Phys.org news

Phys.org / Navigating the past with ancient stone compass needles

Magnetic rocks with iron oxide concentrations act as natural chroniclers of Earth's past continental movements. Using small samples of rocks, scientists can isolate magnetic grains that were frozen in orientation as the rock ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Looking deep inside quarks: CMS test probes to 10⁻²⁰ meters and finds no inner structure

According to our current understanding of the universe, quarks are fundamental, point-like particles: basic building blocks that are not made up of smaller particles. A recent paper from the CMS Collaboration describes how ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Monumental ship burial beneath ancient Norwegian mound predates the Viking Age

Monumental ship burials in Scandinavia may have started around a century earlier than previously thought, according to a paper published in the journal Antiquity. It reports the discovery of the remains of a 1,300-year-old ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Titan's lakes may spawn 10-foot waves in gentle winds, new model suggests

On a calm day, a light breeze might barely ripple the surface of a lake on Earth. But on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, a similar mild wind would kick up 10-foot-tall waves. This otherworldly behavior is one prediction from ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Atlantic current system could be weakening faster than expected

The Atlantic current system, or more formally the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is more likely to weaken than previously thought. That's the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Science ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Baby Neanderthals may have had a rapid growth spurt compared to modern babies

Baby Neanderthals may have been much larger and grown much more quickly than their modern Homo sapiens counterparts, according to a new study of the most intact Neanderthal infant skeleton. Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Laser-plasma accelerator drives free-electron laser for record 8 hours

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that a laser-plasma accelerator can reliably drive a free-electron laser for more than eight hours. Published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, the result was achieved ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Monkeys navigate a virtual forest with thought alone, pushing brain-computer interfaces beyond the lab

As a part of a study testing out a new type of implanted brain-computer interface (BCI), three rhesus monkeys controlled movements in a virtual reality (VR) world using only brain signals. The study, published in Science ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Methane emerges from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it exits the solar system

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is now on its way out of our solar system, never to return. The comet was only the third-ever detected object to originate from outside our solar system. Traveling at high speeds, it looped around ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / A newly recognized pollutant is widely present in the atmosphere

A new study shows that a specific type of silicone, the so-called methylsiloxanes, is widely present in the atmosphere across diverse environments. Also, concentrations appear to be much higher than expected. According to ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Patagonia yields 155-million-year-old long-necked dinosaur with links to two famous lineages

A German–Argentine team of paleontologists led by SNSB dinosaur expert Oliver Rauhut has discovered a new long-necked dinosaur, Bicharracosaurus dionidei, from the Upper Jurassic period in Argentina, dating back approximately ...

Apr 16, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum bottleneck breaks wide open as one light beam carries 23 secure channels at the same time

A new Bar-Ilan University study points to a major advance in quantum information processing, demonstrating a way to send, manipulate, and measure quantum information across many frequency channels simultaneously, rather than ...

Apr 16, 2026