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. Earth's mantle is a restless, enigmatic engine that powers volcanism, recycles crust, and regulates the long-term evolution of the planet. But one of its most elusive characteristics—the redox state, or the balance of oxidized and reduced chemical species—remains difficult to measure directly. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-beneath-kilometers-scientists-natural-evidence.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 Sep 2025 05:00:01 EDT news677502001 A new paper led by a York University professor and published today in Nature Astronomy introduces a simple theoretical framework to describe the evolution of the coupled interior–atmosphere system of hot rocky exoplanets known as "lava planets." https://phys.org/news/2025-07-lava-planets-evolve.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:23:57 EDT news673014232 In a study published in Science Advances, scientists have used new lithium isotope (δ7Li) data to show that continental clay export promoted organic carbon burial and thus atmospheric oxygenation during the Cambrian period. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-clay-carbon-burial-early-paleozoic.html Environment Mon, 15 Apr 2024 09:22:02 EDT news632391721 Enhanced rock weathering—a nature-based carbon dioxide removal process that accelerates natural weathering—results in significantly higher first year crop yields, improved soil pH, and higher nutrient uptake, according to a paper, published in PLOS ONE on 27 March. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-weathering-results-higher-crop-yields.html Agriculture Mon, 08 Apr 2024 10:32:05 EDT news631791122 Last September, NASA purposefully smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a 160m-wide space rock orbiting a larger asteroid named Didymos. The goal of the mission, called DART (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to demonstrate humanity's ability to redirect hazardous asteroids away from Earth. That part of the mission was a success above and beyond all expectations. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dimorphos-piece-didymos.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:24:03 EST news618499441 Global warming has been attributed to the sharp increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, in particular CO2 emissions. Carbon capture technology, such as using adsorbents to capture and store CO2 from ambient air, is a promising solution to mitigate emissions. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-scientists-2d-nanosheets-sustainable-carbon.html Nanomaterials Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:21:25 EDT news607857681 The first experiments with glacial rock flour from Greenland show that it can capture significant amounts of CO2 and provide a wider array of nutrients than commercial organic fertilizers, resulting in improved crop growth. In the long term, the glacial rock flour can be of great importance in stopping climate change. The researcher behind the studies calls it a "promising, scalable solution." https://phys.org/news/2023-05-greenlandic-glacial-flour-climate.html Earth Sciences Wed, 31 May 2023 14:04:10 EDT news604760647 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured images of a brown dwarf with silicate particles in its atmosphere. In their paper posted on the arXiv preprint server, astronomers describe their analysis of the brown dwarf and its unique atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-webb-telescope-brown-dwarf-clouds.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Sep 2022 10:48:21 EDT news581680068 Water is essential for life on Earth and other planets, and scientists have found ample evidence of water in Mars' early history. But Mars has no liquid water on its surface today. New research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests a fundamental reason: Mars may be just too small to hold onto large amounts of water. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-mars-habitability-limited-small-size.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 20 Sep 2021 15:00:05 EDT news551361558 Brown dwarfs are the cosmic equivalent of tweeners. They're too massive to be planets and too small to sustain nuclear fusion in their cores, which powers stars. Many brown dwarfs are nomadic. They do not orbit stars but drift among them as loners. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-astronomers-probe-layer-cake-brown-dwarf.html Astronomy Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:45:04 EDT news542533490 Why has Earth's climate remained so stable over geological time? The answer just might rock you. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-effective-climate-solution-beneath-feet.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Jul 2020 09:47:04 EDT news514111573 Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the University of Jena have obtained a clearer view of nature's tiny deep-space laboratories: tiny dust grains covered with ice. Instead of regular shapes covered thickly in ice, such grains appear to be fluffy networks of dust, with thin ice layers. In particular, that means the dust grains have considerably larger surfaces, which is where most of the chemical reactions take place. Hence, the new structure has fundamental consequences for astronomers' view of organic chemistry in space—and thus for the genesis of prebiotic molecules that could have played an important role for the origin of life on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-complex-astrochemistry-thin-ice-grains.html General Physics Mon, 08 Jun 2020 08:40:05 EDT news510824393 Giant planets in our solar system and circling other stars have exotic clouds unlike anything on Earth, and the gas giants orbiting close to their stars—so-called hot Jupiters—boast the most extreme. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-astronomers-cloud-atlas-hot-jupiter-like.html Astronomy Tue, 26 May 2020 13:21:00 EDT news509718056 Research published this week by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists shows how bacteria can degrade solid bedrock, jump-starting a long process of alteration that creates the mineral portion of soil. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-hard-bacteria-soil.html Earth Sciences Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:00:13 EST news495700289 Soil scientists and chemists from RUDN University, together with colleagues from the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have developed and tested a method of ecosystem restoration in the sub-Arctic technogenic wasteland contaminated by the waste of non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises. The technology is based on the use of mining waste capable of neutralizing toxic metal compounds for plants. The study involved scientists from different fields of natural sciences—geochemistry, soil science, microbiology and ecology. The article is published in the journal International Soil and Water Conservation Research. