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Phys.org / Failed supernova provides clearest view yet of a star collapsing into a black hole

Astronomers have watched a dying star fail to explode as a supernova, instead collapsing into a black hole. The remarkable sighting is the most complete observational record ever made of a star's transformation into a black ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Extreme rainfall is worsening algal blooms along South Korea's coast

Extreme rainfall is reshaping coastal waters along South Korea's shoreline, flushing nutrients from land into the sea and fueling the growth of algal blooms. A new multi-year study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, ...

Feb 15, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Only humans have chins: Study shows it's an evolutionary accident

Dashiell Hammett mentioned Sam Spade's jutting chin in the opening sentence of his novel, "The Maltese Falcon." Spade's chin was among the facial features Hammett used to describe his fictional detective's appearance, but ...

Feb 11, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Scientists uncover Iron Age origins of Vietnamese tooth blackening practices

Not everyone wants their teeth to be white and gleaming. Tooth blackening is a recognized part of modern Vietnamese culture, and a recent discovery hints that the roots of this practice may stretch all the way back to the ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Other Sciences
Tech Xplore / LLMs violate boundaries during mental health dialogues, study finds

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents, particularly those based on large language models (LLMs) like the conversational platform ChatGPT, are now widely used daily by numerous people worldwide. LLMs can generate texts that ...

Feb 15, 2026 in Consumer & Gadgets
Phys.org / Replacing humans with machines is leaving truckloads of food stranded and unusable

Supermarket shelves can look full despite the food systems underneath them being under strain. Fruit may be stacked neatly, chilled meat may be in place. It appears that supply chains are functioning well. But appearances ...

Feb 14, 2026 in Other Sciences
Medical Xpress / Destructive meningitis cases raise concerns about emerging pathogen

Penn State College of Medicine is reporting on two cases of destructive infant meningitis linked to Paenibacillus infection, documenting severe neurologic injury and raising concerns about diagnosis and treatment. Reports ...

Phys.org / Time crystals could become accurate and efficient timekeepers

Time crystals could one day provide a reliable foundation for ultra-precise quantum clocks, new mathematical analysis has revealed. Published in Physical Review Letters, the research was led by Ludmila Viotti at the Abdus ...

Feb 13, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Antarctic ice melt can change global ocean circulation, sediment cores suggest

A new study shows that during the last two deglaciations, i.e., the transition from an ice age to the warm interglacial periods, meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet intensified stratification in the Southern Ocean. The ...

Feb 14, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / How Indigenous ideas about nonlinear time can help us navigate ecological crises

It is common to think of time as moving in only one direction—from point A, through point B, to point C.

Feb 14, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Arctic peatlands are expanding as temperatures continue to rise, new research confirms

The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 4°C in the last four decades. A new study, led by the University of Exeter, shows peatlands have expanded since 1950, ...

Feb 13, 2026 in Earth
Medical Xpress / Common anti-seizure drug prevents Alzheimer's plaques from forming, study shows

While physicians and scientists have long known that Alzheimer's disease involves the buildup of toxic protein fragments in the brain, they have struggled to understand how these harmful fragments are produced. Now, in a ...