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. When humans get sick, we change our routines and try various solutions to feel better and get well, like staying in bed to rest, going to the doctor, getting medication from the pharmacy, using home remedies and more. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-medicate-wild-clues.html Ecology Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:40:04 EDT news707993047 Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quantum-phases-chromium-based-material.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:00:01 EDT news707734660 A study led by the University of Jyväskylä in Finland evaluated, for the first time, an ecological threshold for the amount of clearcutting in boreal forests. According to the results, maintaining populations of bird species specialized in old-growth forests requires either a forest rotation period of at least 90 years on average or that approximately one-fifth of the forest area be excluded from clearcut management. The study provides a concrete target for the ecologically sustainable use of forests. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-clearcutting-nature-sustain-ecological-limit.html Plants & Animals Sat, 05 Sep 2026 16:30:01 EDT news707584342 New research has found that tree species diversity can play a crucial role in protecting forests from the growing threat of extreme climate events. The study analyzed data from 88,116 separate forest plots across the United States to investigate the impact of "compound climate extremes," when events such as drought and extreme heat occur at the same time. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tree-species-diversity-forests-climate.html Plants & Animals Sat, 05 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news707665667 Rice University researchers have used a magnetically levitated particle to search for ultraheavy dark matter, extending the hunt for some of the heaviest possible forms of the invisible matter thought to hold galaxies together. Led by Christopher Tunnell, associate professor of physics and astronomy, the researchers used a tiny floating magnet as a highly sensitive detector designed to register the faint push an ultraheavy dark matter particle could produce as it passed through. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-levitated-magnet-frontier-ultraheavy-dark.html General Physics Sat, 05 Sep 2026 06:15:28 EDT news707807701 In recent years, scientists have developed methods to measure a cell's transcriptome, or all the RNA produced by a cell, to study the cell's identity and genetic activity. However, these methods rely on killing the cell to access the bits of RNA within and offer only a one-time snapshot. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-virus-particles-enable-gene-tracking.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:00:02 EDT news707739962 In a new Nature Communications study, researchers developed a universal scaling framework for the strength of granular asteroids, showing that their tensile strength can be predicted from the size and shape of their constituent particles. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-particle-size-asteroid-strength-revealing.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:20:06 EDT news707737328 Satellite measurements detected declining photosynthetic activity in Western U.S. forests two years before bark beetle mortality appeared in aerial detection surveys, according to new University of Utah-led research. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-satellites-forest-stress-years-bark.html Environment Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:10:05 EDT news707672522 Along the sandy banks of northern India's Chambal River, crocodile-like gharials glide silently through the water—but if a gharial spots a stranger, the quiet may be punctuated by a series of explosive pops. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-gharial-patterns-gecko-uncover-reptiles.html Plants & Animals Thu, 03 Sep 2026 11:20:16 EDT news707653174 Businesses and local councils around Australia are increasingly imposing their own restrictions on "smart glasses," responding to customers' concerns about being covertly recorded in public places. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-australian-businesses-legally-customers-smart.html Social Sciences Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:20:08 EDT news707637662 Heat, it turns out, has a memory. A cooling cup of coffee may not seem particularly thoughtful. At the scale of a kitchen, heat appears to follow a straightforward rule: it moves from warmer places to cooler ones. Leave the cup unattended long enough, and the disappointing result offers convincing evidence that this rule works. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-memory-theoretical-framework-track.html General Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:00:08 EDT news707644802 Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pacman-ai-framework-fusion-safely.html Plasma Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:00:08 EDT news707581261 High above Earth, thin veils of metallic haze drift through the edge of space. Known as sporadic E layers, these high-altitude "clouds" form from the vaporized dust of burned-up meteors, earning their name from the unpredictable way they emerge and then dissipate. Now, new results from a NASA sounding rocket—a suborbital research rocket—that flew five detectors through one of these layers simultaneously reveal unexpected complexity in the layer for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nasa-rocket-multi-radio-disrupting.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:20:10 EDT news707570942 A study published in the journal Oikos, titled "Forecasting the impact of food-provisioning and other stressors on a marine top-predator population," found that without protective management, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin population off Bunbury would fall from 350 to eight over 100 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dolphin-tourism-contributes-decline.html Plants & Animals Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:00:08 EDT news707557147 Windstorms are among the most important natural disturbances in Northern Europe, where they cause extensive tree mortality, timber losses and long-lasting changes in forest structure. Large-scale windstorm damage has increased across Central and Northern European forests in recent decades, while in boreal regions such as Finland, warmer winters and shorter periods of frozen soil can further reduce tree stability and increase vulnerability to wind. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-trigger-years-forest-vulnerability.html Ecology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:40:08 EDT news707553908 The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) tropical forests stretch across an extraordinary landscape of rivers, wetlands, savannas and towering trees. But in a forest this vast, biodiversity doesn't exist on a single plane. It climbs into the canopy. It moves between branches and vines, disappears into the understory and travels across the forest floor. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-forest-floor-treetops-cameras-reveal.html Plants & Animals Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:20:03 EDT news707481541 On Nov. 11, 2025, Earth experienced a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by solar flares and coronal mass ejections from an active sunspot region. While this kind of storm brings beautiful auroras admired in many areas around the world, it can also cause ionospheric disturbances that disrupt radio waves and affect crucial technologies. A new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that disruptions caused by this storm scrambled GPS signals in areas where such disruptions have never been reported. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-geomagnetic-superstorm-shook-gps-accuracy.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:30:01 EDT news707483362 New research from the University of St Andrews shows that disturbing seabed sediments through trawling could cause significant losses of carbon stored in Scotland's sea lochs. The study, published in Marine Environmental Research, shows that organic carbon stored in seabed sediments can be released into the surrounding seawater when disturbed. This carbon is then more likely to be broken down and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-trawling-threatens-vital-carbon-scotland.html Environment Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707467862 By combining roughly two decades of observations from NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope with radio monitoring, astronomers have caught a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Perseus Cluster suddenly flaring in X-rays, and about 300 days later, its powerful radio emission flared too. Their paper describing the connection between this black hole's accretion disk and the jets it launches was submitted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 13 and accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supermassive-black-hole-erupted-rays.html Astronomy Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:40:01 EDT news706868897 Australia's coral reefs are in relatively good condition compared with coral reefs globally, although coral cover on Australian reefs has declined over the past 40 years—reflecting the global trend, a major new report has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-australia-reefs-trend-global-coral.html Ecology Mon, 31 Aug 2026 20:20:01 EDT news707400194 Welcome back to our series on Interstellar Travel, where we look at the many proposals made for sending missions to the stars since the dawn of the Space Age. In our first installment, we examined how Cold War-era developments in nuclear weapons and rockets paralleled advances in space exploration, resulting in proposals for nuclear rockets. We then examined how the creation of thermonuclear weapons led to applications in fusion propulsion. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interstellar-warp-wormholes-halo.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707391962 Given enough time, coral reefs can recover from cyclones, bleaching and other destructive events. But a new report released today suggests they are losing that time. The "Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025" is the most comprehensive global assessment of coral reefs yet. Released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the report draws on more than 21 million observations from around 90,000 surveys, contributed by 600 partners across more than 120 countries, territories and economies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-coral-recovery-short-oceans.html Ecology Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:20:05 EDT news707383742 For nearly 80 years, physicists have relied on a thought experiment created by Richard Feynman to predict how quantum particles behave. For the first time, researchers in China have tested this trick directly in the lab. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists-feynman-path.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:00:02 EDT news707138733 It started with a simple message: "This is the year to do something small for something huge." Now, 17 years later, the Whitsundays region has some of the best protection in the world for migrating humpback whales. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-discovery-great-barrier-reef-whale.html Plants & Animals Fri, 28 Aug 2026 19:00:02 EDT news707138378 Subterranean clover's ability to bury its seed supports pasture persistence but makes commercial seed harvesting difficult. The industry relies on aging Horwood-Bagshaw (HB) suction harvesters, which collect seed from fully dry crops after repeated tillage and raking. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earlier-swathing-pathway-subterranean-clover.html Agriculture Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news707137667 Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are widely known as essential pollinators, but researchers using a "One Health" approach have also identified them as biological sentinels of environmental health. Honey bees continuously interact with their surrounding environment through the collection of nectar, pollen and water and can therefore be exposed to contaminants present in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Their health may consequently provide valuable information about environmental pressures affecting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-honey-bees-sentinels-environmental-health.html Environment Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:40:05 EDT news707142122 Researchers at Delft University of Technology have demonstrated for the first time that nano-antennas can enhance the fluorescence of proteins in living human and other mammalian cells. Scientists already use smart fluorescent proteins that light up when the electrical voltage across a nerve cell changes. By placing nano-antennas close to these light-emitting proteins, researchers can monitor processes inside cells with much greater precision. The discovery adds a new tool for revealing electrical signals in the brain through nanotechnology as well as genetic engineering. The research has been published in Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nano-antennas-cells-brighter-faster.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 28 Aug 2026 12:20:01 EDT news707135401 The devastating floods that have swept through the Nepal–Tibet border region are first and foremost a human tragedy. Hundreds of people have died or remain missing. But as scientists begin to reconstruct what happened, the event also exposes something fundamental about the way we understand natural hazards in high mountain regions. Mountains and rivers do not reset after an extreme event. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nepal-devastating-reveal-danger-cascading.html Earth Sciences Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news707119802 When Ashley Dayer was walking on the beach with her 8-year-old son recently, he stopped her before she got too close to a group of shorebirds. "Momma, stop. We have to walk around the shorebirds," he told her. Dayer smiled. That moment was the perfect example of the human behavior change she and conservation partners have spent more than a decade trying to encourage along beaches used by both people and imperiled shorebirds. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-shorebirds-space-beach-big-difference.html Plants & Animals Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:00:06 EDT news707118782 Electrons, particles that carry a negative electric charge, typically move through materials. At low densities and temperatures, however, the electrical repulsion between them can overpower their tendency to move, prompting them to arrange themselves into ordered patterns known as Wigner crystals. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-reveals-internal-motion-electron-crystals.html Condensed Matter Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:00:03 EDT news706964413