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. It's 2 a.m., and a teenage girl, worrying about an issue with a friend, lies awake. Rather than wake her parents, she picks up her phone, opens an AI app and types, "I'm so stressed out, I can't sleep." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-teens-ai-chatbots-emotional-kids.html Social Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:40:04 EDT news705830930 A vaccine's molecular structure plays a key role in determining how the immune system responds and prepares to protect the body from future exposure to a specific pathogen. To develop a vaccine that offers long-term protection from HIV, it's essential to promote a long-lasting immune response in which immune cells and antibodies prepared to combat the virus persist within the body. This has inspired scientists to find ways to alter vaccine structure to increase the duration and persistence of the immune response. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fine-tune-molecular-vaccines-immune.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:10:02 EDT news705858421 Kids, marriage and commute: A study co-authored by Dr. Mariana Macedo of Constructor University provides new insights into how major life transitions alter how individuals navigate and experience urban environments. Published in npj Complexity, the research challenges traditional urban planning models that rely on a single, average citizen profile, advocating instead for demographically sensitive city designs. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-city-relationship-status-exposes-hidden.html Social Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705845882 Last year, we described Agrilo, an affordable "colorimetric" soil-testing system developed through research at MacEwan University. Using a smartphone camera to interpret color changes, Agrilo measures soil nutrients and can provide farmers with timely guidance to support fertilizer decisions. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-soil-global-virtual-reality-farmers.html Biotechnology Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:00:06 EDT news705770821 For dogs with heart disease, a fraction of a centimeter can make a life-changing difference. Veterinarians often rely on chest radiographs to monitor subtle changes in heart size that help determine when treatment should begin. But those measurements can vary from one doctor to the next, making it difficult to know whether a dog's condition is truly changing or whether the difference is simply the result of human interpretation. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-tool-veterinarians-track-heart.html Veterinary medicine Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:30:01 EDT news705765121 You walk in a park. Children are playing, people are walking their dogs, and then you hear someone say, "Who's my little sweetie?" You turn around expecting to see a stroller. But someone is sitting beside a dog, speaking in the same voice they would use with a baby. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-humans-baby-voice-pets.html Social Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news705735555 The Roman emperor Julian (332–363 CE) called bread the food that "among us is thought to be the most nourishing." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-today-mediterranean-diet-olive-oil.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:40:02 EDT news705670760 When MIT historian Tristan Brown first examined a Chinese tea chest label displayed as a relic of the Boston Tea Party, he had no reason to doubt its story. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chinese-boston-tea-party-reveals.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:30:02 EDT news705680941 Deep in the Vârghiș Gorges, tucked away in the dark recesses of a cave, researchers have found the first evidence that Neanderthals used bone tools in Romania. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-evidence-neanderthal-bone-tool-romania.html Archaeology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:00:04 EDT news705585192 We call them "man's best friend," and the evidence supports it. Dogs have been found buried alongside humans in graves dating back 14,000 years. They appear in ancient art from every continent, and they feature in the mythology, religion and folklore of virtually every culture. Archaeological evidence shows they have helped us hunt, protected our homes, hauled our possessions, herded our livestock and provided companionship through the entirety of recorded history. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-dogs-evolved-differently-globe-human.html Evolution Sun, 09 Aug 2026 19:10:01 EDT news705243839 Nature is not doing well in Australia. Many unique mammals, birds and insects are struggling. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-australia-pledged-nature-lost-ecosystems.html Ecology Sun, 09 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news705322320 By rapidly twisting a microscopically small tip back and forth, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have unlocked a new way to detect subtle changes on the surface of a material flexing in response to infrared light. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-high-res-view-2d-materials.html Nanomaterials Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:00:03 EDT news705327588 When most baby turtles hatch, their sex depends on the temperature of the sand or soil where their mother laid her eggs. Warm incubation produces females, while cool nests produce males. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-antenna-cell-appendage-turtle-embryos.html Plants & Animals Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:00:01 EDT news705323701 If you ask Vijay Parashar, associate professor of medical and molecular sciences (MMSC) at the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences, human bodies are bags of bacteria. "It sounds gross, but not all bacteria are bad; most of them are good. The trouble starts when the bad bacteria learn how to outsmart antibiotics." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bacterial-enzyme-weaken-antibiotic-defenses.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:20:01 EDT news705254041 Astronomers may have just confirmed one of the quirkiest aspects of quantum mechanics: that seemingly empty space can alter the behavior of light. This phenomenon, called "vacuum birefringence," was first predicted nearly 90 years ago by Werner Heisenberg, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. He suggested that even a perfect vacuum should be teeming with "virtual particles" that rapidly pop in and out of existence. