Phys.org news

Phys.org / Why negativity can motivate founders: Study links doubts to greater persistence

A new study finds entrepreneurs become more committed to their business ventures when they are told they will fail, increasing their efforts to make those businesses successful. "Most entrepreneurs—people who start their ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Rising simultaneous wildfire risk compromises international firefighting efforts

The most high-risk conditions for fires are increasingly happening across countries at the same time, making resulting wildfires even more challenging to tackle, new research reveals.

Feb 18, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / As glaciers retreat, Greenland seals may lose key feeding hotspots

Studying foraging behavior in marine mammals is especially difficult. Unlike terrestrial animals, which can often be directly observed, marine mammals feed underwater and across vast, remote areas, making it challenging to ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / An 'electrical' circadian clock balances growth between shoots and roots

Plants don't just respond to light and water, they also run on an internal daily timekeeper known as the circadian clock. Researchers have now discovered that the plant circadian clock can regulate electrochemical signals ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Antibiotic resistance is rising: A membrane protease could be E. coli's weak spot

A University of Alberta research team has identified a new drug target to treat harmful E. coli bacteria—which cause nearly 250,000 deaths a year from urinary tract infections (UTI) and are becoming increasingly resistant ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Cracks in snow propagate faster than expected

Since 10 January 2026, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) has received reports of hundreds of "whumpfs" (i.e., sounds indicating a collapse in the snowpack) and of remote triggering events—unmistakable ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Chiral myosin steers actin into stable rotating rings without a template, study finds

Living cells are highly organized, yet they are not assembled using rigid blueprints or by following a predetermined plan. Instead, order emerges on its own from countless interactions between molecules that are constantly ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Cultured beef differs from conventional beef in allergy-related hazards, food safety study shows

As cultured meat moves toward commercialization, people want to understand how it impacts health compared to conventional animal meat. So, researchers publishing in theJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry conducted ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / A ring to transcribe them: The unique path of poxviruses

A research team at the University of Würzburg has deciphered another aspect of poxviral gene activation. They have revealed a unique viral mechanism: A molecular ring anchors the viral copying machine to the DNA. Their findings ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Bacterial strain from 5,000-year-old cave ice shows resistance against 10 modern antibiotics

Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Astronomers may have just found one of the missing links in galaxy evolution

A team of 48 astronomers from 14 countries, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has discovered a population of dusty, star-forming galaxies at the far edges of the universe that formed only a billion years after ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Not all humans are 'super-scary' to wildlife, animal behavior study suggests

Humans have climbed to the top of the food chain by skillfully hunting, trapping, and fishing for other animals at scales that far exceed other predators, altering how the animals behave and earning the tag of a "super-predator." ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology