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Phys.org / A smashing success: Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider wraps up final collisions

Just after 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, final beams of oxygen ions—oxygen atoms stripped of their electrons—circulated through the twin 2.4-mile-circumference rings of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and ...

Feb 9, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Visualizing how a plant's leaves, stem and roots mutually communicate under environmental stress in real time

How do the different parts of an adult plant communicate with each other when it suffers an injury, is waterlogged, burnt or exposed to environmental stress? Today we can answer this question thanks to an innovative optical ...

Feb 11, 2026 in Biology
Medical Xpress / Outdated mortality benchmarks risk missing early signs of famine and delay recognizing mass starvation

Recent global crises have exposed the limits of a universal mortality threshold for declaring famine—an approach that can obscure how famine actually unfolds across different populations. In a paper published in The Lancet, ...

Feb 13, 2026 in Health
Phys.org / How AI is distorting online research, from polls to public policy

Artificial intelligence is increasingly able to simulate human behavior and answer online surveys and political polls, putting the reliability of survey-based research at risk. Consequences can be serious, not only for science ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Half of the world's coral reefs suffered major bleaching during the 2014–2017 global heat wave, estimates suggest

Benefits to society from coral reefs, including fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, pharmaceutical discovery and more, are estimated at about $9.8 trillion per year. For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian ...

Feb 10, 2026 in Earth
Medical Xpress / 'I wish I could fall asleep and never wake up': Even passive suicidal thoughts are a worry—here's how to respond

Suicide is the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15 to 49. Approximately one in eight Australians have seriously considered suicide.

Feb 14, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Phys.org / Seeing how atoms vibrate at the Ångström scale

Probing the vibration of atoms provides detailed information on local structure and bonding that define material properties. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) offers extremely high resolution to probe such vibrations. ...

Feb 11, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Exploring how the Gulf Stream affects the climate system and the carbon cycle

It is well documented that the Gulf Stream plays a pivotal role in the climate system through its transfer of heat, which ultimately supplies warmth to northern latitudes in the North Atlantic. What remains less well understood ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Earth
Tech Xplore / Counter-drone technologies are evolving—but there's no surefire way to defend against drone attacks

When the Federal Aviation Administration closed the airport in El Paso, Texas, and the airspace around it on Feb. 10, 2026, the cause was, ironically, the nearby use of a technology that could be key to keeping airports and ...

Feb 14, 2026 in Automotive
Phys.org / Unseen planet or brown dwarf may have hidden 'rare' fading star

One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or "super-Jupiter" blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades, ...

Feb 11, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Medical Xpress / Growth of spreading pancreatic cancer is fueled by 'underappreciated' epigenetic changes, shows study

In a lab-grown cell study focused on potential new treatment targets for halting the spread of most pancreatic cancers, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report they have found that a gene called KLF5 (Krueppel-like factor ...

Feb 10, 2026 in Genetics
Phys.org / When heat flows backwards: A neat solution for hydrodynamic heat transport

When we think about heat traveling through a material, we typically picture diffusive transport, a process that transfers heat from high-temperature to low-temperature as particles and molecules bump into each other, losing ...

Feb 10, 2026 in Physics