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Phys.org / Why most rivers don't respond to storms the same way twice

The same amount of rain falling on the same landscape at different times can send very different amounts of water into its rivers, according to a new study in Nature Water. The research offers a global picture of how catchments ...

Sep 15, 2026
Phys.org / Australia's ancient rainfall patterns more complex than previously believed

"Sediment and fossil records are a major pillar of our understanding of how the climate works—but climate scientists have gotten something wrong about Australia's ice age," says Dr. Alex F. Wall, lead author of a new research ...

Sep 16, 2026
Tech Xplore / Tiny hydrides reveal hidden stresses that can crack nuclear reactor pressure tubes

Western University engineers have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing challenge in nuclear power. Their study, published in Nature Communications, describes for the first time how hydrogen can combine with zirconium ...

Sep 16, 2026
Medical Xpress / Reading for pleasure: Lifelong health and cognitive benefits

Reading for pleasure—from tucking into a Jane Austen classic to devouring a Heartstopper graphic novel—is linked to better mental health, greater empathy and a lower risk of dementia, say researchers.

Sep 14, 2026
Phys.org / New simulations link unusual particle diffusion to yielding in soft jammed matter

Soft materials such as colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams and gels often display complex and unusual behaviors compared with ordinary solids or liquids. From a mechanical point of view, for instance, they can resist ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Record-breaking levels of plastic found in seabirds, with almost 900 pieces found in one bird alone

For more than a decade, it was thought that the world's most plastic-polluted birds couldn't get any more contaminated by the man-made material. But then, from 2023–2026, the record was broken every single year.

Sep 15, 2026
Phys.org / Room-temperature skyrmion-based synapses could pave the way for energy-efficient AI

Artificial intelligence is transforming how information is generated, processed and stored, but its rapid expansion is also driving unprecedented demand for computing power and electricity. Developing hardware that can process ...

Sep 14, 2026
Medical Xpress / Software rapidly tracks viral variants with high accuracy to aid outbreak responses

It was mid-2020, and Patrick Varilly, a software engineer and data scientist, was stuck at home, eager to help the world navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He reconnected with Pardis Sabeti, a core institute member of ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / How the 2024 solar superstorm drained Earth's radiation belt

In May 2024, Earth experienced its most intense geomagnetic storm since the Halloween storms of 2003. This "superstorm" filled night skies in many parts of the world with colorful aurorae, and it disrupted some infrastructure, ...

Sep 14, 2026
Tech Xplore / 'Relax-and-round' method could help grids manage data center power demand

Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a computational method that could help electric grid operators and data center developers manage power more efficiently as ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Heating mica to 200°C reveals friction independent of sliding speed

Through joint research with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Tokyo, NIMS for the first time experimentally demonstrated friction completely independent of sliding velocity—an ideal that had never been realized—by ...

Sep 16, 2026
Medical Xpress / A new AI-powered test offers more accurate prediction of breast cancer recurrence risk

A new study published in the journal npj Breast Cancer demonstrates that an artificial intelligence (AI) model offers more accurate predictions of recurrence risk in patients with early-stage breast cancer than the widely ...

Sep 17, 2026