Phys.org news

Phys.org / Consistency check casts doubt on evolving dark energy

Cosmologists have long struggled to determine whether the universe's accelerating expansion is being driven by a simple cosmological constant, or whether dark energy's influence is evolving over time. In a new analysis published ...

39 minutes ago
Phys.org / Extreme weather events are accelerating tidal wetland loss, satellite data show

Tidal wetlands are critical, yet vulnerable ecosystems. Tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and tidal flats support biodiversity, protect against flooding and storm surges, sequester carbon, and improve water quality. Due to ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Bats create 'silent frequency zones' to detect prey in noisy flight, researchers reveal

Sound plays an important role for many animals, helping them navigate and hunt. Echolocation is the ability of animals like bats and dolphins to locate objects by emitting sound waves and interpreting the returning echoes. ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Seabird world shrinks as oceans warm, forcing longer flights to survive

Seabirds such as albatrosses and petrels are retreating into smaller areas of ocean and traveling further to find new places to live as the climate warms. Scientists from the University of Reading studied more than 120 species ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Urban life makes animals bolder, more aggressive across 133 species, analysis finds

A global analysis has found that urban animals are bolder and more aggressive, exploratory and active than their rural counterparts. The findings are published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

8 hours ago
Phys.org / SMILE spacecraft launches to capture first X-ray views of Earth's magnetic shield

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft blasted off into orbit Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the sun slam into Earth's magnetic shield.

4 hours ago
Phys.org / DNA floating in seawater is now enough to let scientists monitor the health of America's dolphin populations

DNA is everywhere in the world's oceans—not only packaged inside cells from skin, scales, mucus, feces, and blood, but also floating freely. Sequencing such "environmental DNA" (eDNA) from open water has long been used as ...

8 hours ago
Phys.org / Supernova dust may be behind one of JWST's biggest puzzles

Astronomers may have found an explanation for one of the biggest mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): why so many galaxies in the early universe appear unexpectedly bright in ultraviolet light. The ...

22 hours ago
Phys.org / Ultrafast switching device unlocks low-power optical-to-electrical conversion for AI hardware

Modern energy demands are soaring as technologies like AI and IoT become more common, and researchers have been working hard to develop hardware that can keep up. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo has ...

15 hours ago
Phys.org / How much worse could western wildfires get? New modeling changes projections

Across the western United States, wildfires are increasing in size and intensity. As the climate continues to warm, more extreme wildfires will reshape landscapes and pose a growing risk to human health and natural ecosystems ...

10 hours ago
Phys.org / AI-generated fake citations are flooding scientific literature across publications, scientists warn

The citations at the end of a research paper should represent a solid foundation of existing knowledge about a particular field, a pool of peer-reviewed sources built over years of research and study. However, with the increasing ...

19 hours ago
Phys.org / White hydrogen discovered in billion-year-old Canadian Shield rock points to potential new energy source

Within the Canadian Shield, hydrogen gas is steadily building up naturally among some of the oldest rocks on Earth. Now, for the first time, geochemists at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa have measured ...

17 hours ago