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. If you've ever ordered food through DoorDash, Uber Eats or Instacart, you may have realized the person who delivers it isn't a salaried employee. They're gig workers—independent contractors who pick up delivery tasks through an app, get paid per delivery and have no guaranteed hours, benefits or minimum wage protections. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-seattle-higher-pay-delivery-drivers.html Economics & Business Sat, 21 Mar 2026 08:30:03 EDT news693141134 As part of a golden age of exploration and discovery, NASA announced Friday the agency is increasing its cadence of missions under the Artemis program to achieve the national objective of returning American astronauts to the moon and establishing an enduring presence. This includes standardizing vehicle configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and undertaking at least one surface landing every year thereafter. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-nasa-mission-artemis-lunar-architecture.html Space Exploration Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:00:07 EST news691671136 NASA's new moon rocket suffered another setback Saturday, putting next month's planned launch with astronauts in jeopardy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-nasa-moon-rocket-problem-astronauts.html Space Exploration Sat, 21 Feb 2026 13:20:01 EST news690902388 Seattle Public Library (SPL) is the only U.S. library system that makes its anonymized, granular checkout data public. Want to find out how many times people borrowed the e-book version of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" in May 2018? That data is available. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-anthologized-writers-frequently-seattle-library.html Other Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:38:19 EST news687105481 The 2025 government shutdown drew widespread attention to how many Americans struggle to get enough food. For 43 days, the more than 42 million Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits had to find other ways to stock their cupboards. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-food-families-nourish-dignity.html Social Sciences Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:54:04 EST news683369642 Surveillance pricing has dominated headlines recently. Delta Air Lines' announcement that it will use artificial intelligence to set individualized ticket prices has led to widespread concerns about companies using personal data to charge different prices for identical products. As The New York Times reported, this practice involves companies tracking everything from your hotel bookings to your browsing history to determine what you're willing to pay. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-defense-surveillance-pricing-personalized-prices.html Economics & Business Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:19:05 EDT news679666742 Last year, we celebrated 50 years since the first papers on fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) were published. It wasn't a wild celebration with masses on the streets, nor was it widely celebrated in universities, but rather a quiet admiration by people in the field for one of the cornerstone methods that has advanced our understanding of many processes at the molecular scale. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-analysis-year-problem-molecular-fluorescence.html Biochemistry Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:29:13 EDT news679145341 A new NASA mission will capture images of Earth's invisible "halo," the faint light given off by our planet's outermost atmospheric layer, the exosphere, as it morphs and changes in response to the sun. Understanding the physics of the exosphere is a key step toward forecasting dangerous conditions in near-Earth space, a requirement for protecting Artemis astronauts traveling through the region on the way to the moon or on future trips to Mars. The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nasa-mission-reveal-earth-invisible.html Astronomy Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:41:03 EDT news677504461 "Fortress stores" with security-tagged chicken and steaks in wire security cages. GPS-tracked jars of instant coffee. Everything from toothpaste and deodorant to face creams, locked inside display cases, with buttons to call for staff. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-fortress-theft.html Economics & Business Wed, 10 Sep 2025 10:46:04 EDT news676719961 A friend offhandedly told me recently, "It's so easy to get my daughter to behave after her birthday—there are so many new toys to take away when she's bad!" https://phys.org/news/2025-08-parenting-strategies-shifting-neuroscience-brain.html Social Sciences Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:30:01 EDT news674997764 Headed for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche spacecraft successfully calibrated its cameras by looking homeward. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-nasa-psyche-captures-images-earth.html Astronomy Tue, 19 Aug 2025 12:12:03 EDT news674824321 Digital price labels, which are rapidly replacing paper shelf tags at U.S. supermarkets, haven't led to demand-based pricing surges, according to a new study that examined five years' worth of prices at one grocery chain. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-shoppers-wary-digital-shelf-dont.html Economics & Business Mon, 09 Jun 2025 04:39:54 EDT news668662780 Engineers, technicians, mission planners, and the four astronauts set to fly around the moon next year on Artemis II, NASA's first crewed Artemis mission, are rapidly progressing toward launch. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-nasa-crewed-moon-mission-spacecraft.html Space Exploration Tue, 06 May 2025 16:44:04 EDT news665768641 Launched on March 11, NASA's SPHEREx space observatory has spent the last six weeks undergoing checkouts, calibrations, and other activities to ensure it is working as it should. Now it's mapping the entire sky—not just a large part of it—to chart the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to answer some big questions about the universe. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-spherex-space-telescope-capturing-entire.html Astronomy Fri, 02 May 2025 09:26:04 EDT news665396761 NASA's SPHEREx (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) has turned on its detectors for the first time in space. Initial images from the observatory, which launched March 11, confirm that all systems are working as expected. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-nasa-spherex-images-preps-millions.html Astronomy Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:09:19 EDT news662738952 Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity. These planned shutdowns are called public safety power shutoffs, abbreviated to PSPS, and they're increasingly common. So far this year, we've seen them in Texas, New Mexico and California. