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. China's sweeping efforts to clean up its air have delivered one of the biggest public health success stories of recent decades. Since the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan was launched in 2013, coal-fired power plants have been fitted with scrubbers, heavy industry has been modernized and pollution standards tightened, leading to an over 50% reduction in atmospheric particulate matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-china-emissions-policies-climate-problem.html Earth Sciences Tue, 10 Feb 2026 07:50:01 EST news689850775 A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research. University of Exeter scientists have created the world's first genetically engineered wax moths—a development which could both accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and significantly reduce the need for mice and rats in infection research. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-moths-mice-antimicrobial-resistance.html Plants & Animals Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:00:03 EST news689874961 Polymer micelles are tiny, self-assembled particles that are revolutionizing the landscape of drug delivery and nanomedicine. They form when polymer chains containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments organize into nanoscale spheres in liquid solutions; these structures can trap and hold drugs that are otherwise difficult to dissolve. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-unveiling-polymeric-interactions-critical-future.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:40:08 EST news689862052 With the rapid development of GPT-based models, educational chatbots are no longer limited to scripted dialogs. They can now support open-ended interaction and inquiry-based learning. In a study published in the journal Discover Education, researchers directly compared: https://phys.org/news/2026-02-students-favor-lesson-chatbots-tools.html Education Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:05:22 EST news689879102 New forms of fentanyl are created every day. For law enforcement, that poses a challenge: How do you identify a chemical you've never seen before? Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) aim to answer that question with a machine learning model that can distinguish opioids from other chemicals with an accuracy over 95% in a laboratory setting. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-fentanyl-phony-machine-algorithm-opioid.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:30:02 EST news689872862 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was designed to look back in time and study galaxies that existed shortly after the Big Bang. In so doing, scientists hoped to gain a better understanding of how the universe has evolved from the earliest cosmological epoch to the present. When Webb first trained its advanced optics and instruments on the early universe, it discovered a new class of astrophysical objects: bright red sources that were dubbed "Little Red Dots" (LRDs). Initially, astronomers hypothesized that they could be massive star-forming regions, but this was inconsistent with established cosmological models. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-red-dots-webb-collapse-black.html Astronomy Sun, 08 Feb 2026 13:00:01 EST news689583900 A team of researchers at Queen's University has developed a powerful new kind of computing machine that uses light to take on complex problems such as protein folding (for drug discovery) and number partitioning (for cryptography). Built from off-the-shelf components, it also operates at room temperature and remains remarkably stable while performing billions of operations per second. The research was published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-based-ising-room-temperature-stays.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 07 Feb 2026 13:00:04 EST news689608592 In collaboration with international partners, researchers at the University of Stuttgart have experimentally demonstrated a previously unknown form of magnetism in atomically thin material layers. The discovery is highly relevant for future magnetic data storage technologies and advances the fundamental understanding of magnetic interactions in two-dimensional systems. The results have now been published in Nature Nanotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-magnetism-2d-materials.html Nanophysics Sat, 07 Feb 2026 09:00:06 EST news689503128 Calling a friend "cousin" might not be just a term of affection among some African Americans. Now, a mathematical model shows that there is a good chance there is some type of family connection between 185 and 410 years ago for many pairs of African Americans of the same age. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-mathematical-african-american-family.html Molecular & Computational biology Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:30:10 EST news689336128 Economic models used by governments, central banks and investors are increasingly understating physical climate risk because they rely on assumptions that break down as the world moves toward higher levels of warming, according to a new report from University of Exeter and Carbon Tracker. The report Recalibrating Climate Risk—drawing on expert judgment from more than 60 climate scientists—finds that many economic models are failing to capture the extreme events, compounding shocks and rising uncertainty likely to dominate impacts in a hotter world. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-urged-faulty-radar-economic-disregarding.html Environment Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:40:01 EST news689519222 As in a batch of kombucha or a barrel of sherry, microbes can assemble into a mat-like layer at the boundary between air and liquid. In laboratory culture, the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 is widely known for doing exactly that: starting from a non-mat-forming original type, it evolves—through genetic mutations—into forms that construct a mat at the air–liquid interface, and it does so with striking regularity within just a few days. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-dispersal-driven-evolution-fuels-diversity.html Evolution Thu, 05 Feb 2026 18:50:01 EST news689517783 Despite decades of independent progress in population ecology and movement ecology, researchers have lacked a theoretical bridge between these two disciplines. "Ecologists have been trying to establish this link since the 1950s, when they started to characterize animal movement patterns," says Dr. Ricardo Martinez-Garcia, head of the CASUS Young Investigator Group "Dynamics of Complex Living Systems" and senior author of the study. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-range-resident-logistic-animal-movement.html Plants & Animals Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:43:34 EST news689524981 Over the last several decades, urban planners and municipalities have sought to identify and better manage the socioeconomic dynamics associated with rapid development in established neighborhoods. The term "gentrification" has been lingua franca for generations of urbanites who have seen their communities change and property values, and commensurate taxes, shift in ways that can make it difficult for longtime residents to stay. But identifying its unmanaged creep can be a challenge, particularly in densely populated areas, as its visual hallmarks—such as new facades, mixes in building materials and changes in building heights—present differently in different cities and regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-philadelphia-communities-ai-machine-gentrification.html Social Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:20:06 EST news689519501 How exactly unconventional superconductivity arises is one of the central questions of modern solid-state physics. A new study published in the journal Nature provides crucial insights into this question. For the first time, an international research team was able to demonstrate a direct microscopic connection between a strongly correlated normal state and superconductivity in so-called moiré materials. In the long term, these findings could contribute to the development of new quantum materials and superconductors for future quantum technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-superconductivity-insights-moir-materials.html Condensed Matter Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:44:53 EST news689510642 Global climate models capture many of the processes that shape Earth's weather and climate. Based on physics, chemistry, fluid motion and observed data, hundreds of these models agree that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to hotter global temperatures and more extreme weather. Still, uncertainty remains around how seasonal weather patterns and atmospheric systems like the jet stream will respond to global warming. Some of this uncertainty stems from the way models approximate the effects of relatively short-lived, small-scale phenomena known as gravity waves. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-capturing-gravity-scientists-decades-gridlock.html Earth Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 10:05:01 EST news689508241 YouTube is a great place to find all sorts of wildlife content. It is not, however, a good place to find viewers encouraging each other to preserve that wildlife, according to new research led by the University of Michigan. Out of nearly 25,000 comments posted to more than 1,750 wildlife YouTube videos, just 2% featured a call to action that would help conservation efforts, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Sustainability. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-youtubers-wildlife-commenters-action.html Plants & Animals Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:00:04 EST news689414365 Reading an Arabic newspaper, a book, or academic prose fluently, whether digital or in print, remains challenging for many native speakers, let alone learners of Arabic as a foreign language. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ai-enables-native-speakers-foreign.html Education Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:20:01 EST news689438206 Gene regulation is far more predictable than previously believed, scientists conclude after developing the deep learning model PARM. This might bring an end to a scientific mystery: how genes know when to switch on or off. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-gene-experimental-elegance-ai.html Biotechnology Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:00:15 EST news689416321 Precocial animals, the ones that move autonomously within hours after hatching or birth, have many biases they are born with that help them survive, finds a new paper led by Queen Mary University of London, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-innate-biases-newborn-animals-decision.html Plants & Animals Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:10:06 EST news689331181 Math anxiety is a significant challenge for students worldwide. While personalized support is widely recognized as the most effective way to address it, many teachers struggle to deliver this level of support at scale within busy classrooms. New research from Adelaide University shows how artificial intelligence (AI) could help address challenges such as math anxiety by using a student's inputs and identifying signs of anxiety or disengagement during learning. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ai-math-anxiety-student-feedback.html Mathematics Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:40:04 EST news689355145 Where starlight doesn't reach, new things are born: For the first time, an international research team has directly measured the effect of cosmic radiation in a cold molecular cloud. The observation shows how charged high-energy particles influence the gas in these lightless regions where stars are formed. Dr. Brandt Gaches, head of the Emmy Noether Group Towards the Next Generation in Cosmic Ray Astrochemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, was part of the effort to propose and observe these effects with the James Webb Space Telescope and provided support through astrochemical models of cosmic-ray chemistry. The findings are published in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cosmic-brought-ionization-dark-cloud.