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. On May 22, 2026, the Pentagon released a second batch of previously classified photos and videos showing what appear to be unexplained flying objects. These file dumps were the culmination of a process that was set in motion back in July 2023, when a group of government whistleblowers testified before Congress that the U.S. government was secretly in possession of extraterrestrial spacecraft and suspected alien body parts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-aliens-earth-aerospace-scientist-interstellar.html Astrobiology Wed, 27 May 2026 10:01:14 EDT news699094082 Our solar system is currently passing through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars. On its path, Earth continuously accumulates iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope of iron produced in stellar explosions. This has now been confirmed by an international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) through the analysis of Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old. From the steady but time-varying influx, the researchers conclude that the radioactive isotope has been stored within the cloud since a long-past stellar explosion. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-stardust-antarctic-ice-cores-earth.html Astronomy Sun, 17 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news697946932 We're focusing on space news this week, but we did cover the usual amount of local news down here in Earth's gravity well: A new Tokamak reactor regime sustained stable plasma fusion for one full minute. An anomaly in global sea level rise turns out to be due to deep ocean heating. And Chinese researchers report that they found microplastics in every part of both healthy and diseased human brains. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturday-citations-spaaa-aaace.html Other Sat, 02 May 2026 09:00:01 EDT news696857370 The first study to measure the full economic value of bottom trawling in Europe's waters calculates that the destructive fishing practice imposes up to €16 billion annually in net costs to society. The research is published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-europe-seafloor-fishing-profitable-societal.html Environment Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:00:01 EDT news696615361 If you walk across the open yard in front of the Physics, Math and Astronomy building at the University of Texas at Austin, you'll see a 17-story tower and a huge L-shaped building. What you won't see is what's underneath you. Two floors below ground, behind heavy double doors stamped with a logo that most students have never noticed, sits one of the most powerful lasers in the United States. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ive-america-powerful-lasers-shot.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:07 EDT news695903942 Engineers interested in creating artificial cells to deliver drugs to unhealthy parts of the body face a key challenge: for a cell-like system to move, change shape, or divide, it needs a way to generate force on command. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-muscle-synthetic-cells.html Biotechnology Sun, 19 Apr 2026 17:00:04 EDT news695486650 NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds—vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings was published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-interstellar-glaciers-nasa-spherex-vast.html Astronomy Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:20:04 EDT news695485741 On August 19, 2022, solar astronomers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on the Hawaiian island of Maui caught the fading remnants of a C-class solar flare. Their observations showed something unusual: very strong spectral fingerprints of calcium II H and hydrogen-epsilon lines. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-scientists-solar-flare-spectral-behavior.html Astronomy Sun, 12 Apr 2026 13:30:01 EDT news695029416 When created at the nanoscale, materials can resemble shapes like stars, rods or even pyramids. These particle shapes, also known as the morphologies of a solid, make for more than just interesting images under a microscope—they can determine how the material behaves, sometimes in dramatic ways. University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated this phenomenon by creating the first-ever star-shaped vanadyl hydroxide (VOOH) and shown that this shape can fundamentally alter how the material stores energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pretty-picture-star-nanomaterial-energy.html Nanophysics Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:40:04 EDT news694776061 The Artemis II astronauts are already the champions of a fresh new era of lunar exploration. Now it's time to set a new distance record. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-artemis-ii-apollo-distance-moon.html Space Exploration Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:52:33 EDT news694612298 Quantum technologies, devices that can process, store, or detect information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical devices in some tasks or scenarios. Despite their potential, verifying that these devices work correctly and truly realize desired quantum states can be challenging, particularly when they cannot be fully examined or inspected. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-universal-scheme-quantum-state.html Quantum Physics Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:00:06 EDT news693570930 "Project Hail Mary," the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation of the best-selling sci-fi novel from Andy Weir, is being praised for putting the science in science fiction. Although aliens, sun-draining microorganisms and galaxy-spanning spaceflight are all a part of the story of a scientist sent on a suicide mission to save Earth, the film and its source material are not afraid to delve into the kind of astrophysics that would make most people's heads spin. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-hail-mary-wrong-astrophysics.html Astronomy Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:10:07 EDT news693221914 A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a new type of planet beyond our solar system—one that stores large amounts of sulfur deep within a permanent ocean of magma. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-class-molten-planet-abundant-sulfur.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:02 EDT news692628541 Neuroscientists have uncovered new insights into a key evolutionary question: Why can humans talk when most animals can't? The journal Science published the research led by Emory University and the New College of Florida. The findings suggest that seals and sea lions may have vocal flexibility as a side effect of developing a brain "bypass" for voluntary breath control. This same bypass allowed them to adapt to aquatic life. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sea-lions-clues-evolution-vocalization.html Plants & Animals Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:10:01 EDT news692553061 During their search for food, most insects head specifically for the flowers that promise the highest reward. But how do they know which ones to choose? Researchers from the University of Konstanz and the University of Würzburg have now studied how bumblebees process information about their food sources. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-shortcut-reveals-bumblebees-efficient-decision.html Plants & Animals Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:20:03 EST news691685824 Thanks to Fink, a software package created by two CNRS engineers, it is now possible to track millions of transient celestial phenomena observed in the sky by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, in real time and with unprecedented precision. Minutes after each image is taken, Fink receives, processes, enriches, and cross-references the data with existing datasets. This allows even the faintest variations in detected light to be characterized with remarkable accuracy. The data is then stored, classified, and shared with users—scientists and astronomy enthusiasts—in a concise and targeted manner. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-closer-stars-fink-french-tool.html Astronomy Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:50:01 EST news691339681 To capture higher-definition and sharper images of cosmological objects, astronomers sometimes combine the data collected by several telescopes. This approach, known as long-baseline interferometry, entails comparing the light signals originating from distant objects and picked up by different telescopes that are at different locations, then reconstructing images using computational techniques. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-quantum-entanglement-link-distant-telescopes.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:00:05 EST news690725074 For life to develop on a planet, certain chemical elements are needed in sufficient quantities. Phosphorus and nitrogen are essential. Phosphorus is vital for the formation of DNA and RNA, which store and transmit genetic information, and for the energy balance of cells. Nitrogen is an essential component of proteins, which are needed for the formation, structure, and function of cells. Without these two elements, no life can develop out of lifeless matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-small-planets-suitable-life.html Astrobiology Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:12:42 EST news689865122 Just after 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, final beams of oxygen ions—oxygen atoms stripped of their electrons—circulated through the twin 2.4-mile-circumference rings of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and crashed into one another at nearly the speed of light inside the collider's two house-sized particle detectors, STAR and sPHENIX. RHIC, a nuclear physics research facility at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has been smashing atoms since the summer of 2000. The final collisions cap a quarter century of remarkable experiments using 10 different atomic species colliding over a wide range of energies in different configurations. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-success-relativistic-heavy-ion-collider.html General Physics Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:00:02 EST news689860931 Time feels like the most basic feature of reality. Seconds tick, days pass and everything from planetary motion to human memory seems to unfold along a single, irreversible direction. We are born and we die, in exactly that order. We plan our lives around time, measure it obsessively and experience it as an unbroken flow from past to future. It feels so obvious that time moves forward that questioning it can seem almost pointless. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-fundamental-reality-quiet-revolution-physics.html Quantum Physics Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:20:54 EST news688908002 Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a 'sky' of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-solar-flares-triggered-cascading-magnetic.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Jan 2026 03:00:01 EST news688063082 Researchers from the South Pole Telescope project team looked deep into the center of the Milky Way, discovering powerful, surprising bursts of light from two accreting white dwarf systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-south-pole-telescope-energetic-stellar.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:58:27 EST news688143481 Digital and online technologies have made our workplace routines faster and easier. They have also made it easier for managers to keep tabs on workers, via monitoring apps designed to capture whether employees are "working hard, or hardly working." https://phys.org/news/2026-01-sales-effectiveness-digital.html Economics & Business Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:48:18 EST news688128481 The moon and sun share top billing in 2026. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-moon-sun-figure-big-year.html Space Exploration Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:41:49 EST news686216460 MXenes (pronounced like the name "Maxine") are a class of two-dimensional materials, first identified just 14 years ago, with remarkable potential for energy storage, catalysts, ultrastrong lightweight composites, and a variety of other purposes ranging from electromagnetic shielding to ink that can carry a current. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-reinvents-mxene-synthesis-fraction.html Nanomaterials Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:25:43 EST news685297498 A yearslong surge in displaced roosters is overwhelming animal sanctuaries in Maryland and across the country, fueled by a pandemic-born boom in backyard chicken coops and the noisy realities of owning a male bird. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-rooster-epidemic-fueled-backyard-coops.html Plants & Animals Thu, 11 Dec 2025 07:22:49 EST news684660149 The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists' biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by the journals Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy present remarkable discoveries: sugars essential for biology, a gum-like substance not seen before in astromaterials, and an unexpectedly high abundance of dust produced by supernova explosions. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-sugars-gum-stardust-nasa-asteroid.html Astrobiology Tue, 02 Dec 2025 12:45:34 EST news683901811 Chemical rockets have taken us to the moon and back, but traveling to the stars demands something more powerful. Space X's Starship can lift extraordinary masses to orbit and send payloads throughout the solar system using its chemical rockets, but it cannot fly to nearby stars at 30% of light speed and land. For missions beyond our local region of space, we need something fundamentally more energetic than chemical combustion, and physics offers, or, in other words, antimatter. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-case-antimatter-manhattan.html General Physics Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:54:17 EST news683805242 Many mobile apps claiming to support early reading skills in children fail to deliver actual educational benefit, with positive app store reviews seemingly driven by esthetics and functionality, a new Flinders University analysis has found. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-kids-apps.html Education Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:53:18 EST news683373181 When astronomers search for planets that could host liquid water on their surface, they start by looking at a star's habitable zone. Water is a key ingredient for life, and on a planet too close to its star, water on its surface may "boil"; too far, and it could freeze. This zone marks the region in between. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-habitable-zone-exoplanet-atmospheres-clue.html Astrobiology Wed, 19 Nov 2025 12:08:05 EST news682776482