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. Diamond is more than a dazzling gem—the extremely hard form of carbon makes up the pellet that encases fuel for inertial confinement fusion, and scientists believe it rains down deep inside ice giant planets like Neptune and Uranus. In both cases, the material experiences enormous pressures. Until now, experiments and simulations have disagreed about how it actually behaves under those conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-diamond-triple-fusion-gain-secrets.html General Physics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:40:05 EDT news705836281 From smartphones to data centers, modern electronics rely on billions of tiny switches that consume electricity every time they turn on or off. As global demand for computing continues to grow, so does the energy required to power it. Scientists are therefore searching for alternatives that can perform the same tasks while using far less energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetic-path-power.html Nanophysics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:00:04 EDT news705831481 The tiny bones in your fingers withstand countless taps and swipes thanks to a precise blend of materials. Flexible collagen fibers form the framework, reinforced by hard calcium phosphate hydroxyapatite crystals. This is just one of countless examples in which living organisms weave organic materials directly into inorganic crystals with exquisite precision. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, scientists attempted to recreate such precise spatial arrangements in biomimetic composite materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-protein-nanoparticles-crystals-enabling.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:40:02 EDT news705724225 Long before humans discovered biodegradable plastics, microorganisms had already invented their own. Many bacteria and archaea produce natural bioplastics called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), storing them inside their cells as reserves of carbon and energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nature-bioplastic-fed-animals-hundreds.html Evolution Thu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:01 EDT news705655861 Rice University researchers have shown that tiny wrinkles in graphene can change the material's electrical properties, providing evidence for flexoelectricity, a phenomenon in which a material generates an electric charge when it bends unevenly. The findings are published in Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-graphene-nanowrinkles-reshape-electricity-future.html Nanophysics Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news705773341 The building blocks of rocky planets may have begun forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang—long before the first galaxies even existed—according to new research from the University of Portsmouth. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supernovae-seeded-rocky-planet-blocks.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:20:03 EDT news705757021 A new study suggests a protective vest tested on a manikin during NASA's first Artemis moonshot could drastically cut the radiation exposure of lunar astronauts during severe solar storms. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-vest-nasa-moonshot-astronauts-exposure.html Space Exploration Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:35:26 EDT news705764085 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 Signals ride on waves of one kind or another: light, sound, radio. But new carriers are needed to relay information in next-generation devices. Disturbances or waves in magnetic materials called magnons could be an efficient option—if scientists can tame them. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-spontaneous-magnons-synchronize-external-room.html Condensed Matter Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:00:05 EDT news705746821 Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black hole star"—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas. This object, described in a study published today in Nature by researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators, may help explain how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mirage-miracle-jwst-earliest-black.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:00:08 EDT news705591782 Most glues need a dry surface to stick properly. Bonding materials underwater is challenging because water forms a thin film on any surface, so instead of an adhesive touching a material directly, it touches a layer of water, which weakens the bond. But scientists from China have now created a superglue that repels water and forms a strong, recyclable bond within seconds, as they report in a paper published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-recyclable-bonds-underwater-seconds-years.html Polymers Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news705663880 Like a collage made of layered sheets of colored cellophane, a vibrant new image layers observations of a famous star-forming nebula from NASA's space telescopes. The resulting cosmic "craft" reveals new details about the star-forming region known as 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-energy-loss-routes-tarantula-nebula.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:50:01 EDT news705681362 New research introduces a contactless way to see how mirror-image materials respond differently to circularly polarized light, without first building them into a complete electronic device. The researchers developed a novel method based on light-induced charge separation that allows researchers to directly probe how the material's structure acts like a microscopic filter, influencing how electrons separate and move. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-contactless-method-reveals-mirror-image.html Condensed Matter Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:20:04 EDT news705670261 A centromere is a specific region on a chromosome that ensures that, when a cell divides, the chromosome separates accurately so each new cell receives the correct amount of genetic material. Despite their essential role, centromeres remain one of the last major blind spots in the human genome. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-genome-reveals-centromeres-fastest-regions.html Evolution Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:20:02 EDT news705658501 Researchers at the University of Basel and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new method to reveal the collective motion of electrons in one of the most elusive states of matter: the Wigner crystal. Using light, the physicists were able to uncover previously inaccessible properties of this fragile quantum state. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-optical-method-reveals-internal-dynamics.