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Phys.org / Map suggests up to 30% of western bird hotspots face severe wildfire risk

Up to 30% of bird diversity hotspots, places where large numbers of different bird species occur, in the western United States face threats from high-severity wildfires in the future that could eliminate critical forest habitats, ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Warming winters are disrupting the hidden world of fungi—the result can shift mountain grasslands to scrub

When you look out across a snowy winter landscape, it might seem like nature is fast asleep. Yet, under the surface, tiny organisms are hard at work, consuming the previous year's dead plant material and other organic matter.

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Medical Xpress / Weight-loss wonder pills prompt scrutiny of their key ingredient

Blockbuster weight-loss drugs are transforming the way we treat obesity. But while costly injectable versions remain out of reach for many, newly approved tablet forms are expected to significantly boost access and demand. ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Medications
Tech Xplore / Safer batteries for storing energy at massive scale: A new electrolyte with proton-hopping conductivity

Among the enduring challenges of storing energy—for wind or solar farms, or backup storage for the energy grid or data centers—is batteries that can hold large amounts of electricity for a long time. In addition to having ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Engineering
Tech Xplore / Atom-thin ferroelectric transistor can store 3,024 polarization states

Over the past few decades, electronics engineers have been trying to develop new neuromorphic hardware, systems that mirror the organization of neurons in the human brain. These systems could run artificial intelligence (AI) ...

Feb 14, 2026 in Hardware
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
Phys.org / The making of doting dads may involve a specific gene

Male caregiving is rare. Of the nearly 6,000 mammalian species, fewer than 5% of fathers stick around to raise their own young. Most are even instinctively hostile. Even among the mammals that pitch in with caregiving duties, ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / New durable hybrid materials enable faster radiation detection

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have developed new hybrid materials that challenge conventional thinking about how light-emitting compounds work and could advance the field of fast radiation detection. The research, ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Chemistry
Tech Xplore / Dry-processed battery electrodes skip slurry and deliver better high-voltage cycling

Due to cheaper cost, ease of production and environmental benefits, battery makers and electric vehicle manufacturers have long pursued dry processes for building electrodes. A new dry-processed electrode architecture from ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Energy & Green Tech
Phys.org / Trapping a single protein in a molecular cage: A new path to drug discovery for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Proteins often function in pairs or groups, concealing their internal connection points and making it difficult for scientists to study their individual units without altering their natural structure. In a study published ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Chemistry
Medical Xpress / Early periods and changing fertility patterns may influence ovarian cancer risk

Ovarian cancer is still one of the deadliest gynecological cancers affecting women around the world, especially in East Asian countries, where the numbers keep rising year after year. A new nationwide study in South Korea ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Phys.org / Antarctica sits above Earth's strongest 'gravity hole.' Now we know how it got that way

Gravity feels reliable—stable and consistent enough to count on. But reality is far stranger than our intuition. In truth, the strength of gravity varies over Earth's surface. And it is weakest beneath the frozen continent ...

Feb 16, 2026 in Earth