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. Every night, astronomers must carefully assess changing weather, the intensity of moonlight and shifting atmospheric conditions before deciding where to point a telescope. It's a constant balancing act designed to squeeze as much science as possible from every precious hour beneath dark skies. Now, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and Fermilab scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that automatically determines where a telescope should point. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-driven-telescope-stargazing.html Astronomy Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:40:03 EDT news704707321 University of Maryland researchers discovered a new approach to treating venomous snakebites—using the same toxin-blocking proteins that snakes evolved to protect themselves. The team found that specific combinations of blood proteins from western diamondback rattlesnakes provided unprecedented neutralizing power against the venom of multiple dangerous snake species. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-combined-rattlesnake-proteins-potent-current.html Biotechnology Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:40:05 EDT news704641381 Nitrate contamination originating from agricultural runoff, industrial wastewater and municipal effluents is a growing global environmental problem. At the same time, ammonia has emerged as a key chemical feedstock and an attractive carbon-free energy carrier for a sustainable society. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-cuco-catalyst-nitrate-pollution-green.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:00:03 EDT news704467682 You've been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It's disappointing, for sure—and increasingly common. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sargassum-smelly-nemesis-beach-vacations.html Ecology Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:00:02 EDT news704459401 A research team led by UCLA and the University of Rochester has demonstrated a promising evolution of an imaging system designed to capture details within "complex media," which scatter light, from depicting structures inside body tissue to seeing obstacles through heavy fog. The system uses physics-based machine learning to improve an existing imaging technique. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-physics-based-ai-boost-biomedical.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:00:08 EDT news703945682 Personal and professional conversations about triumph and disappointment happen every day, but what is the most appropriate way to react when others share their news with us? New research by Bayes Business School (City St George's, University of London) reveals that a common reaction is to mirror success with our own successes and failure with our own failures. Across nine experiments with more than 8,000 participants, deeper analysis suggests this reflects attempts to show empathy while reducing a sense of boastfulness. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-psychology-personal-disappointments.html Social Sciences Tue, 21 Jul 2026 19:20:05 EDT news703858981 When talking about Hawaiʻi's food security, the conversation often focuses on physical infrastructure—warehouses, cold storage and doubling crop production to reduce the need to import 90% of food. A new policy article by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researcher contends that physical infrastructure and production are essential but incomplete when addressing the challenges. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-key-ingredients-hawaii-food.html Agriculture Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news703844582 The immune system, the body's defense network against infections and injuries, can sometimes become too active. In these cases, it can produce too many immune mediators, fragments of genetic material or proteins that regulate immune responses. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nanoparticles-immune-molecules-blood.html Bio & Medicine Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:40:01 EDT news703402994 Technological advances in autonomous truck technology are poised to have significant economic ripple effects on U.S. interstate commerce, highway infrastructure and labor costs, according to new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign economists. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-trucks-redraw-economic.html Economics & Business Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news703499155 Some researchers are leaning into biology for inspiration in computing. In particular, neuromorphic computing offers a brain-inspired approach to hardware that replaces traditional binary processing with systems that function more like neurons and synapses. Now, a new study, published in Nature Communications, describes an innovative design for a fluidic memristor that uses its own self-heating mechanism to induce a history-dependent memory effect. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-brain-nanopore-device-current-memory.html Nanophysics Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:40:03 EDT news703417766 Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have discovered that tiny photosynthetic bacteria band together into protective "herds" when attacked by predators—a survival strategy that could also influence how carbon is stored in the world's waters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bacteria-herds-survive-predators-fresh.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:20:04 EDT news703340944 In science, researchers often focus their entire careers on the pursuit of one primary field. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bridging-gap-math-ai-discovery.html Education Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:00:12 EDT news703338263 The expense of launching cargo into space will plummet over the next few years, with the cost of reaching orbit forecast to more than halve between now and the end of the decade, and fall by around 93% by 2040, according to new Cambridge-led research. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-space-cargo-fall.html Space Exploration Tue, 14 Jul 2026 07:35:02 EDT news703233247 A team led by bioengineers at the University of California San Diego has developed a genome-scale reference map that details how individual genes control the functions and identities of human stem cells. This open-access resource could help researchers build virtual cell models for complex diseases, as well as design patient-specific treatments for these diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-million-stem-cells-reveal-genome.html Biotechnology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 10:30:01 EDT news703155590 Nature is beautiful, powerful and essential. But nature is not always gentle. The same biological world that gives rise to forests, coral reefs and human life also produces infections, cancer, genetic disease, crop blights and toxins. Natural processes can heal, sustain and inspire, but they can also destroy. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-synthetic-life-lab-spudcell-falls.html Cell & Microbiology Sun, 12 Jul 2026 10:00:04 EDT news702738218 Moderate volcanic eruptions and extreme wildfires since 2005 have led to an increase in the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere above the weather-filled troposphere. That's potentially bad news because water vapor here acts like a greenhouse gas that traps heat and changes ozone chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-volcanoes-wildfires-adding-vapor-stratosphere.html Earth Sciences Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:30:05 EDT news702816070 Researchers are closer to unraveling a longstanding solar mystery surrounding the extreme thinness of the sun's tachocline layer of strong shearing motion—a region believed to be critical for creating the violent eruptions of high-energy particles and radiation from the sun known as "space weather." https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unraveling-solar-mystery-extreme-thinness.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:40:01 EDT news702724695 Are we alone in the universe? Consider mysterious "extraterrestrial" radio signals. Unexplained gases on other planets. Things mistaken for UFOs. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-disturbingly-easy-ai-aliens.html Astronomy Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:00:03 EDT news702619561 Imagine a student spending hours meticulously erasing and rewriting a paragraph that is already excellent. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-perfectionistic-students-teachers-dont.html Education Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:40:01 EDT news702560941 Employees' biological clocks do more than determine when they reach for coffee; they fundamentally shape how, when and why people help each other at work. A study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes introduces the concept of "time-extension self-efficacy" (TESE)—an individual's belief in their ability to successfully wake up earlier or stay up later than usual. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hour-day-employee-biological-clocks.html Economics & Business Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news702225842 Relationships are all about compromise. From deciding on where to eat dinner with a friend to negotiating chore lists at home, we often experience situations that require some flexibility. But what happens when we must work with others—especially people we don't know—to make a risky decision? That's what Caltech's Dean Mobbs, professor of cognitive neuroscience, and members of his lab set out to explore in a recent study. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-compromise-risky-decisions-biased-blame.html Social Sciences Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:30:02 EDT news702230102 Last week, a group of parents strongly criticized prestigious Victorian private school Geelong Grammar for using isolation as a form of discipline during a yearlong boarding school program. The disciplinary action was taken after a group of Year 9 students sneaked away to a nearby pub at night. As a result, some of the students were internally suspended for five days. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-isolation-discipline-schools-poor-student.html Social Sciences Tue, 30 Jun 2026 08:40:03 EDT news702019322 More accurate navigation systems and improved wireless communications may not come from traditional electronics, but rather from atoms. Researchers at Penn State and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new way to build tinier, smarter glass sensors filled with highly precise and stable atoms. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-glass-cells-atoms-path-smarter.html Nanophysics Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:40:04 EDT news701699108 Over recent decades, harmful algal blooms have become increasingly common. These blooms often consist of bacteria called "cyanobacteria" in freshwater ecosystems. They can produce debilitating toxins, suffocate marine life by depleting oxygen in the water, and make water unsafe for drinking. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-iron-driven-chain-reaction-trigger.html Ecology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701696952 A research team at Mahidol University, Thailand, has discovered that tosyl groups, long regarded as routine synthetic handles, can actively guide the formation and behavior of pillararenes—a class of pillar-shaped macrocyclic molecules widely used in supramolecular chemistry. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reveal that these groups can act as a hidden "instruction code" that influences the organization of molecular components before bond formation and enables temperature-triggered switching accompanied by visible color changes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hidden-molecular-code-tosyl-groups.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:40:03 EDT news701617681 Cells can spontaneously change shape even without external signals, but the underlying mechanisms behind this form of self-organization have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered self-propelled treadmilling actin filaments (SpTAs), mobile protein assemblies that function as self-propelled particles. The team's work shows that even though SpTAs move randomly, they push the cell membrane outward to grow protrusions, thereby defining the overall shape of the cell. The work appears in EMBO Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-propelled-actin-filaments-cells-spontaneously.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:00:03 EDT news701532481 Living cells constantly exchange ions (i.e., charged particles) via the thin barrier that surrounds their interior, known as the outer membrane. Neuroscientists and medical researchers have long been trying to devise effective methods to measure this exchange of ions, which is known to be associated with communication between neurons and various other crucial physiological processes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-artificial-dna-tiles-drugs-neurons.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:00:01 EDT news701516330 Companies may only need to send an acknowledgment message to boost repeat customer participation in recycling and reuse programs for used goods like laptops and coffee pods, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The idea for the study arose over a cup of coffee—more specifically, the single-use pod used to make the coffee. Over a series of experiments, the researchers found that a simple "we received your item" email was all it took to encourage less-engaged customers to become repeat recyclers and to raise the company's sustainability profile. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-simple-acknowledgment-boosts-customer.html Economics & Business Tue, 23 Jun 2026 21:00:01 EDT news701445722 Researchers have developed a self-driving chemistry lab that can autonomously search through hundreds of catalyst recipes and reaction conditions to identify faster, more selective and more programmable ways to make important industrial chemicals. The work could accelerate catalyst discovery for industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and plastics to fuels and specialty chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-chemistry-lab-catalysts-products-demand.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news701450462 Multicellular life depends on remarkable acts of cooperation. Every cell in the human body must sense what is happening around it, interpret signals from its neighbors and respond in ways that support the larger tissue. These chemical, physical and electrical messages help determine when cells grow, repair damage, fight infection or quiet down after a threat has passed—and tissue health depends on how well those parts come together. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-cells-language-aim-decode.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:40:01 EDT news701434081