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Phys.org / Alfvén waves act as the power source behind Earth's auroral displays, research reveals

The dazzling lights of the aurora are created when high-energy particles from space collide with Earth's atmosphere. While scientists have long understood this process, one big mystery remained: What powers the electric fields ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Tech Xplore / Powering AI from space, at scale, with a passive tether design

Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit Earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers.

Jan 28, 2026 in Energy & Green Tech
Phys.org / Residents from strongly blue or red counties favor like-minded destinations for everyday travel, analysis finds

A new analysis of 471 U.S. counties has found that, for everyday travel, people from counties with particularly strong political leanings—whether liberal or conservative—are more likely to visit like-minded destinations. ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Capturing the moment of organelle handoff inside living cells

For the first time, researchers have directly visualized how newly formed cellular organelles leave the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and transition onto microtubule tracks inside living cells. This new finding reveals that ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Empowering an AI foundation model to accelerate plant research

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a new method that more than doubles computer processing speeds while using 75% less memory to analyze plant imaging data. The advance removes ...

Jan 29, 2026 in Biology
Tech Xplore / Meet the soft humanoid robot that can grow, shrink, fly and walk on water

Humanoid robots look impressive and have enormous potential to change our daily lives, but they still have a reputation for being clunky. They're also heavy and stiff, and if they fall, they can easily break and injure people ...

Jan 26, 2026 in Robotics
Medical Xpress / No more jet lag? Scientists discover oral compound that helps 'reset' the body clock forward

A Japanese research team has discovered a new compound that can advance the body's internal clock—offering hope for faster recovery from jet lag and better adaptation to night-shift work. The compound, called Mic-628, specifically ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Continued exposure to certain heavy metals linked to ADHD in childhood

Impulsivity, hyperactivity, and difficulty concentrating are some of the symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is estimated that 6% of schoolchildren in Catalonia suffer to a greater or lesser ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Attention deficit disorders
Phys.org / Hearing tests uncover unexpected humpback sensitivity to high-frequency noise

University of Queensland hearing tests conducted across kilometers of ocean off the Australian coast show humpback whales react to higher frequency sounds than expected. Associate Professor Rebecca Dunlop from UQ's School ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / How iron-sulfur nanolayers are formed: X-ray methods enable real-time view

Researchers at the University of Hamburg, the University of Toulouse, and the DESY and ESRF research institutes have observed for the first time in real time how iron-sulfur nanostructures form in solutions. Using time-resolved ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Extracellular vesicles manage to slip gene edits into Pneumocystis fungi

Pneumocystis is an unwieldy genus of fungal pathogens that cause severe pneumonia, particularly in immunocompromised people like those with HIV/AIDs or who have received organ transplants. However, the mechanisms by which ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Strength-in-numbers X-ray technique can map previously unattainable atomic structures

For many decades, the method to obtain atomic-level descriptions of chemical compounds and materials—be it a drug, a catalyst, or a commodity chemical—has been X-ray crystallography. This method has a known weakness: ...

Jan 28, 2026 in Chemistry