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-soil-scientists-manmade-wasteland.html Environment Tue, 12 Nov 2019 08:20:01 EST news492769002 Researchers at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Nanjing University have developed a more accurate way to study the global carbon cycle—specifically, one of the most important ways CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports on a substantial advance in understanding the process by which minerals called silicates break down, or weather. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-earth-climate-tracer-weathering-intensity.html Earth Sciences Tue, 16 Apr 2019 08:10:28 EDT news474621007 JILA scientists have developed a fast, simple sample preparation method that enhances imaging of DNA to better analyze its physical properties and interactions. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-jila-minute-sample-dna-imaging.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 08 Apr 2019 15:57:50 EDT news473957862 Unfortunately, concrete does not last forever. The ravages of time also take their toll on concrete structures in Switzerland. Not only are reinforced structures like bridges affected, but also concrete buildings without any reinforcement, such as dam walls. One cause is referred to as the alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR). It can affect all concrete structures in open air. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-concrete.html Engineering Fri, 05 Oct 2018 08:50:04 EDT news457947635 With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is also far smaller than Earth (in both mass and diameter). With its frigid temperature and lack of atmosphere, we're pretty sure Ceres can't support life as we know it. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ceres-earth.html Space Exploration Thu, 26 Jul 2018 08:07:30 EDT news451811226 It's amazing what a difference a little water can make. The Moon formed between about 4.4 and 4.5 billion years ago when an object collided with the still-forming proto-Earth. This impact created a hot and partially vaporized disk of material that rotated around the baby planet, eventually cooling and accreting into the Moon. https://phys.org/news/2018-02-moon-story.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Feb 2018 09:44:32 EST news438947055 An international study on glass led by ANU and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France could lead to the development of shatter-proof mobile phone screens. https://phys.org/news/2017-12-shatter-proof-mobile-screens-closer.html Condensed Matter Tue, 12 Dec 2017 08:49:41 EST news432290973 An international team of researchers led by geoscientists with the Virginia Tech College of Science recently discovered that deep portions of Earth's mantle might be as hot as it was more than 2.5 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-hottest-lavas-erupted-billion-years.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 May 2017 11:00:11 EDT news414650855 Portland cement has been around for more than 250 years as the binding material for concrete, mortar and stucco, but a Missouri University of Science and Technology researcher is studying ways to make concrete without the traditional material. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-ash-stronger-concrete.html Engineering Wed, 15 Mar 2017 06:03:51 EDT news408776624 In March 1995, members of a Japanese cult released the deadly nerve agent sarin into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and injuring a thousand more. https://phys.org/news/2016-09-concrete-contaminated-chemicals.html Engineering Mon, 19 Sep 2016 08:36:12 EDT news393492959 Measurements of an element in Earth and Moon rocks have just disproved the leading hypotheses for the origin of the Moon. https://phys.org/news/2016-09-chemistry-moon-proto-earth-mantle-relocated.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 Sep 2016 11:00:03 EDT news392883494 The media often imply that the goal of the hunt for extrasolar planets is to find a rocky planet about the size of Earth orbiting a star like the sun at a distance that would allow liquid water to persist on its surface. In other words, the goal is to find Earth 2.0. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-hot-rocky-planets-composition-components.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jun 2016 09:59:25 EDT news386326756 (Phys.org)—HD 189733b, located some 64 light years away, is the closest "hot Jupiter" exoplanet to Earth. Thanks to its proximity, it is a great target for atmospheric observations. Now, an international team of astronomers has presented a model of the planet's chemically complex gaseous layer, unveiling the structure and composition of mineral clouds in the atmosphere. The study was published Mar. 30 in a paper on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2016-04-astronomers-composition-clouds-hot-jupiter.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Apr 2016 09:10:02 EDT news379141433 There is more to the Earth than what we can see on the surface. In fact, if you were able to hold the Earth in your hand and slice it in half, you'd see that it has multiple layers. But of course, the interior of our world continues to hold some mysteries for us. Even as we intrepidly explore other worlds and deploy satellites into orbit, the inner recesses of our planet remains off limit from us. https://phys.org/news/2015-12-earth-layers.html Earth Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2015 08:07:10 EST news368698009 At one time, astronomers believed the surface of Mars was crisscrossed by canal systems. This in turn gave rise to speculation that Mars was very much like Earth, capable of supporting life and home to a native civilization. But as human satellites and rovers began to conduct flybys and surveys of the planet, this vision of Mars quickly dissolved, replaced by one in which the Red Planet was a cold, desiccated and lifeless world. https://phys.org/news/2015-12-mars-earth.html Space Exploration Mon, 07 Dec 2015 07:54:52 EST news368697277 How do you go about hunting for life on another planet elsewhere in our galaxy? A useful starting point is to imagine looking from afar for signs of life on Earth. In a telescope like those we have on Earth, those aliens would likely just see the Earth and sun merged together into a single pale yellow dot. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-cloudy-chance-life-alien-distant.html Astronomy Wed, 25 Nov 2015 07:11:25 EST news367657876