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. Hula hooping may be literal child's play, but as it turns out, the physics behind the gym-class staple is so complicated that scientists have spent decades trying to understand how the hula hoop defies gravity. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-decoding-loopy-physics-hula-hooping.html General Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:40:05 EDT news712329901 Since the production of graphene in 2004, two-dimensional materials have been sparking scientific and technological interest. As they are only a few atomic layers thick, or even just a single atomic layer, they can exhibit special electronic, magnetic or chemical properties—which make them particularly interesting for applications such as electronics, catalysis and energy storage. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nanostructures-classic-layered.html Nanophysics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:30:02 EDT news712334221 A study analyzing the effects of climate change on vascular plants in the United States finds that the fate of individual plant species tends to be a regional phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-species-climate-regional-strategies.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 15:50:01 EDT news712332481 Scientists have developed a way for certain types of compostable plastic to break down much faster in marine environments, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. The breakthrough comes from tiny enzymes embedded in the plastic that help degrade it from within. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-embedded-enzymes-plastics-faster-deep.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:30:06 EDT news712326788 Researchers at the Osaka Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (ORIST), in collaboration with the University of Osaka and Tohoku University, have developed a flexible and stretchable silicon material whose response to terahertz waves can be mechanically tuned. By etching microscopic spiral springs into silicon, the team made the fragile material bendable and stretchable. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-microscopic-fragile-silicon-flexible-terahertz.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:20:06 EDT news712316161 To prevent the spread of dangerous diseases by mosquitoes, scientists have long studied their reproductive mechanisms to control their population sizes. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-male-mosquitoes-female-wingbeats.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:00:09 EDT news712223881 Researchers in the U.S. and China have created a biocompatible, metal-free magnet that can be safely implanted and generate signals from deep inside the body. Led by Wubin Bai at the University of North Carolina, the team revealed how magnetism can emerge from the rearrangement of atoms in heated carbon nitride, which strengthens the coupling between unpaired electrons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-metal-free-magnetic-sensor-safely.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 13:20:03 EDT news712314189 Levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached unprecedented highs in 2025, locking in more long-term warming for the planet, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-greenhouse-gases-highs.html Environment Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:40:04 EDT news712315081 Bat populations across the United States face numerous threats, and one of the biggest may be the number of collisions with wind turbines. According to the most comprehensive study of the problem to date, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 18 million bats may have died at wind energy facilities between 1981 and 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reveal-staggering-deaths-turbines.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:29:50 EDT news712319317 Around 121 million years ago, somewhere in modern northeastern China, an early bird took to the skies. If you drew its silhouette, you'd notice something was missing. Unlike any bird alive today, it had no tail feathers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-million-year-fossils-longipteryx-tail.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:20:16 EDT news712312880 Quantum networks, systems that connect devices using quantum mechanical effects, could potentially allow users to share information more securely and efficiently. Building these networks typically entails linking stationary qubits, units of quantum information encoded in trapped ions or other physical systems, using photons (particles of light) transmitted through optical fibers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bridge-wavelength-gap-quantum-communications.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 08:40:01 EDT news711967827 For the first time, a team of physicists in the U.S. has clearly demonstrated a "helicon current drive" in a nuclear fusion experiment. Led by Jeff Lestz at General Atomics, San Diego, the team took advantage of the latest advances in tokamak technology to show that radio waves steered to travel around the donut-shaped device can be absorbed by its confined plasma, driving an electric current inside it. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-radio-fusion-plasma-current-reactors.html Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 07:20:01 EDT news712244375 In response to a recent article on vegan diets for cats, Phys.org received numerous messages from concerned readers. People raised a lot of concerns, mainly arguing that cats are obligate carnivores and that vegan diets could be very harmful to their health. Now, we have collected all these comments, questions and concerns and asked the researcher behind the original paper to address them. Andrew Knight, Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare and Associate Professor at Murdoch University School of Veterinary Medicine, offers his response below. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cats-vegan-diets-professor-andrew.html Veterinary medicine Mon, 26 Oct 2026 16:45:42 EDT news712251872 Science often advances in small steps, with researchers gradually building on previous discoveries. But every now and then, a breakthrough comes along that challenges conventional thinking and changes the direction of a field. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-disruptive-age-breakthroughs.html Education Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:30:06 EDT news712244383 New Monash University research has revealed how countries could strengthen their conservation networks by looking beyond the boundaries of national parks and protected areas—and focusing on how these areas connect. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-isnt-landscapes-key.html Ecology Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:40:19 EDT news712243262 From its visible surface, the sun radiates heat at a relatively cool temperature of 5,800 Kelvin. Yet within the thin outer layer of the sun's atmosphere known as the corona, electrons can reach temperatures of millions of degrees, for reasons astronomers have yet to fully explain. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-laser-blasted-plasma-instabilities-sun.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:00:10 EDT news712234865 For the first time, researchers in Japan have directly mapped several components of the stress field surrounding an atomic-scale flaw in the crystal structure of diamond. Led by Tokuyuki Teraji at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science, the team achieved its result using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, whose spin states respond differently to stress depending on how they are oriented relative to the stress field. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-diamond-defects-year-theory-crystal.html Condensed Matter Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:30:01 EDT news712229116 A new study reveals a dust-reddened quasar from a time when the universe was less than a billion years old. Located at a redshift of 6.5488, the object J1440+0019 contains a rapidly accreting supermassive black hole with a mass of about 1.1 billion suns. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 9. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jwst-alma-reveal-dusty-rapidly.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711982981 Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight. The object, called AGC 322753, contains roughly 2 billion times the sun's mass in neutral hydrogen, a potential supply of material for making stars. Its radio signal suggests the gas may be rotating in a disk, yet deep astronomical images reveal no matching glow. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fast-arecibo-dark-galaxy-vast.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 06:55:00 EDT news712216463 An online lesson takes an extra second to load. The wait may seem trivial, but in a study examining large learning platforms, these brief pauses were linked to unfinished assignments, lower scores and less time spent on the site. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-seconds-online-learners-track.html Social Sciences Sun, 25 Oct 2026 11:20:02 EDT news711641103 Southern Africa has one of the most detailed and elaborate bodies of rock art anywhere in the world, from herds of running antelope to dancing men and humanoid beings with wings, hooves and horns. All are painted with fine brushstrokes or fingers. One thing this art lacks is stencils. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-southern-africa-stenciled-art-plain.html Archaeology Sun, 25 Oct 2026 08:40:02 EDT news711798590 The positron is the antimatter counterpart of the electron, identical in mass but carrying an equal and opposite electric charge. Like the electron, it also behaves like a tiny bar magnet, and according to a key prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics, its magnetic moment should be exactly equal and opposite to the electron's. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-positron-cyclotron-key-standard.html General Physics Sat, 24 Oct 2026 13:20:02 EDT news711890804 What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests that mapping the evolutionary relatives of birds could offer better clues than their diets or feeding methods alone. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-seabird-family-tree-species-accumulate.html Plants & Animals Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711628189 In places like South Asia, Africa and parts of the Americas, monsoon rains supply water for drinking, crops and hydropower for billions of people. Understanding the patterns that monsoons tend to follow can help people plan for drought risks affecting agriculture, reservoirs and hydropower across distant regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-stalagmites-reveal-exceptions-asiasouth.html Earth Sciences Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:00:01 EDT news711981698 Whenever anything is written about the Denisovans, the word "mysterious" is almost guaranteed to appear. That is because we just don't know a lot about this extinct human group that may have lived in East Asia from at least 300,000 to 45,000 years ago and was closely related to the Neanderthals. The main reason for that is a sparse fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rare-fossils-reveal-ancient-denisovans.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:30:01 EDT news711981796 Protected areas have been set up to shield deep-sea life from the impacts of seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean. However, new research led by scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and published in Nature Ecology & Evolution highlights an opportunity to make these protections even more effective. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-strategic-link-pacific-deep-sea.html Earth Sciences Fri, 23 Oct 2026 13:00:14 EDT news711972286 Astronomers identified an exceptionally tiny core that may represent an early stage in the formation of a massive star. Located in an infrared-dark area called Dragon Cloud, the core is nicknamed the "dragon egg." The paper, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 5. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-alma-dragon-egg-earliest-stages.html Astronomy Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:50:01 EDT news711976208 Fabian Coscia and his team have published in Nature Methods an open-source workflow that makes Deep Visual Proteomics easier to use, adapt and scale. OpenDVP enables scientists to spatially map thousands of proteins inside cells and their cellular environments, while preserving their tissue context. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-source-workflow-spatial-proteomics-easier.html Biotechnology Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:20:10 EDT news711969422 Researchers have created a material that manufactures the proteins responsible for cell movement, without needing intact living cells. By embedding cell-free gene expression into a thin sheet of protein filaments, they were able to make the material wrinkle, rise into blister-like shapes and break into bundles that flow around one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dna-cell-free-material-motors.html Biotechnology Fri, 23 Oct 2026 11:20:15 EDT news711963752 The Kronshtadskiy subglacial lake near East Antarctica's Amery Ice Shelf was hidden beneath Antarctica's ice, but its drainage left a mark visible from space as a broad depression that deepened by more than 6 meters (20 feet) at its center. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-antarctic-ice-reveals-hidden-lake.html Earth Sciences Fri, 23 Oct 2026 10:00:07 EDT news711808123