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. The world's most powerful particle accelerator will shutter operations Monday for four years of renovations to dramatically boost its collision capacity and the potential for unlocking one of the greatest mysteries of the universe: dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-world-largest-particle-smasher-halts.html General Physics Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:29:47 EDT news701792967 Nonlinear optical materials are essential for advanced photonics and laser technologies, but researchers are still searching for ways to optimize organic, carbon-based alternatives. Using computational modeling, scientists demonstrated that adding a lithium atom to the outside of a carbon molecule made of 12 benzene rings creates a material with exceptionally strong optical responses. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-lithium-doped-carbon-nanorings-generation.html Nanophysics Sat, 27 Jun 2026 14:30:01 EDT news701439394 Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), astronomers have discovered a new millisecond pulsar as part of the ongoing Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-metre (SMART) survey. The discovery is reported in a research paper published June 17 on the arXiv preprint server. The work has also been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-millisecond-pulsar-murchison-widefield-array.html Astronomy Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news701407747 Howdy, pards, here's a quick roundup of the week's science news: Moose, previously thought to be a transplanted species, are actually native to Colorado. A digital twin of a two-year-old child's brain revealed neural signatures linked to autism. And a new gel treatment for severed spinal cords restored mobility in lab animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-saturday-citations-earthquakes-event-horizons.html Other Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:10:01 EDT news701696929 An international team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and a natural phenomenon known as gravitational lensing to achieve a definitive characterization of LAP1-B, an ultra-faint galaxy from 13 billion years ago. Expanding upon initial detections, this new study revealed a record-breaking low oxygen abundance—merely 1/240th that of the sun. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chemically-primitive-galaxy-billion-years.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:40:05 EDT news697991532 If you're part of Gen Z, chances are you rely on social media for news and current events. And if you're under 30, you're more likely to trust what you see on social media than any other age cohort, according to Pew Research Center data. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-reader.html Education Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:40:08 EDT news701674741 Chiral 2D metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are among the most promising materials for future technologies that exploit the spin of electrons in spin-based optoelectronics, or spintronics, but getting them to perform consistently has proven difficult. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a data-driven approach that identifies and models key synthesis parameters to optimize their performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-roadmap-boost-gen-spintronics.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news701626681 A giraffe named Gracie is missing in Texas, and the search for her has become a tall order. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-giraffe-gracie-texas.html Plants & Animals Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:31:45 EDT news701620281 A study published in Nature Physics provides new molecular-level evidence from simulations that liquid water is not a single uniform substance, but a constantly shifting mixture of two distinct microscopic structures. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-molecular-evidence-liquid.html General Physics Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:20:03 EDT news701609342 Old oak trees and semi-natural grasslands are very important for a large number of species that risk disappearing as habitats decline. In a new study, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden present their findings on the habitat amount needed. The results can help nature conservation agencies set scientifically based goals and take more precise action to ensure the long-term survival of threatened species. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-experts-nature-greatest-difference-endangered.html Ecology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news701600307 As part of their marketing strategy, many companies send public relations packages full of curated products to social media influencers, who film themselves opening the gifts on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-explores-environmental-perceptions-pr-gifts.html Economics & Business Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:20:06 EDT news701597401 Researchers at McMaster University have discovered what they describe as a "megacluster" of genes in Streptomyces bacteria that produces four antibiotics that work together to stop rival bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-megacluster-bacterial-genes-reveals-antibiotics.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:00:07 EDT news701596741 Gold has long held a special place in Australia's history, shaping the nation's economic fortunes and driving waves of migration since the 1850s gold rushes. Today, Australia stands as one of the world's largest gold producers, with the precious metal a key driver of both regional development and national prosperity. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-geology-australia-world-richest.html Earth Sciences Thu, 25 Jun 2026 07:20:03 EDT news701587921 Scientists have detected the "fingerprints" of a black hole's event horizon—the boundary from which nothing can escape—for the first time, according to research published Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-fingerprints-black-hole-event-horizon.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:20:01 EDT news701536415 An international collaboration has discovered two of the lowest-density giant planets ever detected: rare "super-puff" planets with densities lower than candy floss. The study—led by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Université Côte d'Azur/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur and the University of Birmingham—has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-super-puff-planets-lighter-candy.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:10:02 EDT news701508781 At the end of every presidential term, the End of Term Web Archive preserves that administration's web presence as a vast trove of documents and webpages. The archive began in 2008, with George W. Bush's second term, and runs through 2024, collecting images, text, graphs, redacted pages and other media. So while it contains important public information, finding that information in the glut can prove difficult. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-web-archive-easily-millions-documents.html Political science Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:10:04 EDT news701539021 Magnetic fields are generally known to destroy superconductivity in a material. However, in exceptional cases, they can lead to what is known as "re-entrant superconductivity"—where superconductivity disappears as expected, but then unexpectedly returns when the magnetic field is increased further. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-magnetic-field-superconductivity.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:00:02 EDT news701532785 Deep within the dark caves of northeastern Mexico lives a fish that has spent hundreds of thousands of years adapting to a world without light. The blind Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) has evolved in perpetual darkness, losing its eyes and pigmentation while developing remarkable adaptations that help it survive in nutrient-poor environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-darkness-mexican-cavefish-illuminate-brain.html Evolution Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:20:03 EDT news701531806 Canada's new artificial intelligence strategy, AI for All, presents an ambitious vision for the country's future. Artificial intelligence, the federal government argues, can boost productivity, strengthen competitiveness and create opportunity across the economy. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-algorithms-unfairly-screening-immigrant-job.html Social Sciences Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:00:08 EDT news701526120 On Earth, garnet is best known as the fiery red January birthstone—popular in jewelry since the Bronze Age and valued highly by ancient Egyptians. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-garnet-meteorite-fragment-mars.html Astrobiology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701517902 For just one day, our dark universe detective, Euclid, turned its gaze toward the light: the extremely bright inner region of our Milky Way galaxy, known as the galactic bulge. This special request came from astronomers who were after what Euclid does best: capturing huge areas of the sky in crisp detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-euclid-captures-million-stars-sharpest.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news701518093 An enigmatic new species of wormlion fly, whose larvae construct clever pitfall traps to capture prey, has been revealed in a study led by researchers at Dali University in China. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-giant-wormlion-fly-species-southern.html Plants & Animals Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:40:06 EDT news701516789 To function normally, nearly every cell in the human body relies on G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to receive and send signals. That's why GPCRs are targeted by roughly one-third of all FDA-approved drugs. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-key-molecules-arrestins-druggable-scientists.html Biotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:00:16 EDT news701443203 Multiferroics are materials that exhibit more than one prominent "ferroic" property, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. One of their most advantageous features is that they allow engineers to control their magnetic states with electric fields or vice versa, due to an effect known as magnetoelectric coupling. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-interlayer-doping-room-temperature-multiferroics.html Condensed Matter Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:40:01 EDT news701346383 Massive stars much bigger than our sun always come in pairs or groups, not alone. But astronomers don't fully understand how these groupings form. In a new study, astronomers using ALMA have serendipitously discovered a young system containing nine baby stars forming together, and they have detailed a rare glimpse of the formation of such a stellar family in its earliest assembly stage in a paper submitted to the arXiv preprint server on June 2. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alma-member-stellar-family-formation.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:40:01 EDT news701342356 If drought in an area persists longer, elephants move closer to areas near human settlements. This is the finding of research by biologist Irene Bouwman of Radboud University. During short-term droughts, the animals remain close to rivers and lakes and move less than normal. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-elephants-closer-humans-droughts-sustained.html Ecology Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:20:04 EDT news701432556 Magnetic quantum oscillations have been unexpectedly observed in insulators, where freely moving charge carriers are not expected to exist. A joint study by researchers from Tokyo University of Science, The University of Tokyo and Kobe University investigated this puzzling behavior in the Kondo insulator YbB12 using ultrasound. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-oscillations-kondo-insulator-ytterbium.html Condensed Matter Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:40:01 EDT news701445483 Smartphones, online learning, generative AI: The way we read has changed more in the last decade than in the previous century. So what do we actually know about what reading does for the mind? In his new book, Falk Huettig, senior investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, brings together research spanning psychology, linguistics, neuroscience and education to answer that question. The result is a systematic account of how literacy reshapes memory, attention, language processing and reasoning—and even abilities readers might not expect, like face recognition. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cognitive.html Education Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:00:01 EDT news701444522 Researchers have developed a self-driving chemistry lab that can autonomously search through hundreds of catalyst recipes and reaction conditions to identify faster, more selective and more programmable ways to make important industrial chemicals. The work could accelerate catalyst discovery for industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and plastics to fuels and specialty chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-chemistry-lab-catalysts-products-demand.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news701450462 Many bat species emit echolocation calls and use the returning echoes to find their way, detect the presence of fluttering insects, and locate and catch them. A new study investigated this behavior in greater horseshoe bats foraging in the wild. An international team, including researchers from the University of Tübingen, "flew" with bats via GPS recording tags with microphones. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-horseshoe-echolocation-background-echoes-fluttering.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:20:07 EDT news701437262