https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Columbia University When Jasper Baur was a freshman at New York's Binghamton University, his interests centered on earth sciences. Then he got involved in a seemingly unrelated pursuit: harnessing drone-mounted geophysical instruments to aid in the slow, dangerous work of detecting land mines. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-drones-geophysics-artificial-intelligence.html Environment Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:20:04 EDT news695028784 Even with all the recent advances in the ability of large language models (like ChatGPT) to help us think, research, summarize, and learn complex and technical texts, how do they fare in understanding storytelling and literature? These questions around interpretive nuance remain. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai-literature.html Computer Sciences Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:01 EDT news693820201 On March 25, The Lancet, one of the oldest academic journals, issued a rare retraction based on research by Columbia Mailman School public health historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner. The journal retracted—in essence, disavowed—an unsigned 1977 commentary claiming that talcum powder poses no serious health risks, despite robust contemporaneous scientific evidence to the contrary. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-historians-unearth-conflict-talcum-powder.html Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:00:03 EDT news693745298 By scanning the brains of mice throughout their lifespans, scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and the University of Texas at Dallas have discovered that the human brain is not unique in how it changes with age. These findings might one day help researchers pinpoint mechanisms in humans that confer vulnerability to, or grant resilience from, age-related brain decline, diseases and disorders. Their research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-human-brain-ages-reveals-insights.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:40:01 EDT news693501652 Researchers have known for decades that female mosquitoes—the ones responsible for the itchy and irritating bites that can also transmit disease—lose their desire to bite humans for several days after feeding, as they digest blood and convert it to yolk protein that they deposit in their eggs. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-cells-mosquito-gut-appetite.html Plants & Animals Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:00:06 EDT news693134101 The world is never really at rest. Even in a vacuum near ultracold temperatures where all classical motion should come to a halt, you'll find quantum fluctuations. In thin, two-dimensional materials, these include random vibrations that can alter electromagnetic fields, a feature that theorists have posited could be quite useful for modifying materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-vibrations-superconductivity-nearby-crystal.html Superconductivity Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:10:01 EST news691348741 The laser you see in the photo above may one day enhance images taken by the most powerful microscopes in biology. This advancement, detailed in a paper published in eLife from scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute with the Maxson lab at Cornell University, could revolutionize research into the molecules that allow the brain to function properly and underlie diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-trillionth-lasers-sharpen-gen-cryo.html Biotechnology Sat, 21 Feb 2026 16:00:04 EST news690796941 Disasters arise from the convergence of natural and social forces. Earthquakes, cyclones, floods, droughts, and other catastrophic events disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people, whether the poor in wealthy countries or the inhabitants of less developed countries. In a warming world, climate-related disasters threaten to become even more hazardous. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-explores-links-disasters.html Environment Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:12:35 EST news690804722 One night in 2010, Mohit Gupta decided to try something before leaving the lab. Then a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, Gupta was in the final days of an internship at a manufacturing company in Boston. He'd spent months developing a system that used cameras and light sources to create 3D images of small objects. "I wanted to stress test it, just for fun," said Gupta, who would begin his postdoctoral research at Columbia Engineering a few months later. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-3d-vision-technology-powers-factory.html Computer Sciences Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:00:01 EST news690796654 In 2014, a NASA telescope observed that the infrared light emitted by a massive star in the Andromeda galaxy gradually grew brighter. The star glowed more intensely with infrared light for around three years before fading dramatically and disappearing, leaving behind a shell of dust. Although a telescope captured the phenomenon at the time, it took years for scientists to notice it. