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. A rocky lava planet once thought to be too extreme to have an atmosphere appears to be wrapped in one with a reflective layer of vaporized silicate mineral clouds, the same family of compounds that make up quartz and sand. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-clouds-lava-planet-astronomers.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news712234995 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Nancy Roman Space Telescope are revealing the universe's earliest chapters in detail. To help astronomers understand what they are seeing, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have developed "Lumina," one of the largest and most detailed simulations ever created of the early universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lumina-simulation-early-universe-life.html Astronomy Sun, 25 Oct 2026 20:10:01 EDT news711978901 Arriving on the Caribbean island of Dominica for the first time "feels a little bit like stepping into Jurassic Park," said Giovanni Petri, a professor in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University London. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-whale-ai-ten-click-sequences.html Ecology Fri, 23 Oct 2026 10:20:19 EDT news711960868 Natural disasters. Hikes. Long, dark nights alone. For many people, dogs offer a sense of safety and comfort in challenging or uncertain times. Cancer researchers at a new lab at Purdue University are partnering with dogs to make cancer less frightening—and less deadly—to some of humanity's very best friends using a technique called tumor ablation. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-canine-cancer-patients-contribute-generation.html Veterinary medicine Thu, 22 Oct 2026 17:20:23 EDT news711885373 An international study involving ICTA-UAB reveals that large energy corporations use corporate sustainability narratives to legitimize wind, solar and hydropower projects that, in practice, exclude communities from fair economic and financial returns and ignore the projects' social and environmental impacts. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dark-side-energy-transition-renewable.html Economics & Business Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:40:02 EDT news711894001 In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. This is a star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, or simply N159, located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. This image spans about 230 light-years across. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-image-reveals-young-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:40:01 EDT news711892283 It looks like a small, transparent patch with a rainbow on its surface—or for those old enough to remember, the back of a CD. The patch is the first of its kind in the world and, when combined with an ordinary smartphone camera, can measure two things: pulse and blood vessel stiffness. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-octopus-patch-skin-reveals-pulse.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:00:16 EDT news711705901 You sit down to meditate. A conversation returns, then thoughts. You bring your attention back to the breath. Sometimes, after many such returns, the effort eases. Thoughts lose their urgency, while awareness remains clear. Less occupies the mind, yet the moment still feels whole. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-meditation-reveal-su3-symmetry-universe.html General Physics Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:40:08 EDT news711105159 On April 1, 2026, the crew of the Artemis II mission launched into space atop NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). Roughly 3 1/2 hours after launch, the rocket's upper stage separated from the Orion spacecraft (Integrity), and astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen began their nearly 10-day journey around the moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-preliminary-lunar-science-artemis-ii.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:20:26 EDT news711015842 NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the universe, Epoch of Reionization, and ices Explorer) space telescope is shedding light on brown dwarfs, celestial objects that blur the line between stars and exoplanets. New findings published in The Astrophysical Journal show that these dark and cloudy worlds have chemically rich atmospheres not unlike the giant planets in our own solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-spherex-menagerie-brown-dwarfs-atmospheric.html Astronomy Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:20:05 EDT news710755921 Scientists have produced a first-of-its-kind assessment showing which coastal regions of Europe they believe are at greatest risk from harmful light pollution. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-highlights-european-greatest-pollution.html Environment Tue, 06 Oct 2026 20:00:01 EDT news710510401 Favorite songs can stay with us for a lifetime, but their shelf life on the music charts is fleetingly short. Tracks that shoot up the U.S. Billboard charts may flood the airwaves for a short while, but just a few weeks later, they have vanished. The outlook for albums is far more enduring, according to a new paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-songs-faster-billboard-albums.html Social Sciences Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:20:15 EDT news710511843 The Surinam toad is one of the strangest frogs on Earth. Flat-bodied, tiny-eyed and adapted to the murky waters of the Amazon basin, it hunts well despite having very poor vision. When a fish swims close, the frog suddenly opens its mouth and sucks the prey inside in a fraction of a second. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-unusual-secret-superpowers-amphibians-reptiles.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Oct 2026 19:00:02 EDT news710426461 It's a busy skywatching month ahead. The first full week of October sees two top-notch skywatching events, with Saturn reaching opposition and the moon occulting Jupiter for North America on Oct. 6. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rare-lunar-occultation-jupiter-saturn.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:00:04 EDT news710003521 Galaxies are enormous and hold hundreds of billions of stars. These stars form from cold, dense gas. Every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, is wrapped in a huge envelope of gas called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. This reservoir of raw material stretches 10–20 times the size of the visible portion of the galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-black-hole-jets-galaxies-visible.html Astronomy Sat, 26 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news709472146 In the first detailed chromosome map of the aardwolf, Texas A&M University researchers have discovered that, despite millions of years of separate evolution, the chromosomes of aardwolves, other hyenas and even domestic cats have remained remarkably similar. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-aardwolves-cats-chromosome-similarities.html Plants & Animals Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:40:02 EDT news709460281 Around 631,000 years ago—a geological blink of an eye—catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America, and the effects were felt worldwide. This was a super-eruption of the massive volcanic system located in what is now Yellowstone National Park. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-humanity-blowbyblow-account-yellowstone-supervolcano.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:40:06 EDT news709205583 A new way to accurately measure the distance between quasar pairs—the blazing, black-hole-powered centers of distant galaxies that appear side by side in space—is showing promise through University of Alberta research. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-space-gap-precise-distance-quasar.html Astronomy Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:20:01 EDT news708943022 Dark matter is one of the oldest open problems in physics. It makes up most of the matter in the universe and shapes how galaxies form and move, yet no one has ever directly detected it. Physicists have proposed dozens of candidates to explain it: exotic new particles, black holes formed moments after the Big Bang and more. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dark-natural-physicist.html General Physics Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:10:01 EDT news708856482 Allowing petty offenders in South Africa to remain in the community may reduce their risk of committing serious crimes compared with imprisonment, according to a study published in PLOS One by Farai Nyabadza of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-incarceration-escalate-criminal-behavior-south.html Social Sciences Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:00:26 EDT news708679921 Have you ever wondered what Earth observation satellites see when they look down at the deep ocean or a dense tropical forest during the dead of night? The answer, for the most part, is nothing. Standard optical sensors require a steady stream of light to function, and in these photon-limited regions, they hit a hard physical boundary. But what if we could rewrite the rules of optical imaging? By borrowing techniques from quantum photonics, we can push beyond these classical limits and unlock a fundamentally new way to observe the darkest and most hidden environments on our planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-earth-photon-limited-environments.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2026 19:20:03 EDT news708598068 New research shows how artificial intelligence, combined with advanced experimental science, can help find "hidden" and unexplored proteins in the human body and reveal what they actually do, according to a new study published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-hidden-human-proteins-reveals.html Biotechnology Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:40:05 EDT news708351781 On a sunny spring day at Penn State, Cristin Millett, professor of art in the College of Arts and Architecture's School of Visual Arts, inserted a catheter needle into the umbilical vein of a placenta. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-utero-art-science-explore-regenerative.html Biotechnology Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:20:05 EDT news708328742 Surinam toads (Pipa pipa) are strange, flat frogs with minuscule eyes that live in the murky waters of the Amazon basin and carry their eggs on their backs. The way they catch prey is even weirder. They lie in wait with outstretched forelimbs until a small fish approaches, then snap open their jaws to create enough suction to draw the fish into their tongueless mouths and swallow it whole, all in a few hundredths of a second. But how do these frogs hunt in low visibility with poor vision? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-star-fingered-toads-fingertip-lobules.html Plants & Animals Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:00:09 EDT news708091981 Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found a way to make plasma more effective for its wide-ranging uses, from antimicrobial applications to surface conditioning in the semiconductor industry. They mapped the production of atomic oxygen, a key ingredient of oxygen plasma, while a high voltage was applied across oxygen gas. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dark-plasma-regions-reveal-overlooked.html Plasma Physics Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news707996281 NASA's newest crown jewel blasted off Sunday to hunt for planets around other stars, explore secret dark energy and survey the cosmos like never before. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nasa-roman-space-telescope-quest.html Astronomy Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:26:54 EDT news707307976 The capital of any business comes in (at least) two categories. There's the kind that has a price—land, cash holdings, etc.—and a less tangible, priceless kind. Reputational capital falls squarely into the latter category. Try as they might, companies cannot buy positive public opinion, even with the largest marketing budgets. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fake-customer-businesses-big.html Economics & Business Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:20:01 EDT news707034481 The Roman Space Telescope is designed to directly image exoplanets using complex optomechanical systems developed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy https://phys.org/news/2026-08-roman-telescope-aims-image-exoplanets.html Astronomy Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:00:01 EDT news706962003 A sea of corrugated metal roofs stretches into the distance across an informal settlement in Makassar, Indonesia. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cities-extreme.html Environment Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:00:07 EDT news706535338 We've known for nearly two decades that some form of water exists on the moon. What we still don't know is exactly how much accessible water ice lies inside permanently shadowed craters, how deeply it is buried or what form it takes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-china-moon-mission-ice.html Space Exploration Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:03 EDT news706514402