Phys.org news

Phys.org / ZTF discovers a new mass-transferring brown dwarf binary system

Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and elsewhere report the discovery of a binary system consisting of two brown dwarfs undergoing stable mass transfer. The detection of the system, designated ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / How graphene oxide kills bacteria while sparing human cells

Hygiene in everyday items that touch the body—such as clothing, masks, and toothbrushes—is critically important. The underlying principle of how graphene selectively eliminates only bacteria has now been revealed. In Advanced ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / Binding to RNA is not enough—changing its shape is what makes a drug work, study reveals

Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) serve as messengers between DNA and protein production, and perform a wide variety of regulatory functions across different cellular processes. This makes them an interesting target for drug designers. ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / Seals use whisker movement to follow underwater trails—an approach that could improve robotic sensing

Seals are carnivorous marine mammals that are well adapted to hunting for fish underwater, where visibility is poor. In such conditions, seals rely on their highly sensitive whiskers to detect tiny water movements left behind ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / A mass mating event in the lab reveals how yeast cells choose partners

While humans often struggle to find a partner who is both physically attractive and a reliable co-parent, yeast may already have cracked the formula for the perfect match. When choosing mates, these single-celled organisms ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / Eco-friendly hair repair adds to more natural personal care product pipeline

Hair damaged by dyes, bleaching or harsh sunlight has just got special treatment. Green chemistry researchers at Flinders University are experimenting with plant-based oils to develop a promising new structural keratin-type ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / How internal waves transport energy thousands of miles across the ocean

Both winds and tides inject energy into the ocean. Much of that energy is then transported up to thousands of miles by internal waves: large-scale underwater waves that can travel between ocean basins. Quantifying the amount ...

Mar 29, 2026
Phys.org / Human brain operates near, but not at, the critical point

A recent study published in Physical Review Letters reveals that many widely used signatures of criticality in brain data may be statistical artifacts. They propose a more robust framework that, when applied to whole-brain ...

Mar 28, 2026
Phys.org / North Sea wind farms may be reshaping sediment flows by 1.5 million tons a year

Offshore wind farms are an important pillar of the European Union's strategy for renewable energy—by 2050, the EU aims to increase capacity in the North Sea more than tenfold. A new study by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon shows ...

Mar 28, 2026
Phys.org / AI-driven framework uncovers new carbon structures—one thought to be harder than diamond

Through new improvements to existing AI models, researchers in China have created a framework that can methodically identify useful new forms of solid carbon. With their approach, Zhibin Gao and colleagues at Xi'an Jiaotong ...

Mar 28, 2026
Phys.org / Lab-based mini-atmosphere reveals how turbulence changes on different scales

With a new lab-based experiment, researchers in the UK and France have recreated the characteristic cascades of energy and angular momentum that underpin key features of Earth's atmosphere. Reporting in Physical Review Letters, ...

Mar 28, 2026
Phys.org / Bacteria invent another way to turn on genes

In their landmark 1961 paper on the lac operon, Nobel laureates François Jacob and Jacques Monod speculated that RNA might control gene activity in bacteria through base-pairing interactions. But once protein transcription ...

Mar 28, 2026