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-astronomers-star-year-infrared-black.html Astronomy Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:00:03 EST news690123902 In the national conversation about overdose, fentanyl is often framed as a single, wide-reaching crisis, but new evidence from five major U.S. cities suggests a more fragmented, complex reality. In an article published in JAMA Network Open, lead researchers Nabila El-Bassel, Ph.D., University Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, and Steve Shoptaw, Ph.D., professor at UCLA, report that among people who inject drugs but are not in treatment, fentanyl exposure is nearly universal across five major U.S. cities, while xylazine and stimulant exposures vary sharply by location and, in some settings, are rising over time. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-universal-fentanyl-exposure-xylazine-cities.html Addiction Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:22:39 EST news689959322 Researchers from Columbia University and Breakthrough Listen, a scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of civilizations beyond Earth, have published new results from the Breakthrough Listen Galactic Center Survey, one of the most sensitive radio searches ever conducted for pulsars in the dynamically complex central region of the Milky Way. The study, led by recent Columbia Ph.D. graduate Karen I. Perez, was published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-discovery-pulsar-milky-center-enable.html Astronomy Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:50:04 EST news689941897 Ordinary matter, when cooled, transitions from a gas into a liquid. Cool it further still, and it freezes into a solid. Quantum matter, however, can behave very differently. In the early 20th century, researchers discovered that when helium is cooled, it transitions from a seemingly ordinary gas into a so-called superfluid. Superfluids flow without losing any energy, among other quantum quirks, like an ability to climb out of containers. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-superfluids-indefinitely-physicists.html Soft Matter Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:46:29 EST news688826716 For quantum computers to outperform their classical counterparts, they need more quantum bits, or qubits. State-of-the-art quantum computers have around 1,000 qubits. Columbia physicists Sebastian Will and Nanfang Yu have their sights set much higher. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-neutral-atom-arrays-rapidly-emerging.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:30:51 EST news687630602 It's obvious to most people as soon as they set foot in a place they know well—like their childhood bedroom or a former classroom—that place and memory are intimately linked. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-digital-memory-palace-illuminates-encode.html Psychology & Psychiatry Sun, 11 Jan 2026 13:30:03 EST news687105867 High levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide intensify climate change, but high carbon dioxide levels can also stimulate plant growth. Plant growth removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, partially mitigating the effects of climate change. However, plants only grow faster in the presence of high levels of carbon dioxide if they can also acquire enough nitrogen from the atmosphere to do so. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-earth-overstate-carbon-nitrogen-fixation.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:41:03 EST news683296861 People who live in the tropical areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reside have probably known for centuries, or even millennia—thanks to their itchy bites—that the mosquitoes hunt most often at dawn and dusk. A new study offers scientific proof of that hunting behavior, and new insight into the biological mechanism behind it. It also offers a potential path to reducing bites and helping stop the spread of deadly, mosquito-borne disease. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-mosquitoes-internal-clocks.html Ecology Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:45:04 EST news682163101 The neurons in our brain that underlie thought connect to each other using tiny branch-like structures on their surfaces known as dendritic spines. Now scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and their colleagues have come up with powerful new software driven by artificial intelligence that can automatically map these dendritic spines in pictures of neurons, a tool the researchers are making freely available. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-source-software-reveals-3d-architecture.html Neuroscience Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:50:02 EDT news680525131 In the right combinations and conditions, two-dimensional materials can host intriguing and potentially valuable quantum phases, like superconductivity and unique forms of magnetism. Why they occur, and how they can be controlled, is of considerable interest among physicists and engineers. Research published in Nature Physics reveals a previously hidden feature that could explain how and why enigmatic quantum phases emerge. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-2d-devices-hidden-cavities-electronic.html Condensed Matter Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:00:11 EDT news679923998 Light is fast, but travels in long wavelengths and interacts weakly with itself. The particles that make up matter are tiny and interact strongly with each other, but move slowly. Together, the two can combine into a hybrid quasiparticle called a polariton that is part light, part matter. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-playbook-polaritons-quasiparticles-power-optical.