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-ultra-magnetic-star-key.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 10:20:06 EDT news705226981 High-energy particles in Earth's radiation belt can appear to spread out randomly, even when they are moving in a "predictable" way. This is because spacecraft observations naturally blur the fine-scale structure of the particle population, a new study reveals. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-spacecraft-conceal-particles-earth-space.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:20:06 EDT news705226201 Growing backlogs in Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs) are making it difficult for educational psychologists to prioritize early intervention because they are weighed down by statutory assessments. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-psychologists-pressure-children.html Social Sciences Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:02 EDT news705214922 Human-caused climate change doubled the likelihood of the tinderbox weather conditions that sparked Canada's massive summer wildfires and in turn angered U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a study released Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-climate-contributed-big-canada-trump.html Environment Thu, 06 Aug 2026 03:40:01 EDT news705204206 Lasers have become indispensable in everyday life and research, with applications ranging from data transmission and metrology to manufacturing. Masers, by contrast, have so far found hardly any practical applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-semiconductor-maser-room-temperature.html Condensed Matter Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:00:06 EDT news705154441 As trees disappear from urban neighborhoods, lives may be lost with them. In a new study, Northwestern University scientists tracked death rates and fluctuations in tree canopy cover across an 11-year period in Chicago. They found that areas experiencing greater losses in tree canopy—land covered by trees' leafy crowns—also experienced higher mortality rates, particularly in the city's hottest neighborhoods. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-urban-tree-mortality.html Environment Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:20:06 EDT news705149642 Babies start out life helpless and stay that way for a long time. They cannot walk, feed themselves or survive without an adult's continued care. Our dependency timeline has no clear parallel elsewhere in the animal kingdom. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-born-helpless-humanity-greatest-strengths.html Social Sciences Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news705150421 Disarticulated bones found scattered across a luxurious Roman villa on England's Isle of Wight may be evidence of a massacre carried out during a brutal political purge in the fourth century, a new study in Britannia suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-roman-bones-potential-fourth-century.html Archaeology Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:00:07 EDT news705146605 You might think of rockets as powerful vehicles that blast astronaut crews and robotic missions into space. But what if they could be used to send cargo from one side of Earth to the other in a fraction of the time it would take a plane? The company SpaceX recently announced a project that aims to use its rockets to do just that. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-spacex-aims-rockets-quickly-cargo.html Space Exploration Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:00:01 EDT news705150364 Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked far more like Earth, complete with oceans potentially capable of harboring life. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-venus-polygonal-plains-watery.html Astrobiology Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:00:09 EDT news705070220 A cat-training program for children with developmental disabilities fostered healthy behaviors in children, strengthened relationships between children and their family cats and improved cats' social behavior, a new study published in the journal Animals has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cat-children-developmental-disabilities-cats.html Social Sciences Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:20:07 EDT news705060827 For more than 60 years, evolutionary biologists have debated whether a unique genetic system found in ants, bees and wasps helps explain one of nature's most remarkable innovations: eusociality, a form of social organization in which colonies divide reproductive labor between queens and workers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-decades-theory-insect-societies-evolve.html Plants & Animals Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:20:01 EDT news705071641 When academic research has explored the impact of school summer vacations, it has often focused on the costs to parents and children's learning and health. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-summer-holidays-good-children.html Social Sciences Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:20:06 EDT news705058561 Researchers at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have developed a new approach to nanoscale 3D printing that improves both speed and fidelity, overcoming a challenge that has limited the technology's broader use in manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pixel-patterns-harness-diffraction-faster.html Nanophysics Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:20:02 EDT news704985845 Roll back the tape of Earth's history, and geologists and astrobiologists remain perplexed about the environmental conditions on early Earth. That's because conventional pathways for understanding Earth's history have been lost to time owing to the planet's active geology and atmospheric weathering. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-astrobiologist-apollo-lunar-samples-mirror.html Astronomy Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:00:07 EDT news704981462 Scientific reports, political directives and national plans follow one after another, urging regions to adapt to new climate realities. Yet one question remains: How do adaptation initiatives among local communities and businesses actually unfold on the ground? While announcements of public or government-backed projects or regulatory frameworks often take center stage, other, far more discreet grassroots forms of action or reorganization are at work, which can be grouped under the term "silent adaptation." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-climaterelated-silent-coping-strategies.html Environment Mon, 03 Aug 2026 13:40:01 EDT news704979301