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Phys.org / Laser altimeter BELA ready to explore Mercury's surface

Launched on Oct. 20, 2018, the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has traveled for almost eight years, using a carefully planned but eventful sequence of planetary flybys and solar-electric propulsion to gradually approach ...

Sep 15, 2026
Phys.org / Tons of fishing gear and plastic are washing up on Seychelles beaches. We tracked where it was coming from

Vast quantities of plastic and fishing gear are washing up along the shores of the Seychelles, destroying fragile ecosystems and causing significant economic problems.

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Marine bacteria team up to break down one of the ocean's toughest carbon-storing molecules

Deep in the ocean, brown algae and diatoms produce a complex carbohydrate molecule called fucoidan, which helps form their protective outer layers. The fucoidan molecule is very difficult for microbes to break down because ...

Sep 15, 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 / Scaling up the detection of genome-edited rice lines

A new open-access study introduces RiSpy, a data-driven fingerprinting framework that makes the identification of genome-edited (GE) rice lines more robust, scalable and broadly applicable. Researchers from Sciensano, together ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Great Salt Lake's ancient past reveals how quickly fresh water can disappear

From a mountainside overlooking Utah's Great Salt Lake, a time traveler turning back the clock 20,000 years would watch a dramatic transformation of the landscape. The shallow, salty lake below would swell into an immense ...

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
Phys.org / Disordered atoms steer shared light pulses by matching motion and timing

A research team at the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Darmstadt has shown for the first time that atoms that are completely disordered and in constant motion can nevertheless emit jointly directed light preferentially ...

Sep 15, 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
Phys.org / Transfer learning corrects alloy calculations to predict unexplored materials

Metals can be transformed into alloys by adding different elements, allowing their strength, stability and other properties to be tailored. A key parameter for understanding these properties is the volume size factor (VSF), ...

Sep 17, 2026
Tech Xplore / Your robotic vacuum is a witness: What home robots mean for evidence, privacy and the law

A husband in Taiwan suspected his wife of having an affair. In September 2023, he found a used toothbrush at their vacation home, and garage video showed an unfamiliar man driving his wife there. Three months later, he opened ...

Sep 17, 2026
Medical Xpress / Blood test trends may help identify patients at increased risk of cancer

Blood test trends alongside unexplained weight loss can improve triage for cancer testing, according to a study by Brian Nicholson and colleagues from the University of Oxford, UK, published Sept. 17 in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Sep 17, 2026