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Phys.org / Scientists create 'super ice' that is ten times stronger and far harder to shatter

Ice is cheap, abundant and surprisingly strong. But it has one major weakness: Cracks can race through it, causing it to shatter without warning. Now, scientists have developed a new material that could overcome that problem. ...

Sep 15, 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
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 / Neuroscience offers new insights into how our brain solves 'the cocktail party problem'

Imagine you are at a cocktail party. The room is crowded, people are coming and going, and you can barely hear your friend as they tell you some juicy gossip about the date they went on last week.

Sep 18, 2026
Phys.org / As AI reshapes jobs and workers change industries, employers need to be more flexible too

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the tasks people do at work and the skills they need. As work changes, being able to move between jobs, and sometimes industries, may become increasingly important.

Sep 18, 2026
Phys.org / A 5,000-year-old royal mystery: Digital clues point to Meretneith as Egypt's female king

More than 5,000 years ago, a royal woman named Meretneith (also written as Merneith) lived in ancient Egypt. She was possibly the daughter of Djer, the third king of the First Dynasty, a period when the first kings ruled ...

Sep 15, 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 / Mitotic chromosomes may assemble from pre-existing chromatin 'building blocks' during cell division

Inside each human cell, about 2 meters (6.6 feet) of genomic DNA must be accurately copied and equally transmitted to two daughter cells during cell division. To achieve this, the copied DNA is condensed into thick, short ...

Sep 15, 2026
Medical Xpress / Why 'accidents' can happen during intense exercise

There are very few downsides to exercise. But a recent viral story highlighted one of the more embarrassing—and potentially dangerous—issues that can occur when your body reaches its limit during exercise.

Sep 18, 2026
Phys.org / High-resolution weather data could pinpoint neighborhoods facing greatest heat stress

Heat stress is a leading cause of weather-related deaths and can be especially dangerous in cities, where phenomena like urban heat islands drive temperatures higher than in surrounding rural areas. Now, a new dataset developed ...

Sep 15, 2026
Phys.org / Magma repeatedly breaks and heals during eruptions, microscopic evidence suggests

Explosive volcanic eruptions can be as destructive as they are difficult to predict, launching pyroclasts—the fragments of magma and rock blasted from a volcano—into the air and surrounding areas. These particles can have ...

Sep 14, 2026
Phys.org / Climate change contributing to permafrost thawing and glacial thinning

An international team of glaciologists and climate scientists, including professor Bethan Davies from Newcastle University, carried out a rapid scientific analysis and identified the role of climate change and its impacts ...

Sep 17, 2026