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:00:03 EDT news705591481 Over the last decade, researchers have developed two-dimensional materials with fascinating quantum effects that could be harnessed for next-generation technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-discovery-electrons-2d-material-memory.html Condensed Matter Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:20:05 EDT news705584761 Microplastics, which are plastic particles under 5 millimeters, are a major and growing threat in both soil and water. They damage soil fertility, disrupt nutrient cycling, harm aquatic and terrestrial life, and can move through the food chain. That makes cleaning them up an urgent priority. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-swarms-tiny-robots-microplastics-soil.html Environment Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:40:01 EDT news705161846 By rapidly twisting a microscopically small tip back and forth, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have unlocked a new way to detect subtle changes on the surface of a material flexing in response to infrared light. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-high-res-view-2d-materials.html Nanomaterials Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:00:03 EDT news705327588 For the first time, researchers have determined the shape of the actinide nucleus of fermium-255 and measured its structure with high precision and resolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-laser-spectroscopy-reveal-hidden-nuclear.html General Physics Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news705325561 Scientists in China predict that stacking two microscopic layers of boron could set a new record for superconductivity. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance. Traditional types need temperatures close to absolute zero to work, requiring complex and expensive cooling equipment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-boron-layers-superconductivity-theoretical.html Condensed Matter Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:20:01 EDT news705241771 A tall glass of ice water isn't just a thirst quencher; it's also an everyday example of coexisting phases. Water can exist simultaneously in both liquid and solid phases. As it turns out, this phase duality can also exist in more exotic quantum materials, in ways that are far more complicated to tease apart. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists-material-electrons-reassemble-coexisting.html Condensed Matter Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:00:01 EDT news705315901 One of the most important milestones in the early life of an organism is when the embryo breaks symmetry and arranges itself to form the head (anterior) at one end and tail (posterior) at the other end. Scientists have used the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) for decades as a model species to study the process of forming the anterior-posterior body axis, along with countless other early developmental and genetic processes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-genes-result-flies-evolved-multiple.html Evolution Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news705315661 For the first time, scientists have observed a three-dimensional woven structure forming naturally inside a crystal, revealing a previously unknown way in which matter can organize itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-woven-naturally-crystal.html Condensed Matter Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:50:01 EDT news705255901 Many material properties depend on how electrons are arranged inside a material. Their distribution determines, for example, whether a material conducts electricity or displays magnetic behavior. Understanding how electrons organize themselves at the atomic scale is therefore one of the major challenges in materials science. Now, a team led by researchers at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) has developed a new technique that, for the first time, reveals how electrons are organized inside materials with an unprecedented level of detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-key-material-properties-atom.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 06 Aug 2026 15:00:01 EDT news705237421 A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate neocortex was driven largely by vision, not by the disproportionate growth of the frontal lobe often associated with higher reasoning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fossil-vision-frontal-lobe-drove.html Evolution Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:00:10 EDT news705166741 The zebra finch is one of the best-studied songbirds and a model for understanding the biology and neuroscience of vocal learning. Now, researchers have produced the first complete genome assembly of the species, revealing thousands of previously hidden genes and chromosome structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-songbird-genome-exposes-genes-chromosome.html Plants & Animals Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:00:11 EDT news705166321 A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto's surface through cracks at the northern edge of Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet's surface. This is the first evidence of liquid flow occurring recently on Pluto. The study is based on data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft and led by SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-liquid-nitrogen-pluto-heart-glacier.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news705225241 Nanoscience, which studies small objects, has a big problem. According to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the field confronts a pervasive data analysis error that can give misleading insights into how these tiny objects' properties depend on their size. The team also offers a practical solution—a mathematical correction that can reveal how these materials truly behave. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sizing-errors-true-nanoparticle-behavior.html Nanomaterials Thu, 06 Aug 2026 03:00:02 EDT news705141061 An international team of researchers has succeeded in producing atomic quantum gas mixtures with an unprecedented particle flux. In the journal Nature Communications, the scientists report on experiments conducted with the MAIUS-B apparatus, in which Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) consisting of two different atomic species—rubidium and potassium—were generated and studied under microgravity conditions in the Einstein Elevator at Leibniz University Hannover in Germany. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-miniaturized-laser-technology-paves-fundamental.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:40:04 EDT news705162354 Super-thin superconducting materials, which are only one or a few atoms thick, have unique properties scientists can leverage to produce more compact, scalable, and efficient quantum devices. But these fragile materials degrade so rapidly in air that they are difficult to study or manufacture. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-air-stable-ultrathin-superconductors-scalable.html Superconductivity Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news705161101