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Phys.org / Supermassive black holes sit in 'eye of their own storms,' studies find

Gigantic black holes lurk at the center of virtually every galaxy, including ours, but we've lacked a precise picture of what impact they have on their surroundings. However, a University of Chicago-led group of scientists ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / How sleep loss can damage your brain's wiring

Sleep loss damages the fatty insulation protecting the nerve cells in our brain, according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research also explains why we often feel ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Saline nasal spray alone resolves sleep-disordered breathing in nearly one-third of children, study finds

Investigators based at Monash Children's Hospital and Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne report that a once-daily intranasal saline spray resolved obstructive sleep-disordered breathing symptoms in nearly one-third of children ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Pediatrics
Phys.org / Political division in the US surged from 2008 onward, study suggests

Divisions within the US population on social and political issues have increased by 64% since 1988, with almost all this coming after 2008, according to a study tracking polarization from the end of the Reagan era to the ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Red giant stars can't destroy all gas giants—some are hardy survivors

Aging stars can completely destroy their planets. When a star reaches the end of its life on the main sequence, it goes through dramatic changes. And those changes don't just dictate the star's fate; they can also dictate ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / One-of-a-kind 'plasma tunnel' recreates extreme conditions spacecraft face upon reentry

Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet's atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma—a ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Experiments clear up confusion over the form of solid methane

Through a combination of high-pressure experiments and optical spectroscopy, physicists have revealed new insights into the structural forms of solid methane. Led by Mengnan Wang at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / Testing menstrual blood for HPV could be 'robust alternative' to cervical screening

Testing menstrual blood for human papillomavirus (HPV) could be a "robust alternative or replacement" for current cervical cancer screening by a clinician, finds a study from China published by The BMJ. The researchers say ...

Feb 4, 2026 in Obstetrics & gynaecology
Tech Xplore / Neptunium study yields plutonium insights for space exploration

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are breathing new life into the scientific understanding of neptunium, a unique, radioactive, metallic element—and a key precursor for production of ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Energy & Green Tech
Medical Xpress / Protective mechanism discovered in female brain: Switched-off X chromosome can reactivate to reduce disease severity

Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have identified a mechanism that protects the female brain from genetic diseases. Although one of the two X chromosomes is switched off in female cells ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Neuroscience
Phys.org / Geologists may have solved mystery of Green River's 'uphill' route

New research may have solved an American mystery which has baffled geologists for a century and a half: How did a river carve a path through a mountain in one of the country's most iconic landscapes? Scientists have long ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Ozone-depleting CFCs detected in historical measurements—20 years earlier than previously known

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. ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Earth