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. Over a century ago, the Haber-Bosch process, a two-step reaction for the synthesis of ammonia (NH₃), an irreplaceable chemical for the fertilizer industry, prevented the world from going into a serious food crisis. Today, however, the same method consumes about 1% of global energy and contributes more than 1% of annual anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-catalyst-proton-highways-tackle-hurdle.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:00:08 EDT news712490573 The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a faint glow in the universe dating back to roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, long before stars or galaxies emerged. Detecting this light and mapping its fluctuations provide valuable insights into the age and composition of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cosmic-microwave-background-evidence-gas.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:10:01 EDT news712490585 Usually, people associate archaeological studies with bones, pottery and primitive tools, but archaeologists often find other clues about how ancient people lived hidden throughout a site. A new study, published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, focuses on bits of charcoal and their spatial organization to get a glimpse of Neanderthal life in Abric Romaní, an ancient rock shelter near Barcelona. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-charcoal-clues-neanderthal.html Archaeology Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:50:01 EDT news712490860 As modern electronic devices shrink, so do the metal electrical wires inside them. However, they start to run into serious problems the smaller they get. Conventional wires generate excessive heat and suffer a massive spike in electrical resistance that affects overall performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ultrathin-carbon-ribbons-electricity-metals.html Nanophysics Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:10:01 EDT news712490549 The energy required for brains of different sizes to function could play a role in how different species evolved over time. While the energetic costs of brains have long been deemed important in evolution, direct measurements of the rate at which the brains of different species consume energy, also known as brain metabolic rates (MRs), remain scarce. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-smaller-ants-devote-resting-energy.html Plants & Animals Thu, 29 Oct 2026 08:20:14 EDT news712411896 Ocean fish stocks have been increasingly exploited over time, and remote sensing shows they have declined in the open ocean over the last three decades, particularly in the tropics. But it's uncertain how fish populations will fare in the future, as climate models show both increases and decreases in global trends by the end of this century. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-oceans-carbon-export-fish.html Earth Sciences Thu, 29 Oct 2026 07:20:02 EDT news712402208 Patience Seamount is an underwater mountain in Australia's Huon Marine Park off the coast of Tasmania. Every year, it is the site of an enormous gathering of basketwork eels (Diastobranchus capensis) for reasons unknown, although most likely to spawn. The numbers are huge, but they have never been quantified. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-million-eels-underwater-mountain.html Plants & Animals Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:20:09 EDT news712402182 Using advanced new simulations, a team of astronomers in the U.S. has developed a promising new theory for how giant, gaseous exoplanets migrate into stiflingly close orbits around their host stars. Led by J. J. Zanazzi at The Pennsylvania State University, the team showed how both massive "hot Jupiters" and smaller, Neptune-sized planets could migrate from distant, elliptical orbits as they release energy via dramatic shock waves in their outer atmospheres. Their results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-supersonic-strange-orbits-hot-jupiters.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:20:06 EDT news712412094 When two objects touch and then separate, they can swap tiny amounts of electric charge, even if they are made from exactly the same material. This 'triboelectric effect' is the source of everyday static electricity, but it is still poorly understood in large samples of powder, where vast numbers of particles are constantly colliding with each other. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-levitated-particles-reveal-static.html General Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:00:09 EDT news712326851 Scientists have developed a way for certain types of compostable plastic to break down much faster in marine environments, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. The breakthrough comes from tiny enzymes embedded in the plastic that help degrade it from within. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-embedded-enzymes-plastics-faster-deep.html Biochemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:30:06 EDT news712326788 Researchers in the U.S. and China have created a biocompatible, metal-free magnet that can be safely implanted and generate signals from deep inside the body. Led by Wubin Bai at the University of North Carolina, the team revealed how magnetism can emerge from the rearrangement of atoms in heated carbon nitride, which strengthens the coupling between unpaired electrons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-metal-free-magnetic-sensor-safely.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 27 Oct 2026 13:20:03 EDT news712314189 Bat populations across the United States face numerous threats, and one of the biggest may be the number of collisions with wind turbines. According to the most comprehensive study of the problem to date, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 18 million bats may have died at wind energy facilities between 1981 and 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reveal-staggering-deaths-turbines.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:29:50 EDT news712319317 Around 121 million years ago, somewhere in modern northeastern China, an early bird took to the skies. If you drew its silhouette, you'd notice something was missing. Unlike any bird alive today, it had no tail feathers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-million-year-fossils-longipteryx-tail.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:20:16 EDT news712312880 Quantum networks, systems that connect devices using quantum mechanical effects, could potentially allow users to share information more securely and efficiently. Building these networks typically entails linking stationary qubits, units of quantum information encoded in trapped ions or other physical systems, using photons (particles of light) transmitted through optical fibers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bridge-wavelength-gap-quantum-communications.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 08:40:01 EDT news711967827 For the first time, a team of physicists in the U.S. has clearly demonstrated a "helicon current drive" in a nuclear fusion experiment. Led by Jeff Lestz at General Atomics, San Diego, the team took advantage of the latest advances in tokamak technology to show that radio waves steered to travel around the donut-shaped device can be absorbed by its confined plasma, driving an electric current inside it. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-radio-fusion-plasma-current-reactors.html Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2026 07:20:01 EDT news712244375 Science often advances in small steps, with researchers gradually building on previous discoveries. But every now and then, a breakthrough comes along that challenges conventional thinking and changes the direction of a field. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-disruptive-age-breakthroughs.html Education Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:30:06 EDT news712244383 From its visible surface, the sun radiates heat at a relatively cool temperature of 5,800 Kelvin. Yet within the thin outer layer of the sun's atmosphere known as the corona, electrons can reach temperatures of millions of degrees, for reasons astronomers have yet to fully explain. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-laser-blasted-plasma-instabilities-sun.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:00:10 EDT news712234865 For the first time, researchers in Japan have directly mapped several components of the stress field surrounding an atomic-scale flaw in the crystal structure of diamond. Led by Tokuyuki Teraji at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science, the team achieved its result using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, whose spin states respond differently to stress depending on how they are oriented relative to the stress field. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-diamond-defects-year-theory-crystal.html Condensed Matter Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:30:01 EDT news712229116 A new study reveals a dust-reddened quasar from a time when the universe was less than a billion years old. Located at a redshift of 6.5488, the object J1440+0019 contains a rapidly accreting supermassive black hole with a mass of about 1.1 billion suns. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 9. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jwst-alma-reveal-dusty-rapidly.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711982981 People can sometimes make decisions that benefit them but are less advantageous for someone else. In these scenarios, they might convince themselves that their choice causes little harm to others or that an alternative would not make much of a difference. The same can happen in reverse, as people who act generously may overstate how much good the outcomes of their choices did for others. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-selfishness-generosity-distort-impact-selfish.html Social Sciences Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:40:01 EDT news711900938 Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight. The object, called AGC 322753, contains roughly 2 billion times the sun's mass in neutral hydrogen, a potential supply of material for making stars. Its radio signal suggests the gas may be rotating in a disk, yet deep astronomical images reveal no matching glow. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fast-arecibo-dark-galaxy-vast.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 06:55:00 EDT news712216463 An online lesson takes an extra second to load. The wait may seem trivial, but in a study examining large learning platforms, these brief pauses were linked to unfinished assignments, lower scores and less time spent on the site. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-seconds-online-learners-track.html Social Sciences Sun, 25 Oct 2026 11:20:02 EDT news711641103 Southern Africa has one of the most detailed and elaborate bodies of rock art anywhere in the world, from herds of running antelope to dancing men and humanoid beings with wings, hooves and horns. All are painted with fine brushstrokes or fingers. One thing this art lacks is stencils. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-southern-africa-stenciled-art-plain.html Archaeology Sun, 25 Oct 2026 08:40:02 EDT news711798590 The positron is the antimatter counterpart of the electron, identical in mass but carrying an equal and opposite electric charge. Like the electron, it also behaves like a tiny bar magnet, and according to a key prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics, its magnetic moment should be exactly equal and opposite to the electron's. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-positron-cyclotron-key-standard.html General Physics Sat, 24 Oct 2026 13:20:02 EDT news711890804 What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests that mapping the evolutionary relatives of birds could offer better clues than their diets or feeding methods alone. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-seabird-family-tree-species-accumulate.html Plants & Animals Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711628189 In places like South Asia, Africa and parts of the Americas, monsoon rains supply water for drinking, crops and hydropower for billions of people. Understanding the patterns that monsoons tend to follow can help people plan for drought risks affecting agriculture, reservoirs and hydropower across distant regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-stalagmites-reveal-exceptions-asiasouth.html Earth Sciences Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:00:01 EDT news711981698 Whenever anything is written about the Denisovans, the word "mysterious" is almost guaranteed to appear. That is because we just don't know a lot about this extinct human group that may have lived in East Asia from at least 300,000 to 45,000 years ago and was closely related to the Neanderthals. The main reason for that is a sparse fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rare-fossils-reveal-ancient-denisovans.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:30:01 EDT news711981796 Astronomers identified an exceptionally tiny core that may represent an early stage in the formation of a massive star. Located in an infrared-dark area called Dragon Cloud, the core is nicknamed the "dragon egg." The paper, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 5. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-alma-dragon-egg-earliest-stages.html Astronomy Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:50:01 EDT news711976208 Researchers have created a material that manufactures the proteins responsible for cell movement, without needing intact living cells. By embedding cell-free gene expression into a thin sheet of protein filaments, they were able to make the material wrinkle, rise into blister-like shapes and break into bundles that flow around one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dna-cell-free-material-motors.html Biotechnology Fri, 23 Oct 2026 11:20:15 EDT news711963752 The Kronshtadskiy subglacial lake near East Antarctica's Amery Ice Shelf was hidden beneath Antarctica's ice, but its drainage left a mark visible from space as a broad depression that deepened by more than 6 meters (20 feet) at its center. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-antarctic-ice-reveals-hidden-lake.html Earth Sciences Fri, 23 Oct 2026 10:00:07 EDT news711808123