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. Researchers with the University of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins Medicine developed a potential treatment for brain cancer that uses nanofibers embedded with a combination of drugs that work in concert to target tumors. The drugs proved more effective in combination than when administered alone and can provide both immediate and long-lasting doses to kill cancer cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nanofiber-implant-drugs-survival-glioblastoma.html Bio & Medicine Sat, 30 May 2026 17:00:04 EDT news699190974 Nonlinear interactions between light and matter are at the heart of some of the most powerful tools in modern optics, but pushing these processes to their limits has long been hampered by a fundamental constraint: the stronger you make the laser, the more likely it is to destroy whatever it illuminates. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-boost-ultrafast-laser.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 30 May 2026 13:00:02 EDT news699017292 Cosmic rays seen at Earth show a wide range of particle energies, from 107 electron-volts (eV) to more than 1020 eV, the latter being about the same as the kinetic energy of a 450 gram football (soccer ball) being kicked across the pitch at about 8 meters per second. A plot of cosmic ray energies from the Milky Way galaxy often shows a fair amount of what scientists might call "structure"—interesting deviations from the underlying trend called "knees" and "ankles" that indicate new processes or methods of cosmic ray production taking place at that energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-evidence-cosmic-ray-nearby-supernova.html Astronomy Sat, 30 May 2026 07:20:01 EDT news699280638 For nearly a century, there were two known kinds of magnets. Ferromagnets are the classic magnets that attract metal and keep pictures stuck to the refrigerator. Antiferromagnets hide their magnetism at the atomic scale but are increasingly prized for their technological potential. A third category discovered within the last decade may combine the best qualities of both. Dubbed altermagnets, they could someday help create faster, more energy-efficient electronics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-diamond-quantum-sensor-reveal-elusive.html Condensed Matter Fri, 29 May 2026 15:20:02 EDT news699280720 Researchers at the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, working with collaborators around the world, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a suite of low-cost, portable biotechnology tools designed to improve access to laboratory research and diagnostics in resource-limited settings. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dried-reagents-powered-hardware-biomanufacturing.html Biotechnology Fri, 29 May 2026 14:00:02 EDT news699264902 Tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are tiny eight-legged animals that can survive in extreme environments, where humans and most other animals would die. This resistance to extreme conditions, including intense heat, very high or low temperatures, radiation and low oxygen levels is called "extremotolerance." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tardigrades-reveal-extreme-blocking-survival.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 29 May 2026 10:40:05 EDT news699005070 Topological phases are unusual states of matter that give rise to properties protected by a material's overall structure (i.e., "topology"), as opposed to microscopic details. These phases are of great interest for the development of quantum technologies, as they can yield desirable electronic properties that are robust against defects and disturbances. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-topological-states-emerge-quantum-hall.html Superconductivity Fri, 29 May 2026 07:00:01 EDT news698933871 Conservationists are in a race against time to prevent one of the world's rarest island plants from disappearing forever, after seeds collected from the only surviving wild Dendroseris neriifolia tree arrived at the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) at Kew Wakehurst in Sussex last month. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-kind-tree-cliffside-botanic-gardens.html Plants & Animals Fri, 29 May 2026 06:00:02 EDT news699206581 A new raptor-like dinosaur from some 70 million years ago that ate fish and behaved like modern herons has been unearthed from southern Patagonia. The new species, which has been named Kank australis, was identified based on the discovery of fossil remains including teeth, vertebrae, and toe bones. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-heron-fish-dinosaur-million-years.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 28 May 2026 19:10:06 EDT news699176102 Chemical bonding is one of the central organizing principles of the microscopic world. It determines how atoms combine and thereby governs a wide range of physical and chemical properties of quantum systems across many length scales, ranging from small molecules and biomolecules to macroscopically large solid materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-entanglement-framework-chemical-bonding.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 28 May 2026 18:50:01 EDT news699206701 Physicists from Emory University have led work to develop a microscopic, nonlinear light source that can be switched on, off or tuned to a particular intensity by an electrical "knob." The paper is published in the journal Optica, and could aid in the design of smaller, more flexible technologies for communications, sensing and quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-electrical-knob-tune-intensity-nanoscale.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 May 2026 17:50:01 EDT news699207961 Using finely tuned nanoscale building blocks, researchers from Brown University and the University of Michigan College of Engineering have stabilized a fleeting structural phase of matter that had been predicted theoretically but never before stabilized in a physical material. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-silver-nanoparticles-enable-theorized-previously.html Nanophysics Thu, 28 May 2026 17:30:01 EDT news699201122 Astronomical observations show that the most massive galaxies in the early universe formed approximately three to four billion years after the Big Bang and stopped producing stars very early in cosmic history, around one billion years after their formation. This strange behavior has puzzled experts in the field. For comparison, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is as old as the universe itself and continues to produce stars, albeit at a low rate, even 13.5 billion years after its formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-massive-galaxies-early-universe-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 28 May 2026 17:00:03 EDT news699200739 When doctors and scientists want to see inside a body, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool. MRI can noninvasively capture detailed images of the body's muscles, organs, and bones. It can monitor blood flow to generate a map of brain activity. And with new sensors developed by bioengineers at MIT, MRI can track the kinds of molecules that make our brains and bodies work. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mri-sensors-molecules-brain-body.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 28 May 2026 16:20:08 EDT news699193442 Scientists at the University of California, Riverside are making breakthroughs in understanding how quantum wave functions move across ultra-thin materials—research that could eventually improve solar energy technologies and help lay the groundwork for new forms of quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-vibronics-future-energy-technologies.html Condensed Matter Thu, 28 May 2026 15:00:02 EDT news699191461 Researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences have elucidated how the production of certain proteins and their insertion into the inner membrane of mitochondria are coordinated. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mitochondria-reveal-built-protein-production.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 28 May 2026 13:00:06 EDT news699187321 Honeycombs are famous for their elegant design, but now they may have found a new application: quantum computing. To collect knowledge from subatomic particles, quantum computers require carefully designed materials capable of performing necessary, complex functions. However, the metals used, such as ruthenium and iridium, are often rare and expensive, limiting the potential to build new technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-cobalt-honeycombs-path-quantum.html Condensed Matter Thu, 28 May 2026 11:20:05 EDT news699179222 On the moon, the lack of atmosphere and accompanying features such as biological activity, oxygen-rich air, flowing water and rain, wind, and most erosion allows the lunar regolith to preserve a long-term record of surface processes in the space environment. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-regolith-reveal-nanoscale-space-weathering.html Astronomy Thu, 28 May 2026 10:20:07 EDT news699178261 Researchers in Spain have discovered that in collectives of moving fire ants, rippling "waves" of density and activity are likely triggered by local regions where ants collectively travel in the same direction as their neighbors. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ripples-ant-motions-driven-neighbor.html General Physics Thu, 28 May 2026 10:00:07 EDT news699098891 New research published in BMC Biology helps to fill in questions about the so-called "Furongian gap" from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when paleontologists previously thought there were far fewer fossils than periods before or after it. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-forgotten-museum-fossil-rewrite-animal.html Evolution Thu, 28 May 2026 09:00:02 EDT news699094381 Persistent methane emissions from sectors such as agriculture and growing debates over the credibility of carbon offsets are creating new challenges for governments and companies pursuing net-zero commitments. New research suggests that temporary carbon storage may have a scientifically valid role in helping support climate goals, if used in the right way. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-temporary-carbon-climate-goals.html Environment Wed, 27 May 2026 19:20:01 EDT news699118801 When a team of researchers recorded a low thundering underneath the surface of the Hudson River, they thought they were hearing the muffled rumble of trains. A closer look and listen led to a much more interesting discovery: The thunder came from Atlantic sturgeon—an iconic and endangered species—spawning in the depths of the river. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-newly-thunder-atlantic-sturgeons-awe.html Plants & Animals Wed, 27 May 2026 19:00:01 EDT news699118321 Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation from the sun's surface, which can wreak havoc on Earth's power grids, damage orbiting satellites, and pose serious radiation risks to astronauts. Yet despite decades of study, the processes that trigger these eruptions remain poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rare-reveal-x9-solar-flare.html Astronomy Wed, 27 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news699106018 Ultra-fast data transfer and superconductivity: Quantum materials offer significant technological prospects—if we can understand them at the atomic scale. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the University of Salerno, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, and the National Research Council of Italy, has succeeded in observing the "quantum metric" in a topological insulator—a unique geometric property of these materials, which conduct electricity only on their surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-strange-quantum-property-tomorrow-insulator.html Condensed Matter Wed, 27 May 2026 12:20:44 EDT news699096241 Researchers have created a new theoretical framework that shows how memory-preserving "memtransistors" could overcome the intrinsic limits in efficiency faced by conventional semiconductor transistors, imposed by the laws of thermodynamics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-memory-transistors-bypass-boltzmann-limit.html General Physics Wed, 27 May 2026 07:00:03 EDT news698927164 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 Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been far smaller during one of Earth's most recent warm periods, according to a new study that traced the origin of ancient dust preserved in Antarctic ice. Previous modeling studies suggest that the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could raise global sea levels by between three and five meters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-retreat-west-antarctic-ice.html Earth Sciences Tue, 26 May 2026 18:20:01 EDT news699029348 Over the past few years, kombucha has become one of the world's most popular fermented beverages. While most consumers focus primarily on its taste, scientists are increasingly analyzing its chemical composition and potential biological properties. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tea-comparison-reveals-kombucha-biological.html Biochemistry Tue, 26 May 2026 13:00:02 EDT news699015001 When it comes to technology and innovation, we have a lot to thank Mother Nature for. Learning from the natural world has led to a range of useful products, including Velcro, self-cleaning paint, and ultra-strong body armor. And now, a study published in the journal Nature Communications reports that scientists have developed a way to turn a corn protein into a plastic-like material using a method inspired by spider silk. The breakthrough could one day lead to biodegradable food packaging wraps to help reduce environmental waste. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spider-silk-corn-protein-tougher.html Biochemistry Tue, 26 May 2026 12:40:02 EDT news699014410 Carboranes are molecules composed of carbon, boron and hydrogen atoms that are proving to have applications of great interest in chemistry, materials science and biomedicine. They are being used, for example, in the fight against cancer through boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), an experimental form of radiotherapy against malignant tumors that is highly selective at the cellular level. These compounds, which are highly stable at high temperatures and under radiation, possess unique electronic properties and can interact with various biochemical molecules. However, chemically modifying them to expand their potential properties and applications remains a challenge. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-metal-free-method-carborane-cancer.html Biochemistry Tue, 26 May 2026 12:20:07 EDT news699012058