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. Birds in flocks, bacteria and cells: In many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton's third law of motion—action equals reaction. These exceptions are known as nonreciprocal interactions. A Dresden physics team working with Roderich Moessner, a founding member of the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat, has now developed a theory that makes it possible to describe these interactions efficiently and simulate them far more precisely. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-birds-newton-theory-sharpen-flocks.html General Physics Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:20:07 EDT news700473061 During takeoff and landing, planes emit ultrafine aerosol particles. Some particles also contain lubricating oil, as shown by measurements made by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in the environs of the Zurich Airport. Low-sulfur fuels could be the solution. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-airport-uncover-ultrafine-particle-spikes.html Environment Tue, 12 May 2026 16:20:09 EDT news697816441 A special class of sensors leverages quantum properties to measure tiny signals at levels that would be impossible using classical sensors alone. Such quantum sensors are currently being used to study the inner workings of cells and the outer depths of our universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-multitasking-quantum-sensors-properties.html Quantum Physics Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:40:01 EDT news695461141 Alena Tensor is a relatively new mathematical approach that allows for arbitrary curving and straightening of analyzed spacetimes. As it turns out, generalizing this model to all known fields and fully describing matter, spontaneously gives rise to the phenomena known from research on dark matter and dark energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dark-alena-tensor-math-framework.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:00:03 EDT news695384357 A new paper published in Nature Communications could put scientists on the path to understanding one of the wildest, hottest, and most densely packed places in the universe: a neutron star. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-neutron-star.html Quantum Physics Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:20:01 EST news683554588 The path toward realizing practical quantum technologies begins with understanding the fundamental physics that govern quantum behavior—and how those phenomena can be harnessed in real materials. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-dimension-qubits-diamond.html Condensed Matter Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:21:28 EDT news681038482 Scientists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, published in close collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize our ability to control light-matter interactions. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-scientists-technique-capturing-ultra-intense.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:02 EDT news670068479 Oregon Health & Science University, in collaboration with Oregon State University, has discovered the structural organization and protein components of a lipid-transfer complex known as LPD-3. Findings show that LPD-3 contains an internal tunnel lined with lipid molecules, suggesting a possible mechanism for large-scale lipid movement between cellular membranes. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-lipid-tunnel-protein-elegans-revealed.html Cell & Microbiology Sat, 26 Apr 2025 09:50:01 EDT news664796491 In a new study published in Physical Review D, Professor Ginestra Bianconi, Professor of Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London, proposes a new framework that could revolutionize our understanding of gravity and its relationship with quantum mechanics. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-gravity-entropy-radical-approach-quantum.html General Physics Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:54:03 EST news660308041 Finding patterns and reducing noise in large, complex datasets generated by the gravitational wave-detecting LIGO facility just got easier, thanks to the work of scientists at the University of California, Riverside. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-machine-approach-observatory-gravitational.html Astronomy Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:51:05 EST news657460262 The search for quantum gravity has gone on for 100 years, but it is not the only unification challenge in physics. Many of us believe that one day there will be a unification theory—a theory that will reconcile many divergent physical theories. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-alena-tensor-unification-physics.html General Physics Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:30:01 EST news653048532 Viruses that infect bacteria—known as bacteriophages—could be used in a targeted manner to combat bacterial diseases. They also play an important ecological role in global biogeochemical cycles. Recent research by researchers at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) has identified a previously unknown auxiliary metabolic gene in aquatic phages, thereby significantly expanding the previous understanding of these bacterial predators. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-bacteria-auxiliary-metabolic-genes-phages.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:49:04 EDT news648229741 Researchers at QuTech have found a way to make Majorana particles in a two-dimensional plane. This was achieved by creating devices that exploit the combined material properties of superconductors and semiconductors. The inherent flexibility of this new 2D platform should allow one to perform experiments with Majoranas that were previously inaccessible. The results are published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-route-scalable-majorana-qubits.html Quantum Physics Wed, 12 Jun 2024 14:03:48 EDT news637419823 Entanglement is a widely studied quantum physics phenomenon, in which two particles become linked in such a way that the state of one affects the state of another, irrespective of the distance between them. When studying systems comprised of several strongly interacting particles (i.e., many body systems) in two or more dimensions, numerically predicting the amount of information shared between these particles, a measure known as entanglement entropy (EE), becomes highly challenging. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-method-rnyi-entanglement-entropy-auxiliary.html Quantum Physics Thu, 28 Mar 2024 06:50:01 EDT news630753225 Peaceful though it may seem from Earth, space is beset by "weather" that can prove perilous for the sensitive—and expensive—technology aboard the spacecraft and satellites increasingly populating the realms outside our atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-tech-local-space-weather-real.