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. A landmark survey of the world's largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has revealed that the once-endangered species is thriving and stable in the Seychelles. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-tortoises-outnumber-people-seychelles.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:50:01 EDT news710606101 Ahead of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, attention is turning to the question of what causes psychological strain at work. A study by Bielefeld University shows that inappropriate tasks are not the only factor associated with exhaustion. Changes in day-to-day work can also leave employees feeling exhausted, even when the number of burdensome tasks decreases. Perceived uncertainty plays an important role. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-unnecessary-tasks-links-greater-employee.html Social Sciences Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:00:01 EDT news710595157 Scientists Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs and transformed modern medicine. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nobel-prize-chemistry-awarded-kagan.html Other Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:12:46 EDT news710572334 Four decades after the 1986 nuclear disaster, researchers at Leibniz University Hannover and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) examined six tiny, highly radioactive fragments that were released from the destroyed reactor in Ukraine in the wake of the incident. Analyses show that these "hot particles" are far more stable than had previously been assumed. The findings could allow for more precise assessments of the health risks posed by such radioactive particles. The paper is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-chernobyl-particles-reveal-unexpectedly-stable.html General Physics Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:20:05 EDT news710509501 In January 2013, Lake Michigan reached its lowest water level on record. Seven years later, in the summer of 2020, it broke the opposite record with widespread flooding, eroded shorelines and closed lakeside roads. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-great-lakes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 06 Oct 2026 15:10:01 EDT news710515621 Earth seems like a troubled place right now, but at least our cosmic surroundings appear peaceful. This is not universally true, as explosions, collisions and other dangers lurk in other places and times. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-life-cosmos-universe-supercomputer-yields.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:40:29 EDT news710498341 Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles that scientists believe offer clues to how the universe evolved. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-francis-halzen-nobel-prize-physics.html General Physics Tue, 06 Oct 2026 06:12:06 EDT news710485847 Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomers-star-slowly-snacking-brown.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:40:16 EDT news710425861 The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to U.S. psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-german-trio-medicine-nobel-optogenetics.html Other Mon, 05 Oct 2026 06:32:02 EDT news710400687 Roadsides may not look like wildlife habitat, but a few simple changes to how they are maintained could turn them into much better places for pollinators. A new uOttawa-led study found that reducing mowing and herbicide use along rural roadsides led to a 45% jump in pollinator numbers and a 23% increase in the number of species found there. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-spraying-smarter-pollinators-boost.html Plants & Animals Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:00:04 EDT news710163902 A core assumption in any democracy is that citizens with access to information will make reasoned decisions on political candidates and policy issues. But a new study by UC Berkeley social scientists finds that Americans usually don't consider the full scope of difficult issues, instead basing their opinions on mental shortcuts that sidestep complexity. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-complex-political-issues-americans-shortcuts.html Political science Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:40:02 EDT news710160246 Since its launch in 1998, Google, the world's leading search engine, has transformed how people find information online. For years, search results appeared as ranked lists of sources: Google decided what to show, but users decided what to read and whom to trust. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extensive-reveals-gaps-google-ai.html Economics & Business Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:20:07 EDT news709903022 AI tools are increasingly replacing human judgments in some settings. For instance, resume-screening algorithms are often used in hiring, where they may improve efficiency and consistency in decision-making. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-identical-hiring-algorithms-echo-chambers.html Economics & Business Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:20:21 EDT news709893661 There's big news from the quantum world. A quantum computer has been used in space for the first time. The device was aboard a spacecraft in low Earth orbit and demonstrated technology that could eventually help solve a problem that has been bugging satellites for years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-boldly-space.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:40:01 EDT news709820802 RNA vaccines and other nucleic acid therapeutics are typically packaged within fatty molecules known as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). MIT researchers have now developed a way to produce these particles much more quickly and with more precise control over their size and shape. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-automated-lipid-nanoparticle-production-rna.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:20:07 EDT news709813443 RNA vaccines, which have proved effective against COVID-19, are now being developed for many other diseases, including cancer. One drawback is that they require ultracold storage, but MIT researchers have found a promising way to overcome that limitation. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rna-vaccines-high-temperatures.html Biotechnology Mon, 28 Sep 2026 05:00:01 EDT news709558561 Agri-photovoltaics combines electricity generation and agriculture on the same land—to ensure this works well in the long term, it is worth taking a closer look at the soil. Researchers at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) have, for the first time, measured how the construction phase of agri-photovoltaic installations affects soil structure. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-soil-agri-photovoltaics-sustainable.html Agriculture Sun, 27 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news709474260 What are the chances of finding extraterrestrial life in our solar system? Frank Postberg, a professor of planetary science at Freie Universität Berlin, has published a study in Science Advances with an international team of researchers. They present new evidence that it is easier to determine the constituents of the ocean hidden beneath Enceladus's icy surface than previously assumed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-great-news-saturn-moon-enceladus.html Astrobiology Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:00:21 EDT news709396040 A simplified cosmological model suggests that decoherence can suppress quantum tunneling, effectively locking fields into the vacuum state they have reached. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cosmic-lockdown-environment-isolate-quantum.html General Physics Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:01 EDT news709483741 Great Britain has long been thought to be home to a single venomous snake species, the adder. Although its bites are rarely life-threatening, they require a trip to the emergency department and will more than likely ruin your week. The other two native British snakes, the grass snake and the smooth snake, have largely been considered nonvenomous. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-venomous-british-snake-panic.html Plants & Animals Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:50:01 EDT news709473961 The bright orange plumes of water scientists first noticed billowing across a river in Alaska's Brooks Range in 2018 were even more acidic and metallic than water leached from metal mines, despite their pristine surroundings. That's according to a new University of California, Davis, study of six affected watersheds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-alaska-orange-rivers-metallic-acid.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:08:11 EDT news709466821 Around 631,000 years ago—a geological blink of an eye—catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America, and the effects were felt worldwide. This was a super-eruption of the massive volcanic system located in what is now Yellowstone National Park. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-humanity-blowbyblow-account-yellowstone-supervolcano.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:40:06 EDT news709205583 As we age, some of the cells in our body enter a state of senescence, in which they stop dividing but do not die. Those senescent cells can contribute to age-related disorders such as cancer, tissue degeneration and inflammatory diseases. In an advance that could lead to better ways to diagnose and treat those diseases, MIT researchers have developed a noninvasive way to detect biomarkers of senescence. Their method is based on Raman microscopy, which can reveal the biochemical composition of cells without harming them. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-powered-barcode-unmasks-zombie.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 21 Sep 2026 05:00:07 EDT news708944642 About 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion metric tons) of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep across the continental United States, according to a major scientific report. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-satellites-earth-lost-trillion-tons.html Environment Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:30:01 EDT news708769281 Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have extended the search for evidence of microscopic black holes produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The formation of these tiny, fleeting objects at the LHC represents one way theorists have sought to resolve anomalies in our understanding of the basic structure of spacetime, while the method used to look for them demonstrates a new way of searching for new particles. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physicists-quantum-black-holes-lhc.html General Physics Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:20:07 EDT news708954181 The Antarctic ozone hole in 2025 was one of the smallest in decades—a testament to the continuing success of international action to protect Earth's ozone layer, which shields us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ozone-hole-shrunk-smallest-sizes.html Earth Sciences Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:00:01 EDT news708941281 A Facebook post about your trip to Peru. An Amazon review of a new toaster oven. An email to the super about the inflatable reindeer blocking the hallway. You phrase and rephrase things all day without thinking that anyone—or anything—is putting words in your mouth. But what happens when AI joins the conversation? Are chatbots changing the way you write, talk and interact with others? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bots-people-language-age-ai.html Social Sciences Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:51:23 EDT news708940190 Every new generation of phone display, television screen and solar panel is the result of precision optics experiments, which use lasers and other light sources to measure the optical properties of candidate materials. These experiments can take months to run, requiring scientists to meticulously angle and adjust delicate light sources, mirrors, cameras and other components in a process of careful, constant tuning that can be physically tedious and time-consuming. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-robotic-lab-optics-demand.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:40:27 EDT news708854343 Deep in the ocean, brown algae and diatoms produce a complex carbohydrate molecule called fucoidan, which helps form their protective outer layers. The fucoidan molecule is very difficult for microbes to break down because its chemical structure may include dozens of different linkages and branching patterns that vary from one algal species to another. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-marine-bacteria-team-ocean-toughest.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:04 EDT news708689641 The discovery of water in dark craters at the moon's poles has sparked a "moon rush" to establish bases there, followed by villages, cities and heavy industry. How sustainable is this rush? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cities-moon-isnt-scientists.html Space Exploration Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:02 EDT news708349073