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. Tiny insects called aphids inject hundreds of mysterious proteins into plants, hijacking the plants' own genomes to build galls: structures made of plant tissue but constructed to the insects' specifications to house and feed their offspring. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-blueprint-aphid-proteins-ai.html Plants & Animals Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:10:01 EDT news709481221 Long before dark sunspots appear on the sun's surface, a new active region—where powerful solar eruptions can originate—begins showing subtle signs of its formation. Now, researchers say a new artificial intelligence model can detect those early signals and forecast the emergence of solar active regions nearly nine hours in advance on average. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-hidden-solar-eruptions-hours.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news705840421 More than 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with a new candidate added to the list every 10 minutes. Even if the transplant is carried out successfully, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications, elevating their risk of broader infections, and adhere to a strict lifestyle for the rest of their lives—all while facing the possibility that their body could reject the donated organ at any time. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hybrid-bioprinter-capillary-networks-narrower.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:40:06 EDT news705752101 While headlines warn that AI could unleash future biological threats, the technology also offers our best defense: a way to anticipate viral evolution and stress-test treatments. Rather than waiting for SARS-CoV-2 to mutate and outrun our immune system, my colleagues and I at École Normale Supérieure and Institut Pasteur built EscapeMap. Published in Cell Systems, our framework generates highly mutated, functional viral proteins to evaluate therapeutics against future evolutionary trajectories long before those mutations surface in the real world. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-sars-cov-variants-prevalent.html Biotechnology Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:00:02 EDT news704454474 Quasars, distant cores of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, are among the most luminous objects in the universe. While not uncommon, their brightness can make it difficult to accurately measure the galaxies they reside in. This means scientists must use gravitational lensing to assist in analyzing these bright objects, a method that relies on studying how an object's strong gravity bends light around its host galaxy. Yet despite their own powerful gravity, quasars that can act as lenses are rare. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quasar-lenses-emerge-ai-scan.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:20:07 EDT news704377501 Neural networks have transformed how machines find patterns in data, from recognizing faces in photos to predicting the shapes of proteins. So far, all of this progress has been made on ordinary classical computers, but with quantum computers now edging into practical use, there is a real possibility that neural networks could tap into distinctly quantum effects and operate in ways that classical machines never could. So far, however, neural networks have proven far more difficult to run on quantum hardware. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quantum-neural-networks-hardware.html Quantum Physics Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:50:01 EDT news704365485 What if the Higgs boson found in 2012 is not alone but is the only sibling we have encountered so far? Scientists at CERN discovered the particle that year, and it was a major discovery because it explained how other particles acquire mass. For a long time, scientists thought this was the final piece of the puzzle. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-machine-narrows-additional-particles-higgs.html General Physics Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:50:01 EDT news704040661 Penn Engineers have developed PeptiVerse, an AI-powered platform that predicts key chemical and biological properties of peptides, strings of amino acids whose medical potential has been demonstrated by the success of GLP-1 drugs, widely used weight-loss treatments. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-source-ai-key-peptide-traits.html Biochemistry Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:30:01 EDT news703867621 Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have taken an important step toward developing intelligent molecular materials. The team headed by Dr. Bernd M. Schmidt (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry) and Professor Dr. Jan Meisner (Institute of Physical Chemistry) has shown that complex molecular nanostructures can be selectively activated, disassembled in a controlled way and even reassembled using ultrasound. The results, published in Nature Communications, could, for example, aid the development of more targeted cancer medication in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-molecular-nanostructures-ultrasound.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:20:09 EDT news702562709 Cleveland Clinic researchers are unlocking quantum computing's full potential through the creation of a new computing paradigm inspired by the human brain. Fabio Cumbo, Ph.D., research associate in the lab of Daniel Blankenberg, Ph.D., associate staff, Computational Life Sciences, is developing the model, called quantum hyperdimensional computing (QHDC). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-hyperdimensional-faster-methods.html Quantum Physics Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:00:03 EDT news700834148 A method to interpret artificial intelligence (AI) models used in materials discovery by analyzing their learned features has been developed by researchers from Japan. The method extracts key features from an AI model trained on atomic structural data and optical absorption spectra, and then groups materials with similar structural and spectral characteristics. This approach can be extended to reveal how atomic arrangements influence other material properties, paving the way for more efficient materials design. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-materials-discovery-uncovering.html Analytical Chemistry Sun, 14 Jun 2026 21:30:01 EDT news700482481 Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that bacteria can learn from past experiences, store memories across generations and adapt their behavior to changing environments, all without a brain or nervous system. The research could shape how scientists think about bacterial infections and antibiotic treatment. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bacteria-memories-brain.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:40:04 EDT news700129742 UNSW Sydney engineers have riffed on the famous Schrödinger's cat analogy to demonstrate a more efficient way to eliminate errors in quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dont-cat-smarter-quantum.html Quantum Physics Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:40:07 EDT news699709561 For more than half a century, materials scientists have struggled with how to simulate the complexity of polymer materials. An individual chain can comprise tens of thousands of atoms, a melt or composite contains billions, and the properties engineers actually care about, such as how an adhesive grips a surface, how a self-assembling block copolymer locks into a nanostructure, or how a biopolymer film stretches without tearing, emerge only over length and time scales that forcible atomistic simulation cannot reach. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-thermodynamic-laws-ai-polymer.html Polymers Tue, 26 May 2026 19:20:07 EDT news699029450 Modern biology is awash in data. Scientists can sequence DNA, track gene activity cell-by-cell, map proteins in space, and image tissues at microscopic resolution. However, it is a struggle to put all that information together to form a cohesive view. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-super-aims-biology-ai.html Biotechnology Tue, 05 May 2026 13:40:06 EDT news697198681 Researchers at the University of Oregon have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can read genetic code the way large language models like ChatGPT read text. Scanning the genome for biological mutation patterns, the computer model traces pairs of genes back in time to their last common ancestor. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dna-ai-reconstructs-ancestry-minutes.html Biotechnology Mon, 04 May 2026 16:20:06 EDT news697124401 Penn Engineers have developed a new way to use AI to solve inverse partial differential equations (PDEs), a particularly challenging class of mathematical problems with broad implications for understanding the natural world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ai-tackles-math-brutal-problems.html Mathematics Fri, 01 May 2026 11:20:05 EDT news696847922 From wearable technology to industrial heat recovery, thermoelectric generators which convert waste heat into electricity have an enormous range of potential applications. So far, however, designing high-performing versions of these devices has remained a painstaking task. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-slashes-harvesting-devices.html General Physics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:10:02 EDT news696162360 Simulating how atoms and molecules move over time is a central challenge in computational chemistry and materials science. Classical machine learning approaches to molecular dynamics (MD) encode fundamental physical principles directly into their model architectures, most notably energy conservation and equivariance, the requirement that predicted forces remain consistent regardless of how a molecule is oriented in space. These so-called inductive biases have long been considered essential for reliable, physically meaningful MD models. But are they truly indispensable? https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-molecular-simulations-built-physics.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:50:03 EDT news696094081 In a paper just out in Nature Synthesis, researchers led by Prof. Timothy Noël of the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences presented a breakthrough in autonomous laboratory systems for synthesis optimization. With an estimated cost of a mere $5,000, a versatile, modular design and the option for "human in the loop" analytics, RoboChem Flex caters to all synthesis laboratories, large or small. The paper provides all the information to build their own system. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-robotic-chemistry-built-deployed-lab.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:40:02 EDT news695313269 Quantum computers of the future may be closer to reality thanks to new research from Caltech and Oratomic, a Caltech-linked start-up company. Theorists and experimentalists teamed up to develop a new approach for reducing the errors that riddle today's rudimentary quantum computers. Whereas these machines were previously thought to require millions of qubits to work properly (qubits being the quantum equivalent to 1's and 0's in classical computers), the new results indicate that a fully realized quantum computer could be built with as few as 10,000 to 20,000 qubits. The need for fewer qubits means that quantum computers could, in theory, be operational by the end of the decade. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-quantum-built-qubits-team.html Quantum Physics Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:20:04 EDT news694260841 Scientists usually study the molecular machinery that controls gene expression from the perspective of a linear, two-dimensional genome—even though DNA and its bound proteins function in three dimensions (3D). To better understand how key components of this machinery, such as super-enhancers, regulate genes in this 3D reality, scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have developed a new algorithm called BOUQUET. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-3d-super-machine-cell-identity.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:00:08 EDT news692279221 The DNA foundation model Evo 2 has been published in the journal Nature. Trained on the DNA of over 100,000 species across the entire tree of life, Evo 2 can identify patterns in gene sequences across disparate organisms that experimental researchers would need years to uncover. The machine learning model can accurately identify disease-causing mutations in human genes and is capable of designing new genomes that are as long as the genomes of simple bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-evo-ai-genetic-code-domains.html Biotechnology Wed, 04 Mar 2026 11:00:01 EST news691755181 Love is in the air for the vinegar fly. Drosophila melanogaster has long been a model for understanding how brains translate sensory information into courtship behavior. Male flies perform a multitude of romantic actions—orienting, tapping, chasing and singing—directed toward eligible females. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-courtship-complicated-fruit-flies.html Ecology Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:40:04 EST news691067281 Researchers at QuTech in Delft, The Netherlands, have developed a new chip architecture that could make it easier to test and scale up quantum processors based on semiconductor spin qubits. The platform, called QARPET (Qubit-Array Research Platform for Engineering and Testing) and reported in Nature Electronics, allows hundreds of qubits to be characterized within the same test-chip under the same operating conditions used in quantum computing experiments. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-carpet-qubits-chip-architecture.html Condensed Matter Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:00:10 EST news690023335 Hybrid climate modeling has emerged as an effective way to reduce the computational costs associated with cloud-resolving models while retaining their accuracy. The approach retains physics-based models to simulate large-scale atmospheric dynamics, while harnessing deep learning to emulate cloud and convection processes that are too small to be resolved directly. In practice, however, many hybrid AI-physics models are unreliable. When simulations extend over months or years, small errors can accumulate and cause the model to become unstable. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-term-climate-simulations-stable-accurate.html Earth Sciences Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:00:15 EST news689326501 Over the last several decades, urban planners and municipalities have sought to identify and better manage the socioeconomic dynamics associated with rapid development in established neighborhoods. The term "gentrification" has been lingua franca for generations of urbanites who have seen their communities change and property values, and commensurate taxes, shift in ways that can make it difficult for longtime residents to stay. But identifying its unmanaged creep can be a challenge, particularly in densely populated areas, as its visual hallmarks—such as new facades, mixes in building materials and changes in building heights—present differently in different cities and regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-philadelphia-communities-ai-machine-gentrification.html Social Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:20:06 EST news689519501 A team of scientists from EPFL and Alaska Pacific University has developed an AI program that can recognize individual bears in the wild, despite the substantial changes that occur in their appearance over the summer season. This breakthrough holds significant promise for research, management, and conservation efforts. The study is published in the journal Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-enables-brown-alaska.html Plants & Animals Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:20:04 EST news688907452 Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have opened new exciting possibilities for the rapid analysis of data, the sourcing of information and the generation of use-specific content. To run AI models, current hardware needs to continuously move data from internal memory components to processors, which is energy-intensive and can increase the time required to tackle specific tasks. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-atom-thin-content-memory-enables.html Nanophysics Mon, 12 Jan 2026 09:50:01 EST news687433062 Machine learning is transforming many scientific fields, including computational materials science. For about two decades, scientists have been using it to make accurate yet inexpensive calculations of interatomic potentials, that are mathematical functions that express the energy of a system of atoms and are an ingredient to simulate and predict the stability and properties of materials. But machine learning by itself is not a magic wand, and many problems remain. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-machine-interatomic-potentials-advanced-materials.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 11 Dec 2025 15:34:12 EST news684689641