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:30:55 EDT news630160252 Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room—kilometers—making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-compact-technology-major-energy-milestone.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:36:43 EST news620386600 With the explosive growth of data traffic, it is highly desired to develop hybrid photonic integrated circuits combining various optical components on a single chip. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-room-temperature-continuous-wave-topological-dirac-vortex-microcavity.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 25 Oct 2023 12:59:03 EDT news617457541 Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have demonstrated that a key ingredient for many quantum computation and communication schemes can be performed with an efficiency that exceeds the commonly assumed upper theoretical limit—thereby opening up new perspectives for a wide range of photonic quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-linear-path-efficient-quantum-technologies.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 12 Sep 2023 10:54:04 EDT news613734841 Researchers led by Prof. Zhang Weijun from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have achieved the first in-situ measurement of the vertical profile aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA). The study was published in Optics Express. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-advanced-technology-vertical-profile-aerosol.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:08:03 EDT news606575281 Dust storms are not only a nuisance for anyone trying to keep their house spick and span, they also pose a very real health hazard and are a major ecological concern. Respiratory problems caused by breathing in dust and other airborne particles are one of the main causes of death worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-storms-ai.html Earth Sciences Fri, 16 Jun 2023 10:34:04 EDT news606130442 Living organisms, ecosystems and the planet Earth are, from a physics point of view, examples of extraordinarily large and complex systems that are not in thermal equilibrium. To physically describe non-equilibrium systems, dynamic density functional theory has been used to date. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-physicists-powerful-alternative-dynamic-density.html General Physics Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:03:15 EDT news605365391 One of the outstanding challenges in the field of condensed matter physics is finding computationally efficient and simultaneously accurate methods to describe interacting electron systems for crystalline materials. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-super-electron-interactions-efficiently-accurately.html Condensed Matter Thu, 27 Apr 2023 11:28:04 EDT news601813681 A new study have found disturbingly high concentrations of small particles in the air in the Copenhagen Metro. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-significantly-elevated-particulate-air-pollution.html Environment Wed, 07 Dec 2022 14:49:03 EST news589646941 Piran Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, recently had two papers appear in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and ACS Nano that respectively focus on a new approach to filter nanoparticles and explore ways to aid decarbonizing transportation. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-explores-nanotech-frontiers-mitigate-biological.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 09 Nov 2022 08:35:03 EST news587205301 A new study from Finland, conducted by the University of Eastern Finland and Tampere University, measured particulate emissions from passenger car preheating with an auxiliary heater in sub-zero conditions. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-passenger-car-preheating-particulate-emissions.html Environment Fri, 28 Oct 2022 13:00:02 EDT news586179072 A deep dive into the 5,500 marine RNA virus species scientists recently identified has found that several may help drive carbon absorbed from the atmosphere to permanent storage on the ocean floor. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-viral-dark-mitigate-climate.html Earth Sciences Thu, 09 Jun 2022 14:00:02 EDT news573978231 If we compare the right to the left hand, we can see these are specular images—that is, like symmetrical shapes reflected in a mirror—and they cannot superimpose on each other. This property is chirality, a feature of the matter that plays with the symmetry of biological structures at different scales, from the DNA molecule to the tissues of the heart muscle. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-reveals-mechanism-chirality-molecules-nanoscale.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:28:06 EDT news570205679 Microfluidic devices are compact testing tools made up of tiny channels carved on a chip, which allow biomedical researchers to test the properties of liquids, particles and cells at a microscale. They are crucial to drug development, diagnostic testing and medical research in areas such as cancer, diabetes and now COVID-19. However, the production of these devices is very labor-intensive, with minute channels and wells that often need to be manually etched or molded into a transparent resin chip for testing. While 3D printing has offered many advantages for biomedical device manufacturing, its techniques were previously not sensitive enough to build layers with the minute detail required for microfluidic devices. Until now. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-3d-technique-game-changer-medical.html Materials Science Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:58:24 EDT news568997893 Glasses are an indispensable part of everyday life. One of the most important reasons for this is that glass objects can be manufactured almost universally and inexpensively in a wide variety of shapes and sizes using their corresponding melts. Processing in the (viscous) liquid phase offers a versatility that can hardly be achieved with other materials. However, this presupposes that the material from which the glass is made in terms of its chemical composition can be melted at all. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-glasses-unmeltable-compounds.html Materials Science Wed, 29 Sep 2021 11:55:49 EDT news552135346 Heaters, sold under such well-known brand names as Webasto and Eberspächer, among others, are used in both passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles to preheat the engine and provide additional cabin heating while driving. Emissions from heaters are not regulated, although they are widely used in especially colder regions, such as Finland. Therefore, they can have a significant impact on local air quality, and even on regional or global emissions budgets. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-surprisingly-high-emissions-fuel-powered-auxiliary.html Environment Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:47:46 EDT news550403264