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:00:12 EDT news679161482 In the United States, significant numbers of adults with dementia require long-term care services. For example, around 750,000 people who live in nursing homes have a diagnosis of dementia. However, transportation insecurity for this population has not received sufficient attention. Although long-term care facilities provide basic medical services, residents with dementia often need external, preventative, and follow-up care such as specialist visits, diagnostics, and dental or vision services. Without reliable nonemergency medical transportation, these needs may go unmet. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-highlights-solutions-critical-gaps-dementia.html Oncology & Cancer Thu, 09 Oct 2025 13:17:04 EDT news679234621 Around the world, growing populations of older adults need social care. Aging is typically associated with steady physical and cognitive decline; the practice of narrative therapy, by contrast, focuses on the resilience of older adults by encouraging the construction of meaningful life stories. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-narrative-therapy-life.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 07 Oct 2025 08:01:06 EDT news679042862 Ten years after scientists first detected gravitational waves emerging from two colliding black holes, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, a research team that includes Columbia astronomy professor Maximiliano Isi, has recorded a signal from a nearly identical black hole collision. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-gravitational-analysis-theory-merging-black.html General Physics Sat, 13 Sep 2025 11:00:24 EDT news676639110 It's natural to crave sugar when you feel tired and want a boost of energy. Now scientists at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute have linked a brain area in mice to the drive to consume not just sweets, but fats, salt and food. The findings show this area serves as a kind of dial that can amplify or repress consumption. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-brain-dial-food-fat-salt.html Neuroscience Wed, 10 Sep 2025 11:00:28 EDT news676647303 Unarmed Black civilians are three times more likely to be shot and killed by police officers than unarmed white civilians in the U.S. In tragic cases in recent years, unarmed Black men holding innocuous objects like a wallet, cell phone, or vape pen were killed by police officers because those objects were misidentified as weapons. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-racial-stereotypes-weapons-dont-brain.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 09 Sep 2025 05:00:04 EDT news676540261 On July 16, 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial year, a dozen farmers gathered at a parking lot at East 59th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan to start a different sort of revolution. They lined up their trucks and unloaded wooden bushels of produce: tomatoes, radishes, carrots, rainbow chard. This was the city's first Greenmarket, which urban planner Barry Benepe had conceived as a way to bring fresh food to New Yorkers while allowing regional farmers to sell directly to customers, eliminating middlemen and saving small farms. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-how-do-we-change-the.html Ecology Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:50:01 EDT news675348137 When I was landing at the Aspen airport a few weeks ago for a panel, the wing outside my window looked like it was going to fly off the plane. One of the reasons I knew it wouldn't is because the aerospace industry de-risks aircraft designs using digital twins, which are highly accurate virtual copies of physical objects. They let engineers simulate thousands of what-if scenarios and spot potential problems far in advance. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-virtual-cervix.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:53:03 EDT news674481181 It was barely past dawn when Bruce Reingold pushed through industrial plastic flaps and slid open the insulated door that led into a massive refrigerated warehouse. Inside, people hustled in every direction, some on foot with clipboards in hand and some driving pallet jacks capable of carrying 2,000 pounds. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-threat-york-city-food.html Environment Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:17:52 EDT news674392669 Chemistry and physics are combining forces at Columbia, and it's leaving everyone frustrated—in a good way. New work, published in Nature Physics, describes a new two-dimensional material capable of complex quantum behaviors that arise from its underlying chemistry, rather than its atomic structure. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-chemistry-geometry-triggers-unusual-electron.html Nanophysics Thu, 07 Aug 2025 08:53:04 EDT news673775582 Blink and you might miss it, but if you keep your eye on the monitors in professor Sebastian Will's lab, you'll catch a series of single-second flashes that light up the screen. Each flash is an atom of strontium, a naturally occurring alkaline-earth metal, being briefly captured and held in place by "tweezers" made of laser light. "We can see single atoms," says graduate student Aaron Holman. "Seeing those never gets old." https://phys.org/news/2025-06-discusses-atoms-emerging-quantum-technologies.html Quantum Physics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:50:03 EDT news670148871