggled to explain the factors that controlled this gradual and stepwise process, which unfolded over nearly 2 billion years. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-lake-huron-sinkhole-oxygen-early.html Earth Sciences Mon, 02 Aug 2021 11:00:10 EDT news547104995 BATON ROUGE – Few places on Earth are as rich in biodiversity and removed from human influence as the world's largest rainforest—the Amazon. Scientists at LSU have been conducting research within the pristine rainforest for decades. However, they began to notice that some of the animals, specifically birds that forage on and near the forest floor, had become very difficult to find. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-hidden-losses-deep-amazon-rainforest.html Plants & Animals Mon, 26 Oct 2020 13:35:15 EDT news522938110 Under a microscope, the first few hours of every multicellular organism's life seem incongruously chaotic. After fertilization, a once tranquil single-celled egg divides again and again, quickly becoming a visually tumultuous mosh pit of cells jockeying for position inside the rapidly growing embryo. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-key-mechanism-cells-tissues-anatomical.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:00:03 EDT news520763318 A study involving Arabian horses from 12 countries found that some populations maintained a larger degree of genetic diversity and that the breed did not contribute genetically to the modern-day Thoroughbred, contrary to popular thought. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-genetic-arabian-horses-common-beliefs.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:49:00 EDT news512131723 Those at the bottom of the social ladder are known to live shorter and sicker lives than those at the top. And the stress of life at the bottom may have long-term health effects that even upward mobility can't undo, according to new research in monkeys. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-status-genes.html Plants & Animals Tue, 15 Oct 2019 13:42:23 EDT news490365736 Although the genomes of thousands of plant and animal species have been sequenced, for most of these genomes a significant portion is missing—the highly repetitive DNA. In the midst of these mysterious genome compartments are the centromeres—essential chromosomal regions that allow cells to accurately pass on chromosomes when the cells divide. A new study publishing May 14 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by the Mellone lab at the University of Connecticut and the Larracuente lab at the University of Rochester combine cutting-edge sequencing technology with molecular and high-resolution microscopy methods to discover the sequences of all centromeres in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a powerful model organism widely used in biomedical research. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-dark-heart-chromosomes.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 14 May 2019 14:00:02 EDT news477028581 A growing body of evidence shows that those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder are more likely to die prematurely than those at the top. The pattern isn't unique to humans: Across many social animals, the lower an individual's social status, the worse its health. https://phys.org/news/2018-12-baboon-sexes-differ-social-status.html Plants & Animals Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:31:26 EST news464275866 Google is pulling its popular YouTube video service from Amazon's Fire TV and Echo Show devices in an escalating feud that has caught consumers in the crossfire. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-google-blocks-youtube-amazon-devices.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 06 Dec 2017 03:28:45 EST news431753317 Tesla founder Elon Musk said Thursday the electric car startup is set to launch its first semi-truck in September, moving for the first time into that segment. https://phys.org/news/2017-04-tesla-musk-semi-truck.html Business Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:14:35 EDT news411315269 Samsung's Bixby is the new kid on the block of personal digital assistants and is likely to face a rough reception in a neighborhood dominated by tech sector rivals. https://phys.org/news/2017-04-samsung-bixby-tough-rivals.html Consumer & Gadgets Sun, 02 Apr 2017 04:54:57 EDT news410327652 When NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale—or MMS—mission was launched, the scientists knew it would answer questions fundamental to the nature of our universe—and MMS hasn't disappointed. A new finding, presented in a paper in Nature Communications, provides observational proof of a 50-year-old theory and reshapes the basic understanding of a type of wave in space known as a kinetic Alfvén wave. The results, which reveal unexpected, small-scale complexities in the wave, are also applicable to nuclear fusion techniques, which rely on minimizing the existence of such waves inside the equipment to trap heat efficiently. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-reshape-basic-plasma-physics.html Plasma Physics Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:29:34 EDT news410174965 With sales of Apple's flagship iPhone slowing, the spotlight is on the company's hunt for its next big thing. Apple's annual software developers conference, which kicks off Monday, will be its next big opportunity to show the world what's coming next. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-today-apple-big-software.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 13 Jun 2016 05:02:35 EDT news385012942 Apple's Siri made a big splash when the wisecracking digital assistant debuted on the iPhone five years ago. But as other tech giants jockey to build intelligent "chat bots" and voice-controlled home systems capable of more challenging artificial-intelligence feats, Siri at times no longer seems cutting edge. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-apple-big-siri-smarter.html Consumer & Gadgets Fri, 10 Jun 2016 16:14:20 EDT news384794051 Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found a potential path to further improve solar cell efficiency by understanding the competition among halogen atoms during the synthesis of sunlight-absorbing crystals. https://phys.org/news/2016-04-team-tracks-halogen-atoms-perovskites.html Materials Science Wed, 06 Apr 2016 13:27:25 EDT news379168038 At the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in September, members of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and their colleagues will describe an experiment conducted over six days at a large public garden in Singapore, in which self-driving golf carts ferried 500 tourists around winding paths trafficked by pedestrians, bicyclists, and the occasional monitor lizard. https://phys.org/news/2015-09-self-driving-golf-carts-sidewalk-space.html Engineering Tue, 01 Sep 2015 16:35:01 EDT news360344092 Can an algorithm pass for an author? Can a robot rock the house? A series of contests at Dartmouth College is about to find out. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-dartmouth-contests-showcase-computer-generated-creativity.html Computer Sciences Sun, 05 Jul 2015 12:51:15 EDT news355319467 Despite a general consensus among scientists and in the racing industry that racehorse speed has plateaued, a new study from the University of Exeter has found that racehorses are getting quicker. Further research is required to determine whether the increased speeds have a genetic basis or are the result of improved training, jockey tactics or other environmental factors. https://phys.org/news/2015-06-racehorses-faster.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 Jun 2015 19:00:01 EDT news354291983 Behind closed doors on the show floor of the world's premier video game show, Facebook-owned Oculus was letting people touch virtual worlds. https://phys.org/news/2015-06-oculus-people-virtual-worlds.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 18 Jun 2015 01:49:38 EDT news353810968 Let's say you're a bee and you've spotted a new and particularly lucrative source of nectar and pollen. What's the best way to communicate the location of this prize cache of food to the rest of your nestmates without revealing it to competitors, or "eavesdropping" spies, outside of the colony? https://phys.org/news/2014-07-bees-evolve-shouts.html Plants & Animals Mon, 07 Jul 2014 12:00:01 EDT news323946444 Apple is getting ready to hitch the iPhone to cars in a mobile marriage of convenience. The ambitious project, called CarPlay, implants some of the iPhone's main applications in automobiles so drivers can control them with voice commands, a touch on the steering wheel or a swipe on a display screen in the dashboard. https://phys.org/news/2014-05-apple-carplay.html Consumer & Gadgets Thu, 22 May 2014 12:32:40 EDT news319980743 The latest Silicon Valley arms race is a contest to build the best artificial brains. Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and other leading tech companies are jockeying to hire top scientists in the field of artificial intelligence, while spending heavily on a quest to make computers think more like people. https://phys.org/news/2014-05-smart-tech-companies-resources-artificial.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 06 May 2014 18:40:01 EDT news318618111 One day, amid his decades-long study of how animals move, including how frogs jump, Brown University biologist Thomas Roberts found himself and colleague Richard Marsh puzzling over the Guinness Book of World Records. A bullfrog named Rosie the Ribeter reportedly had jumped more than 2.1 meters in a single hop at the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee in 1986, but scientific studies had never reported a bullfrog jump beyond 1.3 meters. https://phys.org/news/2013-10-celebrated-frog-scientists-calaveras-pros.html Plants & Animals Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:00:02 EDT news301161872