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. University of Missouri researchers are paving the way as artificial intelligence transforms biomedical research. A team from the College of Engineering and collaborators recently published one of the most comprehensive reviews to date of an emerging AI approach for biology known as flow matching. The work, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, provides scientists around the world with a roadmap for applying the technology to accelerate drug discovery, precision medicine and other biomedical advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-powered-biomedical-discoveries.html Biotechnology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:40:05 EDT news708177607 Material properties such as sound insulation, resistance to extreme heat and thermal expansion originate from how the zillions of microscopic building blocks (nuclei and electrons) interact at equilibrium and respond to perturbations. Atoms are typically about one ten-billionth of a meter across, so there can be a lot of parts to keep track of—a task that is complicated at the quantum-mechanical level, where particles are neither here nor there until observed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physics-aware-benchmark-reveals-similar.html Condensed Matter Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:20:07 EDT news708165703 Today's best weather computers would still have struggled to accurately predict the weather for the D-Day landings, University of Reading research shows. The new research, published in the journal Weather ahead of the release of the D-Day film "Pressure," used AI models to produce 50 different forecasts of the storm that famously pushed back the Allies' invasion of Normandy in June 1944. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-d-day-weather-falters.html Environment Wed, 09 Sep 2026 04:24:58 EDT news708146669 Researchers have developed a method for extrapolating sea surface temperatures from sparse data that is significantly more accurate than other commonly used computational methods and slightly more accurate than the best-performing AI model, while taking a fraction of the time to train. The work has implications for both short-term weather forecasting and longer-term climate predictions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-sparse-method-sea-surface-temperatures.html Earth Sciences Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:20:04 EDT news708102301 As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once "blank slate" cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver or muscle cells and organize themselves into three-dimensional structures such as tissues and organs. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-decodes-cell-fingerprints-diverse.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 08 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news707993406 The key to finding more critical minerals may lie in understanding how fluids and chemicals move through rock. As these fluids travel underground, they can dissolve, transport and concentrate valuable minerals in specific places. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physics-ai-critical-minerals.html Earth Sciences Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:00:05 EDT news707738461 Two tiny ant fossils recovered in southern Saskatchewan are helping scientists better understand the evolutionary history of modern ants. Ant fossils dating from 72–56 million years ago are rare. What happened to insects such as ants during this period that saw a mass extinction wipe out all non-bird dinosaurs? How did that event reshape their world? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-fossils-reveal-big-insights.html Evolution Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:20:01 EDT news707668441 Scientists from Leeds' School of Food Science and Nutrition have developed an advanced AI process that can rapidly identify plant proteins capable of acting as emulsifiers from tens of millions of initial candidates. To date, it has identified nearly 800. The discovery will cut years of costly trial-and-error research and bring the next generation of plant-based foods and cosmetics closer. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-peas-potatoes-ai-proteins-food.html Biochemistry Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:00:04 EDT news707663648 There are myriad ways of "being a star," and scientists spend years trying to uncover and understand them. One unusual type is the so-called hot subdwarf—small stars that burn mysteriously hot for their size. Scientists from the Faculty of Physics and the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Vilnius University (VU) are working to explain this strange phenomenon and recently made important breakthroughs. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-hot-subdwarfs-focus-ai-scans.html Astronomy Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:40:05 EDT news707660641 Research means asking questions of the universe. For centuries, clever minds have advanced science by devising ingenious experiments designed so their results reveal something about the laws of nature as clearly and unambiguously as possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-physics-outperform-human-setups.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:20:06 EDT news707649841 Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pacman-ai-framework-fusion-safely.html Plasma Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:00:08 EDT news707581261 Researchers today announced AdaptiveFlow, an AI-informed platform that can virtually screen billions of drug-like molecules with a 1,000-fold reduction in computational costs over existing methods. Developed and validated by scientists from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, University of Pavia, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, AdaptiveFlow allows prohibitively expensive ultra-large virtual drug screens to be conducted routinely. The open-source platform was published today in Nature Biotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-adaptiveflow-redefines-large-scale.html Biotechnology Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:00:07 EDT news707486977 Whakaari/White Island's sudden eruption in December 2019, which killed 22 people and severely injured 25 others, was New Zealand's deadliest volcanic disaster in recent history. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earlier-volcano-false-alarms.html Earth Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:20:10 EDT news707394542 A protein's function is determined by its structure, and structure—the way a protein folds—is determined by its sequence of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-potentially-stable-protein-sequences.html Biotechnology Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:10:02 EDT news707070182 Machine learning doesn't replace human intelligence, but it can outlast human endurance, which makes it a helpful tool for chemistry and materials discovery. Scientists know machine learning models can make predictions based on the vast reams of data they are trained on, but can they take it a step further and massively scale up testing those predictions? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-machine-methods-labs-closer-materials.