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. Cannibalism was sometimes on the Neolithic menu, as numerous archaeological discoveries have revealed. But while ancient human bones show the practice took place, far less evidence exists about the forms it may have taken or why people occasionally consumed one another. Was it to stave off hunger during times of desperation? Did different tribes eat their defeated enemies? Or was cannibalism part of complex rituals? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-bones-reveal-cannibalism-neolithic.html Archaeology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:50:01 EDT news708165672 Electronic voting, the use of electronic systems to cast, record or count votes, could potentially simplify the process of electing new political leaders or other representatives. While some countries have already started using internet-connected devices or electronic voting machines at polling stations, the trustworthiness, security and anonymity of electronic voting systems are still widely debated. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-protocols-electronic-voting.html Quantum Physics Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:40:10 EDT news708080473 Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that a wandering black hole can feed itself by dragging gas along in its wake as it moves through its galaxy. It's the first direct evidence of an accretion channel long predicted in theory but never before observed. The paper describing this discovery was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 11. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-black-hole-caught.html Astronomy Wed, 09 Sep 2026 07:30:02 EDT news706964431 Drylands are defined as regions where rainfall is low relative to the atmosphere's ability to draw water from soil and plants. Expanding boundaries of these regions are frequent concerns in climate change considerations. While they can support large populations and ecosystems, dryland expansion can worsen water scarcity, land degradation and desertification. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-response-dryland-expansion.html Earth Sciences Tue, 08 Sep 2026 13:10:02 EDT news708087695 Trade routes and ports have shaped the history of human civilization, with the Mediterranean network among the most prominent and influential. Yet our understanding of its past is shaped largely by what remains visible on land rather than by the sea itself. Stone-built structures such as docks, quays and breakwaters give us important clues, but they do not always reveal the full picture. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-sea-walls-underwater-archaeology-reveals.html Archaeology Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:40:06 EDT news708076101 For decades, physicists have worked to prove the strange predictions of quantum mechanics with real experiments. As quantum computers have grown more powerful, researchers have devised increasingly sophisticated ways to test whether these machines are truly harnessing quantum effects—but every method so far has run into limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-game-quantum-advantage-provable-classical.html Quantum Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:50:01 EDT news708083342 Packaged food usually sits in plastic-lined bags designed to keep air, moisture and contaminants out. That same protection can also increase the chances of chemicals from the packaging seeping into the food. When a chemical raises health concerns, industries often swap it for a molecular cousin, a substitution that may either be genuinely safer or simply be too understudied to know whether it is harmful. With thousands of chemicals in use, one-by-one regulation can't keep pace, so untested replacements can slide through unchecked. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-screening-flags-food-packaging-chemicals.html Biochemistry Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:00:09 EDT news707998019 A new study finds that two early-universe objects thought to be faint quasars are actually extraordinarily luminous galaxies powered by bursts of star formation. James Webb Space Telescope observations of the galaxies, seen when the universe was less than a billion years old, reveal signatures of extremely massive stars, including some potentially more than 200 times the mass of the sun. The paper outlining this discovery was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 18. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-jwst-extreme-star-galaxies-masquerading.html Astronomy Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:00:01 EDT news707748999 Physicists at the BESIII Collaboration have breathed new life into a decades-old test of one of the Standard Model's most important ideas, using a technique that had gone almost untouched by experimenters for 35 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-entangled-particles-revive-year-standard.html General Physics Mon, 07 Sep 2026 13:40:10 EDT news707992804 Astronomers have detected extreme, never-before-seen behavior from a rare kind of pulsar and stumbled on a surprising link to one of astronomy's biggest current mysteries. Using 174 hours of radio observations, researchers detected PSR J1227-4853, a rapidly spinning neutron star known as a "transitional millisecond pulsar," which unleashes hundreds of ultrashort, ultrapowerful "giant pulses." Their paper was published in The Astrophysical Journal on July 31. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-pulsar-unleashes-giant-pulses.html Astronomy Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:50:01 EDT news707042987 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-phases-chromium-based-material.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:00:01 EDT news707734660 Since scientists can't drill 2,900 km (1,800 miles) to the boundary between Earth's core and deep mantle, they must use information relayed by seismic waves recorded during earthquakes to study this region. In a new study published in the journal JGR Solid Earth, a group of scientists used deep learning to study a large set of a specific type of seismic wave. The analysis revealed six continuous bands of irregularities at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) that had previously appeared only as sparse patches. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-unusual-earth-core-mantle-boundary.html Earth Sciences Sun, 06 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news707652667 As the electronics in our technology keep shrinking, traditional silicon-based chips are approaching their fundamental physical limits. Yet the wires connecting them might be able to shrink beyond conventional dimensions, as scientists have created one of the longest single-atom copper chains to date that could serve as molecular wires. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extreme-pressure-blue-pigment-atom.html Nanomaterials Sun, 06 Sep 2026 10:20:01 EDT news707646364 Using more than 15 years of observations from the Parkes radio telescope, astronomers detected three rotational glitches in the pulsar PSR J1637−4642—a young neutron star that had shown no signs of glitches since its discovery. The three glitches included one that changed its rotation rate by nearly 3 parts per million. Their paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 20. It has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quiet-pulsar-suddenly-reveals-glitches.html Astronomy Sun, 06 Sep 2026 08:40:03 EDT news707748985 Astronomers have found two clouds of hydrogen near the Whirlpool galaxy that appear to contain almost no stars. The clouds, discovered with China's FAST radio telescope, each contain roughly 3 million times the mass of the sun in hydrogen but have no detectable optical counterpart. Their properties are outlined in a new paper published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal on Aug. 4. