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Phys.org / California drought may have pushed parts of the Sacramento Valley aquifer toward permanent collapse

Around a quarter of the U.S. food supply is grown in California's Central Valley. Most of its crops, like rice, fruit trees and nut trees, are water-intensive and require extensive groundwater pumping during droughts. Over ...

Jul 28, 2026
Phys.org / Astronomers find strongest evidence yet that Betelgeuse has a companion

At long last, astronomers have firm evidence that Betelgeuse, one of the most famous stars in the night sky, is not alone. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), a team led by French researcher ...

Jul 28, 2026
Phys.org / Fossil footprints reveal body size and group dynamics of 1.4-million-year-old human relative

Ancient footprints preserved along the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana are reshaping scientists' understanding of one of humanity's extinct relatives. A paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes ...

Jul 27, 2026
Phys.org / Black hole 'blast' reaches 300,000 light-years

A team of researchers has discovered that winds generated by supermassive black holes are 100 times more powerful than previously thought, carrying energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years. The discovery ...

Jul 29, 2026
Phys.org / Gobi fossil reveals 6-inch 'Cretaceous rabbit' belonged to a different mammal branch

A remarkably preserved fossil from Mongolia's Gobi Desert is reshaping scientists' understanding of mammal evolution during the age of dinosaurs.

Jul 29, 2026
Phys.org / New research turns the Dunning-Kruger effect on its head: Rethinking the confident incompetent

Researchers at the University of Bath and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) suggest that the celebrated Dunning-Kruger effect, often taken to mean the least competent people are the most overconfident, ...

Jul 27, 2026
Phys.org / 'I can't work in the farce of climate change cruise tourism anymore': Why Antarctic guides quit their dream jobs

In the words of a former Antarctic tour guide we interviewed: "You'd see massive glacier calvings, and you'd just want to cry. But all the guests would be cheering. And you'd be like … 'can you not put two and two together?'"

Jul 25, 2026
Dialog / Near a black hole, gravity changes a quantum circuit's readings, not its rules

Imagine holding one of our most precise quantum devices at a fixed position outside a black hole. A Josephson junction—two superconductors separated by an ultrathin barrier—can turn a voltage into a quantum oscillation with ...

Jul 26, 2026
Phys.org / Pennsylvania roads are being coated in radioactive wastewater—here's why

Pennsylvania's roughly 100,000 oil and gas wells produce wastewater that's many times saltier than seawater and contains radium, a known carcinogen. For decades, that saltwater, called brine, was spread on dirt and gravel ...

Jul 27, 2026
Phys.org / Evidence of giant rings in Venus's atmosphere uncovered in archived observations

In 2010, scientists waiting to use the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands captured a brief 36 minutes of images of Venus. They were waiting for the sun to set so they could look at distant stars and dust disks ...

Jul 28, 2026
Phys.org / In biology of cells, octopus has another trick up its sleeve

The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a small primate. Now Harvard biologists have discovered a mysterious distinction in octopuses' core ...

Jul 29, 2026
Phys.org / Scientists discover 210-million-year-old dinosaur in Zimbabwe

A newly discovered dinosaur from Zimbabwe is offering fresh clues to how the animals diversified, suggesting they spread across distinct ecosystems in southern Africa, scientists said Wednesday.

Jul 29, 2026