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:50:01 EDT news706981081 Researchers affiliated with UTHealth Houston, competing under the team name Novamab AI, placed among the top five teams in the international AIntibody Challenge, a blinded, prospective benchmark published in Nature Biotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-antibodies-laboratory.html Biotechnology Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:00:06 EDT news706963742 The sights and sounds of the Jurassic era are long gone, and we will never know for sure what that ancient world looked and sounded like. Fossils can offer clues, and reconstructions can give us a sense of the noises some animals might have made. Now scientists have turned their attention to insects and reconstructed the calls of Jurassic relatives of modern-day crickets and katydids (grasshopper-like insects). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-reconstructed-jurassic-insect-evoke-million.html Evolution Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:50:01 EDT news706966915 With the invasive emerald ash borer beetle decimating black ash across North America, according to the U.S. Forest Service, a team led by researchers at Penn State conducted an expansive study of genetic diversity in black ash seeds collected across the tree's geographic range and stored in seed banks. The research was done with an eye toward someday reintroducing the ecologically and culturally important tree to U.S. and Canadian forests. As part of the research, the team established three large common gardens—experimental plantings—of black ash that someday may play a role in producing seeds needed to bring the species back. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-noah-ark-trees-endangered-black.html Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:40:01 EDT news706888501 Can a city's seawall stand up to a blockbuster storm? Will a region's power grid hold against record-breaking heat? And can a town's firefighting resources contain a major wildfire? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-inches-york-city-ai-plausible.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:40:05 EDT news706875841 Northern spotted owl populations are approaching or have already crossed functional extinction across large areas of the Pacific Northwest, a new study, published in Ecological Applications found. Researchers used artificial intelligence and advanced monitoring methods to assess long-term trends at an unprecedented scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-extinction-areas-critical-northern-owls.html Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:40:02 EDT news706868664 Fibrinogen, the abundant plasma protein best known for forming blood clots, may play a second and far less benign role during SARS-CoV-2 infection: acting as a molecular bridge that simultaneously hides the virus from neutralizing antibodies and delivers it to the cells lining blood vessels. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-blood-clotting-protein-sars-cov.html Biochemistry Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:00:01 EDT news706783360 Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world, ranking second only to sulfuric acid in the total volume produced each year. It is used mostly to make fertilizer, which is essential to feeding the world's population. Yet its production accounts for up to 2% of the world's energy consumption and about 1.5% of greenhouse gas emissions, so the search has been underway for ways to produce ammonia more sustainably. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-catalysts-fossil-fueled-ammonia-production.html Analytical Chemistry Sat, 22 Aug 2026 17:00:04 EDT news706462942 Precise activation of tens of thousands of genes is critical for healthy development and growth. Specialized segments of our DNA are responsible for carefully orchestrating genetic sequences that result in the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins and other crucial components underlying cell structure and function. But if these genes are not correctly activated, cells can stop functioning or result in various disorders, including cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-decodes-dna-sequence-human.html Biotechnology Sat, 22 Aug 2026 11:40:01 EDT news706614635 If you want to describe a particular color, you could look to the Pantone color wheel to find its exact hue, saturation and brightness, and how it compares with other colors. But nothing like that has existed for complex odors. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-complex-odors-easier-machine.html Biochemistry Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:00:01 EDT news706536961 Is the universe as stable as we think it is? That's one of the big questions that particle physicists worldwide are preparing to answer with the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC—the world's most powerful particle accelerator—when its upgrade is completed in about four years. In the meantime, researchers, including a cohort at the University of Michigan, are working to sharpen their analytical tools and techniques to make the most of the LHC's current and future data. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-boosts-sensitivity-higgs-signatures.html General Physics Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:10:01 EDT news706463461 Methane-munching microbes in soil might be more important than previously thought, a new study finds. Soil is an important carbon sink, and scientists are still learning much about the diversity of its microbial communities. They're being uncovered from Arctic soils to desert sands, and some of them are sucking down methane—a greenhouse gas about 27–30 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 100 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-soil-methane-larger-thought-analysis.html Earth Sciences Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news706442761 Archaeological artifacts offer valuable insights into the history of past societies. They reveal not only technological developments but also the changing economic systems, cultural traditions and everyday practices of the people who lived at the time. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-uncovering-evolution-edo-period-japanese.html Archaeology Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:00:04 EDT news706433702 As AI continues to develop at a rapid pace, social robots powered by AI are becoming more commonplace in customer service settings such as retail, hospitality, tourism and health care. But as these robots become smarter and appear more human, little attention has been given to how this might affect the consumers interacting with them. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interacting-ai-people-robots.html Social Sciences Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:40:01 EDT news706357742 Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes and energy production remains one of the major technological challenges in addressing climate change. Membrane-based gas separation offers an energy-efficient alternative to conventional separation technologies, but identifying membranes that allow gases to pass through rapidly while also separating them effectively has long presented a major materials-design challenge. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-screens-membrane-combinations-carbon.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:20:04 EDT news706359481 New research from Purdue University demonstrates how organic aerosol molecules can influence one another's behavior in ways that existing atmospheric models do not fully capture. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-insights-aerosol-behavior-air-quality.html Environment Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:20:02 EDT news706358101