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-fast-mysterious-hydrogen-clouds-visible.html Astronomy Sat, 05 Sep 2026 14:40:02 EDT news707748935 When humans are making decisions, they are known not to rely solely on their own considerations and the evidence available to them. Past behavioral science and psychology studies have shown that people are often also influenced by the choices and opinions of others. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-disagreement-groups-trustworthy-mathematical-framework.html Mathematics Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT news707734830 Lakes may look like picturesque stopping points along a river or stream, but they can have a big influence on what happens to carbon as it moves through a landscape. New research suggests that the more lake-rich a network of streams is, the more carbon is released into the atmosphere rather than carried downstream. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lakes-theyre-carbon.html Earth Sciences Sat, 05 Sep 2026 08:20:01 EDT news707386128 The Etruscan painted tombs in Tarquinia, Italy, date to the first millennium BCE and are known for their vivid scenes of music, feasting, processions and the afterlife. While these tombs have been extensively studied, archaeologists have typically looked at the paintings as images to decode rather than as parts of an experience that people moved through. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-reveal-immersive-sensory-ancient.html Archaeology Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:20:06 EDT news707744545 In a new Nature Communications study, researchers developed a universal scaling framework for the strength of granular asteroids, showing that their tensile strength can be predicted from the size and shape of their constituent particles. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-particle-size-asteroid-strength-revealing.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:20:06 EDT news707737328 For the first time since its dramatic dimming in 2020, a team of astronomers has observed the inner atmosphere of Betelgeuse using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Led by Bill Dent at the University of Manchester, the team found that the giant star's inner atmosphere has become increasingly uneven and asymmetric, in a way that could be connected to a far smaller companion star. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-betelgeuse-atmosphere-spotty-asymmetric-nearby.html Astronomy Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:20:03 EDT news707734879 Some of the most intriguing scientific breakthroughs happen when researchers aren't explicitly looking for them. Take, for example, the pygmy raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus), a critically endangered species that lives only on Cozumel Island, Mexico. Scientists were observing them for a study on the impact of tourism on their populations when they made an accidental discovery. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-critically-endangered-pygmy-raccoons-paper.html Plants & Animals Fri, 04 Sep 2026 10:30:02 EDT news707734698 Around 700 years ago, people living on hilltop settlements on the edge of the Kalahari wore beads, bangles and clips made from metal traded across the southern half of the African continent. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-iron-age-botswana-site-sourced.html Archaeology Fri, 04 Sep 2026 08:00:04 EDT news707649195 Venus is one of the solar system's most unusual planets. It may sometimes be called "Earth's twin" because of its similar size and density, but it rotates on its axis in the opposite direction of most planets, has surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and lacks a moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-doesnt-venus-moon.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:10:02 EDT news707657547 The Romans were master engineers, building sprawling road networks, towering aqueducts and arenas across their empire. They were also good at recycling. New research has revealed that they turned the remains of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound in Suffolk, England, into the center of a religious complex. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-grand-temples-recycled-bronze-age.html Archaeology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:50:01 EDT news707649185 Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime created when pairs of black holes spiral into each other and eventually merge. But if this ripple has been warped by another massive object on its way to Earth, a new analysis suggests that these black holes might appear far larger than they really are. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-biggest-black-hole-merger-massive.html Astronomy Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:30:49 EDT news707643020 Earth may have been pushed deeper into a global deep freeze by something surprisingly ordinary: salt. Around 700 million years ago, Earth entered periods of extreme glaciation known as Snowball Earth, when ice is thought to have spread across much or potentially all of the planet's surface. Scientists have long known that expanding ice could have helped drive this transition: As bright ice replaces darker ocean water, more sunlight is reflected back into space, causing the planet to cool further and allowing even more ice to form. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-salt-earth-frozen-world-million.html Earth Sciences Thu, 03 Sep 2026 07:40:06 EDT news707385271 The fact that the ocean gets colder as you go deeper is fairly intuitive, but a similar gradient exists along the surface of the ocean, even at scales of 1 kilometer to tens of kilometers. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that this horizontal gradient significantly contributes to the intensity of tropical cyclones, providing a potential tool for better storm warning systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-weak-sea-surface-temperature-gradients.html Earth Sciences Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:10:05 EDT news707571746 Fossilized bones can reveal a wealth of details about animals, including their size, appearance, what they ate and any injuries they may have suffered. In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers in Spain describe a swollen patch on the shinbone of an Iguanodon, which they say may be evidence of an advanced skin ulcer that had reached the underlying bone. If so, this could be the first time this type of response to a bacterial infection has been reported in a dinosaur. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-iguanodon-shinbone-growth-evidence-infected.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:40:03 EDT news707561891 The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is central to Einstein's general relativity. It posits that gravity must accelerate everything equally, regardless of what it is made from. For the first time, a team led by Ming-Sheng Zhan at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics has tested the principle using clouds of continuously free-falling atoms aboard an orbiting space station. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-physicists-weak-equivalence-principle-orbiting.html General Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:30:01 EDT news707556747 Astronomers have discovered a second interstellar cloud near the center of the Milky Way that is extraordinarily rich in complex molecules, including several molecules associated with prebiotic chemistry. The newly studied cloud, G+0.633-0.0604, or G+0.633, contains more than 120 identified molecular species and is the first confirmed chemical twin of another famous molecule-rich cloud. Their paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 14, outlines the chemistry of the newfound cloud. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-molecular-species-giant-cloud-milky.html Astronomy Wed, 02 Sep 2026 08:30:02 EDT news706793113