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. Artificial intelligence (AI) means high school and college students now have access to a resource that can potentially "do all the work for them." While this can reduce students' immediate stress about submitting assignments, it may negatively impact their long-term learning. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-2.html Education Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:20:31 EDT news711877157 By analyzing data on around 100,000 quasars, or extremely luminous galactic nuclei, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) have found statistical evidence that some supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are ejected from their positions after forming. The relationship now identified in the data was predicted 10 years ago by members of the same research group, Peter Raffai and Zsolt Frei, together with Zoltán Haiman. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-supermassive-black-holes-ejected-galactic.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:20:25 EDT news711886019 Endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout live and spawn in habitats surrounded by human activity, such as the San Francisco Bay Area. During a recent storm, researchers found high levels of the tire-derived pollutant 6PPD-quinone in roadway outflows, creeks and rivers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-derived-pollutant-elevated-critical-fish.html Ecology Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:27 EDT news711876434 A pilot project in which Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon were given an unconditional basic income significantly improved community well-being, strengthened food security and supported rainforest protection, according to analysis by the University of Bath released today. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-world-basic-income-trial-boosts.html Environment Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:30:07 EDT news711874905 Technion researchers have presented evidence for the existence of solar-storm-like outbursts near supermassive black holes, which can be a million times larger than the sun or more. The phenomenon was discovered in the vicinity of the black hole in the galaxy NGC 3783, and the researchers' findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-black-hole-uncover-evidence-solar.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:03:31 EDT news711885705 Picture a forlorn man walking into a lawyer's office after his marriage has collapsed. The bank is threatening foreclosure, and his finances are in tatters. His problems may be legal on paper, but in person they can look far more complicated: panic, shame or the numb resignation of someone who can no longer imagine a way out. He did not come for counseling, and his lawyer is not a therapist. Still, the attorney may be sitting beside him at the worst moment of his life—with a chance to help before despair slides into tragedy. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-legal-encounters-overlooked-opportunities-suicide.html Social Sciences Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:40:14 EDT news711870434 Citywide measures of urban sustainability can conceal sharp differences between neighborhoods. A city may appear to provide good streets overall while some areas lack greenery, openness or pedestrian-friendly space where diverse populations live. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-tokyo-streets-reveal-hidden-gaps.html Other Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:30:01 EDT news711865906 To most consumers, canned food is an everyday convenience, but to John Coupland, professor of food science at Penn State, each can represents more than two centuries of invention, experimentation and problem-solving. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-qa-canned-food.html Agriculture Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:40:10 EDT news711865515 For years, pilots have observed strong and unusual currents in the 2.4-kilometer-long (1.5-mile-long), 300-meter-wide (984-foot-wide) canal connecting Lake Varna with the Black Sea. Maarja Kruusmaa, an academician and professor at Tallinn University of Technology, and researcher Laura Piho, working with the Port of Varna, undertook detailed measurements to determine the causes of the phenomenon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-dangerous-oscillations-lake-varna.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:00:10 EDT news711861976 Tiny underwater algae sway gently in the current. All of a sudden, a light shines on them and they form robotlike arms that start to pick up small rocks and put them in floating baskets. Sounds like science fiction, but researchers from Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) have created a small soft robot arm covered with minuscule algae that can grasp and lift objects. And it's powered by light. This next step in biotechnology has been published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-algae-powered-soft-robot-arm.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 22 Oct 2026 05:39:19 EDT news711866320 Giant manta rays can grow up to nine meters (30 feet) long with a disk size of seven meters (23 feet) across and weigh up to 2,000 kg (4,400 pounds). This size leaves them with very few natural enemies once they reach adulthood at around eight to 10 years old. But giant manta ray babies, called pups, cannot rely on their size to protect them from predators that live in the open ocean, including several species of shark and orcas. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-baby-manta-rays-hunker-coasts.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:01 EDT news711799141 A patrol boat off the coast of Gabon intercepted three trawlers in July 2026, inside the Grand Sud Reserve. This is one of West and Central Africa's largest marine reserves, where industrial trawling is banned. None of the trawlers held a valid license. The patrol found them because analysts at the nonprofit Global Fishing Watch had studied satellite data and worked out where to look. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-illegal-fishing-african-satellite.html Ecology Wed, 21 Oct 2026 22:40:07 EDT news711797621 In many African cities, a broken fridge is rarely thrown away immediately. It may be repaired and resold, dismantled for spare parts or collected for its metal components. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-africans-reuse-recycle-resell-circular.html Environment Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:00:01 EDT news711800596 Scientists from the Quantum Technologies Group at the Institute of Physics Zagreb, in collaboration with a colleague from the Physics Department at the Faculty of Science (PMF), have experimentally demonstrated for the first time the existence of discrete one-dimensional (1D) solitons in an optically induced photonic lattice in warm rubidium vapor. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-laser-lattice-reveals-discrete-solitons.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:20:07 EDT news711813961 In a study published in Advanced Optical Materials, researchers at Vilnius University (VU) demonstrated perovskite-based laser structures that maintained stable performance over more than 400 million pulses. Their findings address one of the major challenges limiting the practical use of perovskites: their instability. These semiconductor materials could play an important role in next-generation optical technologies, but their tendency to degrade has long posed a challenge for researchers worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-perovskite-laser-stable-million-pulses.html Condensed Matter Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:00:02 EDT news711813781 The 19th-century pastoralist Thomas Austin was homesick. He yearned for the pastimes of his home in England—especially rabbit hunting. He asked his family to send him some rabbits. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-humble-rabbit-australia-worst-species.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:40:10 EDT news711798196 Salt marsh sediment and vegetation can remain largely intact even during extreme storm surges. This was demonstrated in a large-scale experiment in which researchers transported sections of salt marsh to an experimental facility capable of producing the world's largest artificial waves. The results show how salt marshes can contribute to natural coastal protection, both in the Netherlands and beyond. The results were published in the journals Nature and Communications Sustainability. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-salt-marshes-powerful-allies-climate.html Earth Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:40:01 EDT news711807002 The media habits of teens and young adults reflect transformative changes in modern storytelling and technology, and the entertainment industry and other content creators should pay attention, according to the latest "Teens and Screens" report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-annual-teens-screens-reveals-young.html Social Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:00:15 EDT news711796516 A team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has developed a new instrument designed to eliminate blind spots between lines of lidar data on Earth's surface. Built with support from NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), the Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry Lidar System (CASALS) could help researchers map the features of Earth's surface in detail. Rather than mechanically steering a laser with moving mirrors, CASALS steers light using wavelength itself, generating a continuous, 3D swath of the ground below. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-casals-instrument-bridges-gaps.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:20:09 EDT news711795891 A pilot study tested an electronic nose, called NOS.E, alongside human-remains detection dogs to see whether it could detect buried remains and help confirm dogs' signals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-electronic-nose-police-dogs.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:30 EDT news711801841 Researchers led by Carina Hahn at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S., have found that forensic specialists in facial identification need only one or two features, such as eyes or ears, to identify a face when looking for a match. Published in PLOS One, the study found that specialists find ears to be the most useful but are capable of adapting when recognizing that another feature might be more beneficial. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-forensic-specialists-facial-features-individuals.html Social Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:28 EDT news711733561 A study of 500 Thai retailers has found that businesses with stronger big data analytics capabilities tend to be better at identifying market needs, innovating and executing effective marketing strategies. Moreover, large retailers report higher capability levels than smaller firms, according to research published in the International Journal of Services and Operations Management. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-analysis-links-stronger-thai-retail.html Economics & Business Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:40:01 EDT news711806359 Natural gas leaks are a significant source of methane emissions in cities, but it can be hard to pinpoint exactly where and why they happen. And methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the main chemical component of natural gas, has been historically undercounted or omitted in emissions estimates, according to a team of atmospheric and climate science researchers in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-methane-emissions-baltimore-seasonal-daily.html Environment Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:20:17 EDT news711806175 The trauma of war has long-lasting reverberations, influencing business decisions made decades later, argue Eun Hye Jo and Jenny Jung-Wha Lee, accounting professors at Costello College of Business based at George Mason University Korea. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-childhood-war-loom-large-ceos.html Social Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:00:28 EDT news711794894 Scientists have proposed what they believe is the first method for detecting "mirror life"—a hypothetical form of life made from molecular building blocks that are the mirror image of those found naturally on Earth. Researchers at the University of Strathclyde and the Department of Chemistry at Durham University have outlined a new approach that could identify mirror organisms using molecules which emit left- and right-handed light. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-based-method-hypothetical-mirror-life.html Biotechnology Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:00:14 EDT news711798483 New research led by the University of Michigan provides utilities and policymakers with forecasts that can help them better prepare for future extremes in peak energy demand in the United States. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climate-technology-future-extremes-peak.html Environment Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:40:14 EDT news711793699 The oxygen in about every other breath we take comes from microscopic cells—phytoplankton—drifting in the surface of the ocean. Among them is Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism in the seas. It single-handedly accounts for roughly 10% of all the carbon that the land and the oceans pull from the atmosphere each year. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ocean-abundant-loner-microbe-sticky.html Ecology Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:00:06 EDT news711791161 Quantum networks, systems that connect devices and allow them to exchange information encoded in the quantum states of particles, could enable more secure communications. To build these networks, physicists need to devise strategies that allow distant particles to share quantum states, preserving them long enough to perform calculations or enable communication between devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-atomic-memory-distant-ions-entangled.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:40:12 EDT news711706392 In the early 1980s, scientists observed an anomaly. Embedded within cell membranes, they identified ion channels with extraordinarily high conductance. These so-called "BK" (Big K, or Big Potassium) channels had roughly 10 times the unitary conductance (i.e., conductance per individual channel molecule) of other potassium channels, enabling much more efficient, rapid transport of potassium ions. And while later structural characterization explained how this happened, no one could understand why. That is, until now. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-current-calcium-longstanding-ion-channel.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 05:00:06 EDT news711713221 For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have passed down their traditions and culture through oral storytelling. Now, a Canadian Indigenous community is using a data center to help preserve its heritage. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nation-community-canada-center-heritage.html Social Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:49:58 EDT news711776966