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Phys.org / Who's watching who? Otters turn their attention to humans

For many people, a trip to the zoo is a chance to watch playful otters dart through the water and chatter with one another. But while we may worry that crowds could stress the otter community, a new Australian study shows ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Mega-Earth GJ 523b is 23 times as massive as our planet—but only 2.5 times as wide

It's nearly 170 million years old. It's more than 2.5 times the size of Earth. And it's the first exoplanet discovered and cataloged by researchers with the Wisconsin Center for Origins Research (WiCOR).

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Hubble solves merger mystery from Milky Way's early years

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / 35-year monitoring study clarifies ecological forces behind Lyme disease risk

Tick-borne diseases are on the rise in the United States. Lyme disease is the most commonly reported, with nearly half a million people diagnosed each year. Caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, it is most often spread ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Gluons may play a central role in baryon number conservation—and matter's stability

New results from the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) suggest that gluons, the glue-like particles that hold quarks together inside protons, play a central role in the conservation of baryon number—an ...

Aug 17, 2026
Medical Xpress / Hidden immune environment uncovered in thymuses of myasthenia gravis patients

Northwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered a previously hidden immune environment in the thymus that may help drive myasthenia gravis (MG), a chronic autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness and fatigue, mainly ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Pesticides make Argentine ants go crazy, sending them roaming or clustering before workers die

Don't assume an uptick in ant activity after setting out pesticide traps means the treatment failed. New UC Riverside research shows their behavior changes as chemicals make their way through a colony.

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Tiny feet on cells can sense defects and stall migration to heal wounds

Cells travel through the body both individually and in collective groups during development, wound healing and diseases such as cancer. New research from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Locust neurons detect PFAS at environmentally relevant levels, pointing to portable sensors

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered that neurons in a locust's brain can distinguish among multiple PFAS compounds, including PFOS, one of the world's most common "forever chemicals," at environmentally ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Red blood cells inspire next-generation therapeutic nanocarriers

Red blood cells serve as the foundation for nanocarriers that show promise in a new study as effective and efficient vehicles for gene therapy, tumor targeting and other medical treatments. Scientists at The Ohio State University ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Graphene device measures fractional electric charges carried by some of quantum physics' strangest objects

An electron is supposed to be indivisible. It carries one fundamental unit of electric charge, and every electron is exactly the same. But under extreme conditions, large numbers of electrons act together and give rise to ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Molecular electromagnetic sensor may enable remote-controlled gene therapy

The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of living organisms contains regulatory elements that control when, where and to what extent specific genes are turned on or off. They can be co-opted to create "gene switches" that hold significant ...

Aug 17, 2026