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:30:01 EST news689348270 An international research team led by the University of Bremen has detected chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in Earth's atmosphere for the first time in historical measurements from 1951—20 years earlier than previously known. This surprising glimpse into the past was made possible by analyzing historical measurement data from the Jungfraujoch research station in the Swiss Alps. The study has now been published in Geophysical Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ozone-depleting-cfcs-historical-years.html Earth Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 13:56:35 EST news689349361 Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that climate change is causing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance, to break down in the atmosphere more quickly than previously thought, introducing significant uncertainty into climate projections for the rest of the 21st century. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-global-breakdown-major-greenhouse-gas.html Earth Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:12:58 EST news689339522 Keck Medicine of USC radiologists use computed tomography (CT) scanners to diagnose and treat patients' diseases and injuries. Recently, however, this advanced technology was put to a far more novel use: examining the bodies of two ancient Egyptian mummies. Radiologists conducted full-body CT scans of two Egyptian priests, Nes-Min, circa 330 BCE, and Nes-Hor, circa 190 BCE, whose bodies had been preserved for more than 2,200 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ct-scans-unwrap-secrets-ancient.html Archaeology Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:20:01 EST news689335852 Exploring Earth's deep interior is a far bigger challenge than exploring the solar system. While we have traveled 25 billion km into space, the deepest we have ever gone below our feet is just over 12 km. Consequently, little is known about the conditions at the base of the mantle and the top of the core—the most significant interface in Earth's interior and the region where new research has now uncovered exciting magnetic activity. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-huge-hot-blobs-earth-magnetic.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 06:04:33 EST news689321041 Scientists have created an AI model that forecasts moderate heat stress—a major precursor to coral bleaching—at sites along Florida's Coral Reef up to six weeks ahead, with predictions generally accurate within one week. The study, published in Environmental Research Communications, presents a site-specific, explainable machine-learning framework to support coral scientists and restoration practitioners with local reef management and emergency response planning. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ai-coral-stress-florida-reefs.html Ecology Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:40:01 EST news689259073 The potential of microrobots is enormous. These miniature objects can be designed to carry out actions within the body, such as sensing biomarkers, manipulating objects like blood clots, or delivering drug therapies to tumor sites. But working out how to make the tiny bots effective, biocompatible, and cost effective is challenging. Now a Caltech-led team has taken a huge step toward making the next generation of microrobots for drug delivery. They have simplified both the structure of the microrobots and their production method, while making the bots highly effective and "smart" enough to direct themselves to a tumor. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bots-simple-biocompatible-microrobots-autonomously.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:40:04 EST news689257892 A research team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS) has developed a new method combining deep learning with physical radiative transfer modeling to improve the retrieval of atmospheric aerosol properties from complex satellite observations, supporting high-resolution, near-real-time monitoring of haze and dust events. The study was recently published in Journal of Remote Sensing. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-hybrid-ai-physics-method-accurate.html Earth Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:54:36 EST news689273642 Deep beneath the Earth's surface, in the pores and crevices of rock, live huge communities of microorganisms. They are invisible to the naked eye—yet they play a central role in the quality of our groundwater and in global cycles of matter. A research team led by Dr. Martin Taubert from the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" at the University of Jena has shown that life in the subsurface follows two fundamentally different strategies—with far-reaching consequences for environmental research and practice. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-microorganisms-surfaces-groundwater.html Ecology Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:39:40 EST news689269079 Some tropical land regions may warm more dramatically than previously predicted, as climate change progresses, according to a new CU Boulder study that looks millions of years into Earth's past. Using lake sediments from the Colombian Andes, researchers reveal that when the planet warmed millions of years ago under carbon dioxide levels similar to today's, tropical land heated up nearly twice as much as the ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tropical-oceans-climate-sediment.html Earth Sciences Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:00:12 EST news689266441