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. With the rapid spread of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data centers, global energy consumption is rising to new heights. A promising way to reduce this burden is to develop memory devices that store information magnetically yet are written using electric fields. Magnetic memories are nonvolatile, meaning stored information is retained without a power supply. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nanoscale-multiferroic-materials-path-efficient.html Nanophysics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:40:01 EDT news707661062 A study published today by the Geological Society and led by the University of Aberdeen concludes that the Viking South gas field has the geological suitability, proven containment integrity and operational readiness needed to become one of the UK's most advanced and reliable offshore carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage sites. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-viking-south-positioned-industrial-renewal.html Environment Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:04 EDT news707642402 Using an engineered metasurface that traps light, Cornell researchers have demonstrated a new way to generate strong static magnetic fields without using external magnets or magnetic materials—an approach that could advance spintronics, quantum and photonic computing, and data storage. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-generates-nanoscale-magnetization.html Condensed Matter Wed, 02 Sep 2026 18:40:01 EDT news707583061 Have you ever walked across a salt flat so expansive it feels like another planet? That's what it's like standing in Egypt's coastal sabkhas—those otherworldly landscapes where the ground crunches beneath your feet and the air shimmers with heat. These aren't just barren wastelands; they're living laboratories that record the pulse of our changing climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-salt-earth-egypt-coastal-sabkhas.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 18:00:06 EDT news707392774 It took one drone, 300 million laser data points and seven teams of students on foot to map Wake Forest University's trees. Led by Ovidiu Csillik, an assistant professor of remote sensing in the environment and sustainability studies program, the project produced a publicly accessible, interactive 3D digital map of more than 1,000 trees and helped the university earn international accreditation as a Level II arboretum. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-drone-laser-scans-trees-acre.html Plants & Animals Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:00:07 EDT news707462341 A new way to imprint complex surfaces on low-cost, sustainable polymers could be used in a wide range of industries, including water-repellent coatings, optical devices and data storage disks. The complex nano- and microscale patterns on sulfur-derived polymers, unveiled this week in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal, build on a wide range of green chemistry solutions led by Flinders University. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-power-lasers-durable-nano-patterns.html Nanophysics Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:00:04 EDT news707393341 Australia's agricultural exports have long traded on a simple label: clean and green. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-image-green-longer-australian-agriculture.html Agriculture Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:40:08 EDT news707384642 Researchers have captured in real time the "birth moment" when the performance of a next-generation memory material is determined. The key lies in controlling oxygen vacancies, microscopic defects created when oxygen atoms are missing from their normal positions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiny-oxygen-gaps-generation-memory.html Nanomaterials Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news707065262 Tall trees are generally associated with high-biomass forests. This is particularly true for forests dominated by Sequoia sempervirens (hereafter redwood), the world's tallest tree species. Extreme decay resistance, the ability to survive high-severity fires, shade tolerance and prolific trunk reiteration (resprouting) make the species unique, allowing tall redwood forests to accumulate more biomass and store more aboveground carbon than any other vegetation type. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hydroclimate-whiplash-california-tallest-redwoods.html Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:20:01 EDT news706879229 Researchers have identified a broad range of biological properties of pomegranate with potential medical applications, including antimicrobial, antiparasitic, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, liver-supporting and wound-healing effects. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pomegranate-emerges-natural-phytobiotic-veterinary.html Biotechnology Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news706894501 Researchers at TU Dortmund University, Paderborn University, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Oxford have developed a new method for selectively modifying the internal structure of specific types of glass. The study, published in the journal Nature Materials, shows how adding an organic molecule during melting causes the chemical bonds in the material to rearrange. The process reduces the required processing temperature, prevents the substance from decomposing, and allows the magnetic and optical properties to be precisely tuned. These specialized glasses are used, among other things, in gas storage, batteries, optical applications and catalysis. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-molecular-door-generation-glass.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news706807741 A new study has found that regulatory restrictions introduced more than half a century ago have failed to eliminate contamination from banned chemicals across Europe. Researchers say they detected banned chemicals in air, water, sediments, soils, snow and sludge, demonstrating their environmental persistence. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chemicals-1970s-widely-europe.html Environment Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:40:06 EDT news706797184 South Africa can produce enough food for its population, according to official statistics. But millions face hunger, partly because food is lost and wasted in the value chain. An estimated 10.3 million metric tons of food is wasted annually in the country, 19% of it fresh produce. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-south-africa-food-millions-hunger.html Agriculture Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:20:06 EDT news706793761 Forest and land fires across Indonesia have spiked once again. News and social media in the country are flooded with images of thick plumes of smoke from Kalimantan (or Borneo)—the world's third-largest island—that are choking residential areas and even drifting into neighboring countries. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-borneo-forest-spike-el-nio.html Environment Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news706781642 In the vast, nutrient-poor regions of the world's oceans, there is a constant struggle for survival. Yet tiny organisms known as Collodaria have thrived there for millions of years. These Collodaria host microscopically small algae that are essential for survival. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ocean-plankton-reveal-sugar-nutrients.html Ecology Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:20:07 EDT news706533781 Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is boosting grass growth in Africa's water-limited savannas, according to a new study led by the University of Sheffield. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-carbon-dioxide-supercharging-grass-growth.html Environment Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news706450801 A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment, with contributions from researchers at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), shows that higher seawater temperatures could significantly reduce the long-term ability of underwater plants to store carbon. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ocean-temperatures-natural-carbon-storage.html Earth Sciences Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news706449062 In the global race to build bigger and better quantum computers, researchers have taken a step forward. A new machine called Helios is radically different from other quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-global-quantum-big.html Quantum Physics Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:40:04 EDT news706272182 Between 29,000 and 19,000 years ago, the planet experienced some of its coldest temperatures and drastic landscape changes at the peak of the Ice Age, during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the period of most extensive global ice cover. Humans, despite being unaccustomed to such icy temperatures and surroundings, survived through the age. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-jomon-dna-reveals-hidden.html Evolution Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:40:10 EDT news706266198 A new review led by professor Emese Bordy at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Geological Sciences brings together more than two decades of research on the Karoo Supergroup, revealing how scientific understanding of this iconic geological archive has changed since 2000. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-gondwana-million-year-archive-karoo.html Earth Sciences Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:30:01 EDT news706198442 The artificial intelligence boom is driving unprecedented demand for data centers, raising concerns about their growing energy consumption, water use and carbon footprint. These challenges are making companies look beyond traditional land-based data centers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-companies-ocean-centers.html Environment Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:00:11 EDT news706188970 A brief chat about firearm safety can sharply increase willingness among gun owners to consider temporarily storing their firearms outside the home during times of crisis, a step that could help reduce suicide risk, according to a Rutgers-led study. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-firearm-safety-home-storage.html Social Sciences Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705983097 A genetically engineered bacterium can rapidly break down one of Earth's most abundant minerals, opening a promising new pathway for simultaneously removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and recovering critical elements used in electric vehicle batteries, according to new Cornell research. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-microbe-capture-recovers-critical-metals.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:40:01 EDT news705934681 Satellite images can be used to estimate how much carbon forests store as aboveground biomass (AGB) and how biomass varies in different forests. In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the University of Maryland, NASA and the Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Brazil, analyzed 16 million 2020 NASA-GEDI satellite estimates of biomass from forests in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-satellite-reveal-tropical-forests-differently.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:20:12 EDT news705840962 Charting a better future will require redressing the problems of the past. That's one reason many countries have begun to return dispossessed land to Indigenous peoples. The goal of Indigenous land restitution is to empower disadvantaged communities and entrust land management back to the region's traditional stewards. In many cases, these programs also carry expectations of broad environmental benefits. However, there's been relatively little research testing this assumption. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-indigenous-restitution-empowers-communities-environmental.html Environment Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:00:07 EDT news705840061 A year after its final muon magnetic anomaly announcement, the Muon g-2 collaboration reports a new measurement of a different property of the muon: its electric dipole moment. The work is published on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-muon-constraints-forbidden-property-muons.html General Physics Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:20:03 EDT news705831042 In collaboration with the University of Vienna, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and Heidelberg University, researchers at the TUD Dresden University of Technology have developed an innovative tool that significantly simplifies lipid research. The new open-source platform, LipidLibrarian, enables the automated consolidation of fragmented data from international lipid databases, such as LIPID MAPS, SwissLipids, and ALEX123, into a single, user-friendly interface for the first time. This enables researchers to identify new diagnostic markers more quickly, and to develop personalized therapies and innovative medicines. A study published in the Journal of Lipid Research details the platform's functionality and potential https://phys.org/news/2026-08-source-tool-automated-lipid.html Biochemistry Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705770282 Whether it's neurons responding to electrical signals or plants stretching toward light, nature is filled with examples of biological materials that respond to their environment. Now, researchers want to develop new responsive materials for a wide range of applications, such as sensing or low-energy technologies. However, achieving a balance of useful properties at the molecular level is challenging. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-molecular-possibilities-future-electronics-storage.html Polymers Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:00:01 EDT news705755360 With extreme weather increasing around the world, scientists are working to help critical infrastructure, such as water management systems, adapt. On the U.S. West Coast, where both periods of prolonged drought and intense atmospheric river storms are common, effective water management can be particularly tricky. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-framework-potential-reservoir-watersheds.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:30:01 EDT news705729758 Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are alternately inundated and exposed by tides. These marshes, like other coastal ecosystems, are hotspots of carbon cycling. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-radar-creeks-carbon-salt-marshes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:00:05 EDT news705668881