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. Scientists have crossed an important line in biological engineering. In a recent study, researchers used artificial intelligence to design complete sets of genetic instructions for bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. Some of those computer-generated designs produced working viruses when they were built and tested in the laboratory. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-aidesigned-viruses-biosecurity-pace.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:20:07 EDT news705756534 For dogs with heart disease, a fraction of a centimeter can make a life-changing difference. Veterinarians often rely on chest radiographs to monitor subtle changes in heart size that help determine when treatment should begin. But those measurements can vary from one doctor to the next, making it difficult to know whether a dog's condition is truly changing or whether the difference is simply the result of human interpretation. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-tool-veterinarians-track-heart.html Veterinary medicine Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:30:01 EDT news705765121 The decades-old scientific quest to create brand-new proteins has been turbocharged in the era of artificial intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-qa-deploying-ai-proteins-nature.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:40:04 EDT news705756123 Fourth-year veterinary students matched—and experienced clinicians outperformed—an AI-enabled digital stethoscope in diagnosing heart murmurs and arrhythmias in cats and dogs, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. The study emphasizes the importance of human expertise when using AI-assisted technology, particularly with instruments designed for "universal" usage. The research is published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-human-clinicians-outperform-ai-stethoscope.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:20:09 EDT news705753527 The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network—known as NDAWN—isn't just measuring precipitation amounts and temperatures across the state. It's also playing a role in developing tools for crop disease management. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-agricultural-tools-crop-disease.html Agriculture Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:40:01 EDT news705747644 A new study from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management found that research proposals showing stronger signs of AI-assisted writing were four percentage points more likely to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-grant-narrowing-ideas.html Economics & Business Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:20:03 EDT news705679801 What if scientists could get a taste of discovery as soon as their experiment finishes? Thanks to a new machine learning tool called DONUT, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are transforming how experiments are run at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-real-ray-analysis-donut-materials.html Nanophysics Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news705682545 A growing body of research suggests that listening to music has a positive impact on our health and well-being. We use music in at least seven different ways to regulate our emotions, including for entertainment, comfort or reflection. And it's not just feel-good tracks; we also turn to music to sit with feelings of grief, sadness or frustration. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lyrics-deeply-years.html Social Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:00:06 EDT news705681961 After a heavy rain, rivers often turn brown with sediment, sand, silt and soil washed from the landscape that play a vital role in shaping rivers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rivers-sediment-intense-worrisome-pattern.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news705679501 Karevo's AI-powered optical recognition system can sort up to 10 tons of potatoes per hour with 95% accuracy. The founder's journey took him from a potato farm to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and ultimately to his own startup. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-potatoes-ai.html Biotechnology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:00:07 EDT news705678966 In the 1950s, the New World screwworm cost U.S. livestock producers tens of millions of dollars a year, reaching $50 million to $100 million annually in the hardest-hit Southwest, before it was eradicated from the United States and pushed south to Panama. Now the flesh-eating pest has spread north again, reaching Texas and New Mexico and threatening livestock, wildlife and even people. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-world-screwworm-dashboard-tracks.html Agriculture Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:40:01 EDT news705678893 Human service organizations play an important role in connecting people to housing, health care, food access and other essential services. Yet forecasting community needs can be difficult in times of rapid change or crisis because of limited resources and restricted access to data. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about a potential surge in evictions exposed gaps in the data used to assess housing instability. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-early-housing-evictions.html Social Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:40:02 EDT news705678633 The past decade has brought a wave of legal reforms around same-sex relationships across Asia: India struck down its colonial-era ban in 2018; Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019; Singapore repealed Section 377A, with the change taking effect in 2023; and Thailand's marriage equality law came into effect in 2025. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-legal-reforms-shift-discourse-social.html Social Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:20:01 EDT news705678481 The good news is that the majority of Australian students have again reached proficiency standards in reading and writing literacy—marking almost 20 years of consistent achievement. These results suggest two-thirds of Australian students meet the reading standard, listed as "strong" or "exceeding proficiency level." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-australian-students-misinformation.html Education Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:40:07 EDT news705665364 I'll admit to using AI for things it was probably never designed for. When my van threw a fault I couldn't immediately figure out—one that seems notorious for trips back and forth to a repair shop—I ended up in a long (but cheaper) back-and-forth with an AI system, working through the symptoms. The same happened with a run of gutters and with stud framing in my house. It isn't magic, and perhaps more often than I'd like, it's wrong, but as a way of thinking through a problem with something that's read more manuals than I ever will, it has earned its place in the toolbox. So I read this next story with some sympathy and interest. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-telescope.