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-blackouts-common-cash.html Economics & Business Tue, 01 Apr 2025 13:06:04 EDT news662731561 Until now, creating quantum superpositions of ultra-cold atoms has been a real headache, too slow to be realistic in the laboratory. Researchers at the University of Liège have now developed an innovative new approach combining geometry and "quantum control," which drastically speeds up the process, paving the way for practical applications in quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-quantum-superhighway-ultrafast-noon-states.html Condensed Matter Mon, 31 Mar 2025 16:40:03 EDT news662658001 Residents of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion were ordered Friday to stay indoors as a cyclone bore down that authorities said could bring gusts of 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph) and sea swells more than eight meters (26 feet) high. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-la-reunion-residents-indoors-purple.html Environment Fri, 28 Feb 2025 03:30:01 EST news659935787 Three months after its launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter's orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-en-route-jupiter-europa-clipper.html Astronomy Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:24:03 EST news657905041 A pair of European satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through fancy formation flying in space. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-european-satellites-artificial-solar-eclipses.html Space Exploration Thu, 05 Dec 2024 12:12:41 EST news652623137 When you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola or a Snickers bar, the price probably doesn't break the bank. But what if the true cost of the plastic packaging is taken into account at the supermarket checkout? Say, for example, the cost to clean up the pollution from making that plastic, or the cost to manage the packaging when you throw it away? Or even the medical bills that rack up from human health threats connected with plastics? And let's not forget the cost of damages inflicted on terrestrial and marine life, along with entire ecosystems. That receipt would be a mile long. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-plastic-pollution-action.html Environment Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:20:01 EST news651842263 NASA's Europa Clipper, which launched Oct. 14 on a journey to Jupiter's moon Europa, is already 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. Two science instruments have deployed hardware that will remain at attention, extending out from the spacecraft, for the next decade—through the cruise to Jupiter and the entire prime mission. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-europa-clipper-millions-miles-instruments.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:46:03 EST news651771961 In more and more workplaces, important decisions aren't made by managers but by algorithms which have increasing levels of access to and control over workers. While algorithmic management can boost efficiency and flexibility (as well as enabling a new class of quasi-self-employed workers on platforms like Uber and Instacart), critics warn of heightened surveillance and reduced autonomy for workers. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-algorithmic-worker-autonomy.html Economics & Business Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:05:25 EST news651488720 Astronauts on the International Space Station generate their share of garbage, filling up cargo ships that then deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. Now Sierra Space has won a contract to build a trash compactor for the space station. The device will compact space trash by 75% in volume and allow water and other gases to be extracted for reclamation. The resulting garbage blocks are easily stored and could even be used as radiation shielding on long missions. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-trash-compactor-space-station.html Space Exploration Mon, 11 Nov 2024 16:28:30 EST news650564907 The Solar Ultraviolet Imager, or SUVI, onboard NOAA's GOES-19 satellite, which launched on June 25, 2024, began observing the sun on Sept. 24, 2024. SUVI monitors the sun in the extreme ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to watch for hazardous space weather that could affect Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-satellite-imagery-solar-telescope.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:48:33 EDT news649504103 The two CubeSat passengers aboard ESA's Hera mission for planetary defense have exchanged their first signals with Earth, confirming their nominal status. The pair were switched on to check out all their systems, marking the first operation of ESA CubeSats in deep space. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-hera-asteroid-mission-cubesat-passengers.html Space Exploration Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:51:10 EDT news649349465 NASA recently evaluated initial flight data and imagery from Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-4 (PTD-4), confirming proper checkout of the spacecraft's systems including its on-board electronics as well as the payload's support systems such as the small onboard camera. Shown above is a test image of Earth taken by the payload camera, shortly after PTD-4 reached orbit. This camera will continue photographing the technology demonstration during the mission. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-nasa-deployable-solar-array-tech.html Space Exploration Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:21:03 EDT news648919262 Should our future by decided by the bosses of big tech firms? For Nobel economics prize winner Simon Johnson, giving too much power to a handful of billionaires will come at the expense of public interest. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-dont-tech-gurus-future-nobel.html Economics & Business Wed, 23 Oct 2024 13:10:01 EDT news648906872 NOAA today shared the first images from the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1), a powerful solar telescope onboard the new GOES-19 satellite. CCOR-1, the world's first operational, space-based coronagraph, began observing the sun's corona, the faint outermost layer of the solar atmosphere, on September 19, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-noaa-imagery-world-space-based.html Astronomy Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:36:34 EDT news648830187 We've all found ourselves trying to avoid the swarms of midges that are so common in late summer. But as you try to avoid them, what you may not know is that they are equally keen to avoid each other. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tend-midges-swarms.html Plants & Animals Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:46:50 EDT news648215175