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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
Dialog / Evidence that some birds are stubborn appears in the form of color preferences

We like to think that animals follow the crowd. If most of the group does something, surely the individual will copy. But what if the story is more complicated? What if the deciding factor isn't just what the majority is ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Isotopes reveal how social status shaped diet in medieval England

Isotope analysis reveals that social status and wealth had a profound impact on diet in medieval England, showing that people from different social groups in medieval Cambridge ate markedly different food. The research, carried ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Is dark energy actually evolving?

Dark energy is one of those cosmological features that we are still learning about. While we can't see it directly, we can most famously observe its effects on the universe—primarily how it is causing the expansion of the ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / New nanohole-based microscopy monitors electrochemical reactions millisecond by millisecond

Many technological applications, such as sensors and batteries, greatly rely on electrochemical reactions. Improving these technologies depends on understanding how electrochemical reactions work. However, most current methods ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Study of 65,000 college students links 16 hours a week on social media to higher loneliness

More than half of college students are lonely—and those who use social media the most are particularly likely to feel isolated, a study of tens of thousands of 18 to 24-year-olds in the US shows. Just 16 hours a week—two ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Q&A: Algorithm achieves near end-to-end genome assembly without ultra-long DNA sequencing

Haoyu Cheng, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical informatics and data science at Yale School of Medicine, has developed a new algorithm capable of building complete human genomes using standard laboratory technology. ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Deer inhibit trees but raise plant diversity, 18-year study reveals

At high densities, white-tailed deer inhibit growth of trees but increase the overall diversity of smaller plant and weed species, according to a long-term study published recently. The work is published in the journal PLOS ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Scent analysis reveals the composition of ancient Egyptian embalming materials

In a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Wanyue Zhao and her colleagues used volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to analyze the composition of scents given off by mummies and their embalming materials. ...

Feb 14, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / What cold-water geysers on Earth reveal about the habitability of ocean worlds

In the eastern Utah desert, carbon-dioxide-saturated water bubbles, sprays and foams from the ground. These cold-water geysers, sometimes called soda pop geysers, are a new and reliable Earth-based analog for scientists studying ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Extreme heat and drought at flowering could put future wheat harvests at risk, study suggests

New research shows that short periods of extreme heat and drought during flowering could become one of the biggest threats to global wheat production in the coming decades. As the climate changes, farmers around the world ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Tech Xplore / Magnetic gear reconfigures the Yagi-Uda antenna for future 6G developments

As researchers around the world race toward the realization of 6G wireless communication systems, the need for antennas that can dynamically adapt to ever-changing signal environments has never been greater. A key requirement ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Telecom