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:40:01 EDT news705661742 As protesters rally against data center construction in dozens of states and New York and Texas pause the issuance of permits for large data centers, a new nationally representative survey finds that Americans' opposition to data centers in their communities has risen sharply since last spring. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-opposition-local-centers-sharply-survey.html Political science Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news705658262 In his 1927 paper, "A law of comparative judgment," the American psychologist L. L. Thurstone proposed that when people select one option among multiple alternatives, they are picking the one that has the highest value to them, even though they cannot assign a particular number to that choice. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-people-pays-power.html Mathematics Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:00:02 EDT news705595141 Do you ever see comments on social media that seem way off-topic but still manage to wrench the discussion around to divisive political debate? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-disinformation-harder-weve.html Social Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:00:01 EDT news705593941 Rodney Luster, Ph.D., University research chair and chair of the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Research (CLER) in the University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies, presented pilot research examining the potential use of generative artificial intelligence to support structured empathy practice at the 2026 American Psychological Association annual convention. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-persona-boosts-empathy-scores.html Social Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:20:05 EDT news705584102 Tropical cyclones are among the most destructive natural forces on the planet, but predicting where they will go and how strong they will become is beset by challenges. Current methods are often good at tracking storm paths but struggle to anticipate changes in intensity. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-cyclone-hours.html Environment Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:10:01 EDT news705585039 As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes education and the workforce, a majority of parents and educators believe it's essential for students to develop data literacy skills, according to a new survey released today by Data Science 4 Everyone and Mathematica. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-survey-parents-ai-requires-students.html Education Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:01 EDT news705571922 A little over a week ago, artificial intelligence company OpenAI announced 10 advances in mathematics and computer science made with its as-yet-unreleased model Astra. The discoveries cover a wide range of mathematical fields, including geometry, cryptography and coding theory. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-generative-ai-mathematics.html Mathematics Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:20:06 EDT news705570061 We're being promised a revolution. Artificial intelligence is said to make work both more productive and more enjoyable by freeing us from tedious tasks and allowing us to devote more time to what really matters. This is the narrative of "augmented work." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-major-quebec-survey-flaws-augmented.html Social Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:40:12 EDT news705568982 In a world first, scientists led by a team from Stanford University have created 16 viable viruses that do not exist in nature and were designed by AI. Their experiment, which is published in Science, could help in the fight against superbugs by allowing researchers to design customized viruses to kill drug-resistant bacteria. Thomas Inglesby and Moritz S. Hanke have published a Perspective piece on the work and its implications in the same edition of the journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sixteen-ai-viruses-route-drug.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:00:01 EDT news705314814 How much ice is stored in the world's glaciers? And where exactly is it located? A new study led by Ca' Foscari University of Venice, in collaboration with the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISP), provides an updated global map of glacier ice volume. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-reveals-volume-world-glaciers.html Earth Sciences Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:40:01 EDT news705329281 Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a platform that pinpoints genetic triggers that turn microbes into efficient factories for new chemicals and materials. The method enables rapid, precise reprogramming of bacteria as biotechnology tools, supporting domestic production of valuable products and recovery of critical minerals and materials to enhance the nation's supply chains and global competitiveness. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-platform-bacterial-gene-biotech.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:00:01 EDT news705323281 You need to tread carefully among the leaf litter of the Indonesian scrubland and its tropical rainforests. The dead leaves might seem caught in a gentle breeze, but there's more here than meets the eye. Try plucking one from the ground and you'll find an insect caught in the act of prayer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-creatures-born-code-generative-ai.html Evolution Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:00:11 EDT news705329101 When is a hype bubble more than just a bubble? When it becomes a mass, real-time learning event. New research published in the Academy of Management Journal by Anna Brattstrom, a professor at the University of St Andrews Business School, and Hassan Hamadi, a PhD student at Lund University, aimed to understand the hype around generative AI. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-dont-genai-hype.html Economics & Business Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news705326521 Microbial communities are highly sensitive to environmental changes, yet their enormous diversity makes it difficult to identify ecological patterns. A research team from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) has shown that an AI method originally developed for text analysis can be successfully applied to analyzing complex environmental samples. The method identified five seasonally successive microbial subcommunities in the Warnow Estuary while preserving ecological and functional information just as well as conventional methods—in some cases, it performed better. The study was published in the journal Environmental Microbiome. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-method-reveals-hidden-patterns.html Ecology Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:00:01 EDT news705324962 Some U.S. adults are using artificial intelligence for financial guidance, but it's far from the most trusted source of advice, according to a new Gallup survey conducted in partnership with Edward Jones, a financial services firm. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-adults-ai-financial-guidance-gallup.html Economics & Business Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:20:07 EDT news705322375