Phys.org news

Phys.org / AI makes a major breakthrough in a math problem that had stumped experts for decades

For nearly 80 years, mathematicians have struggled to solve a classic geometry puzzle first posed by Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem. The question posed by the legendary Hungarian mathematician was, on ...

1 hour ago
Phys.org / South China Sea coral reefs reveal carbon stores rivaling mangroves and seagrasses

A collaborative research team has revealed the long-overlooked carbon storage potential of coral reef ecosystems and how reef-dwelling fish, corals, and surface sediments jointly shape reef carbon reservoirs. The paper is ...

18 minutes ago
Phys.org / 'Designer' superconducting diamond: Researchers uncover path to multi-modality quantum chips

Diamond is extremely valuable to science and technology not for its sparkle but for its extreme hardness, high thermal conductivity, transparency to a large fraction of the light spectrum, and a host of other exceptional ...

11 minutes ago
Phys.org / Key switch controlling soil fungi symbiosis could solve a longstanding agricultural problem

Over the course of evolution, plants have developed an elegant strategy to counteract a lack of phosphate in the soil—they form symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. These mycorrhizal fungi efficiently supply their plant ...

58 minutes ago
Phys.org / Second ribosome binding site helps explain how tetracyclines work

For decades, doctors have widely used tetracyclines for conditions ranging from acne to tick-borne illnesses. Using high-resolution imaging technology, researchers in the laboratory of Christopher Bunick, MD, Ph.D., associate ...

38 minutes ago
Phys.org / Bodies in fashion: Diversity is up, but the ideal stays the same

Fashion and media have become visibly more diverse over the past quarter-century. Yet beneath that surface change, a new study suggests that the industry's central female body ideal has barely shifted.

58 minutes ago
Phys.org / Ocean acidification is ruining reef fishes' social lives, study finds

A new study from Adelaide University has found that when ocean acidification makes reef habitat less complex, the fish living there gather in smaller shoals that offer less social protection.

1 hour ago
Phys.org / Sequential antibiotic strategy can weaken dangerous pathogens

A research team from Kiel University has demonstrated which specific cellular mechanisms lead to the targeted weakening of bacterial pathogens, thereby increasing the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment. The research is ...

1 hour ago
Phys.org / Agentic AI could help electron microscopes plan, adapt and analyze experiments

Scientific discovery is often portrayed as the result of long hours alone in a lab, but true science is inherently collaborative. The most robust experimental processes are developed through partnerships across multiple areas ...

1 hour ago
Phys.org / Hi-res microscopes give biologists petabytes of data. Scientists are creating an AI assistant to make sense of it

In a cramped, windowless room on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, two bespoke microscopes—each a Swiss Army knife for high-resolution imaging—operate around the clock gathering data that will help train a game-changing ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Using pulsars as ultra-precise gravitational probes to 'weigh' neighboring galaxies

Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, have identified a promising new method for measuring the mass of galaxies orbiting the Milky Way by using pulsars, ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Coral refuges in Western Australia resist 2025 bleaching through record marine heat

The team of scientists from James Cook University, University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University surveyed coral reefs in the West Australian Houtman Abrolhos group of islands (HAI), publishing their findings ...

2 hours ago