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. 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 Chemists and computer scientists tapped AI to find new disinfectants to combat the growing threat of dangerous "superbugs." Their computational-experimental framework for developing quaternary ammonium compounds, or QACs, to kill bacteria yielded 11 new QACs that show activity against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-chemists-disinfectants.html Biochemistry Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:40:02 EDT news696680281 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 Proteins are far more than nutrients we track on a food label. Present in every cell of our bodies, they work like nature's molecular machines. They walk, stretch, bend, and flex to do their jobs, pumping blood, fighting disease, building tissue, and many other jobs too small for the eye to see. Their power doesn't come from shape alone, but from how they move. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-proteins-motion.html Biotechnology Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:20:04 EDT news693825061 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 The dream of creating game-changing quantum computers—supermachines that encode information in single atoms rather than conventional bits—has been hampered by the formidable challenge known as quantum error correction. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-physicists-unveil-barrier-generation-supercomputers.html Quantum Physics Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:17:04 EST news682247821 When I first realized the scale of the challenge posed by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), I felt simultaneously humbled and motivated. These disorders are not caused by a single malfunction in the system, but rather by a cascade of failures, which includes protein misfolding, synaptic breakdown, impaired repair mechanisms and poor drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-nanomedicine-ai-teaming-tackle-neurodegenerative.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:50:03 EDT news680169706 The drug development pipeline is a costly and lengthy process. Identifying high-quality "hit" compounds—those with high potency, selectivity, and favorable metabolic properties—at the earliest stages is important for reducing cost and accelerating the path to clinical trials. For the last decade, scientists have looked to machine learning to make this initial screening process more efficient. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-scientist-tackles-key-roadblock-ai.html Biochemistry Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:22:04 EDT news679918922 Over the course of more than two decades, researchers at the University of Bern have developed the so-called "Bern model," a suite of computer programs that can numerically simulate the formation of planetary systems, thus shedding light on system architecture. These models are, however, very complex: each simulation from the Bern model can take a few days to a few weeks to be computed using modern supercomputers. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ai-discovery-exoplanets-distant.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 09 Sep 2025 12:43:04 EDT news676640582 Using artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-ai-nanoparticles-efficient-rna-vaccine.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:00:01 EDT news674411341 Marine cone snails are host to a family of dangerous neurotoxins. Very little is known about how those toxins interact with the human body, making this an area of interest for medical drug research and an area of concern in national security spaces. For the first time, a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has successfully trained a machine learning model that predicts how alpha conotoxins bind to specific human receptor subtypes, which could help researchers develop lifesaving anti-toxins. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-machine-scientists-deadly-cone-snail.html Biochemistry Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:30:01 EDT news673615475 Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have reimagined the capabilities of atomic force microscopy, or AFM, transforming it from a tool for imaging nanoscale features into one that also captures large-scale biological architecture. Often called a "touching microscope," AFM uses a fine probe to feel surfaces at resolutions down to a billionth of a meter. Although powerful, traditional AFM has been limited by its narrow field of view, making it difficult to understand how individual features fit into larger organizational structures. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-automated-atomic-microscopy-reveals-view.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 04 Aug 2025 11:40:03 EDT news673526287 Nanoparticles—the tiniest building blocks of our world—are constantly in motion, bouncing, shifting, and drifting in unpredictable paths shaped by invisible forces and random environmental fluctuations. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-ai-tool-deciphers-mysteries-nanoparticle.html Nanophysics Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:23:31 EDT news671786606 Carbon emissions continue to increase at record levels, fueling climate instability and worsening air quality conditions for billions in cities worldwide. Yet despite global commitments to carbon neutrality, urban policymakers still struggle to implement effective mitigation strategies at the city scale. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-smarter-tools-policymakers-urban-carbon.html Environment Mon, 14 Jul 2025 16:15:18 EDT news671728512 Imagine a computer that does not rely only on electronics but uses light to perform tasks faster and more efficiently. A collaboration between two research teams from Tampere University in Finland and Université Marie et Louis Pasteur in France have now demonstrated a novel way of processing information using light and optical fibers, opening up the possibility of building ultra-fast computers. The studies are published in Optics Letters and on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-based-optical-fibers-potential-ultra.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 18 Jun 2025 11:33:04 EDT news669465182