Phys.org news

Phys.org / The Mediterranean is getting warmer and saltier at an ever-faster pace—even thousands of meters below the surface

Across its basins and thousands of meters down, the Mediterranean Sea is getting warmer and saltier. Now, a new study finds it is also doing so at an increasingly rapid pace. The speedup is largest in the central and eastern ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Insect remains reveal Indigenous burial practices in the Canary Islands

Archaeologists have analyzed insect remains preserved in the 7th to 9th centuries AD funerary cave of Cruz de la Esquina, Gran Canaria, and found that it was used by the island's Indigenous people for food storage before ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Brazilian sedge reproduces sexually but without DNA reshuffling, producing genetic clones

Sexual reproduction usually reshuffles genetic information, creating offspring that differ from their parents. But one small plant takes an unexpected route. In a new study published in Nature, an international team led by ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Hedgehog coronaviruses may threaten cats more than humans, new study finds

Washington State University researchers have discovered how a group of coronaviruses circulating in hedgehogs invades host cells, a key to understanding their potential to jump between species and their risk of causing a ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Ice Age carvers used mammoth tusk patterns to create unique art, study finds

Intricate designs engraved across the surface of 18,000-year-old female figurines carved from mammoth ivory were inspired by the distinctive growth patterns visible in the tusks, a new study published in the journal npj Heritage ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Deep ocean, familiar trash: Plastic waste found alongside possible new species

It's no secret that plastic and other human trash are a problem for marine life, but our understanding has long focused on the ocean's surface. As described in a study published in PLOS One, a more complete picture is coming ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Speeding glaciers drive half a century of polar ice loss

The longest satellite record ever assembled shows that Greenland and Antarctica have lost 11.3 trillion metric tons of ice since the 1970s, raising global sea level by more than 3 centimeters (1.2 inches)—and that most of ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / AI struggles to decipher 'animal language' because sound doesn't equal meaning, experts say

In recent years, numerous attempts have been made to use artificial intelligence to decipher the communication of bats, whales, birds and other animals. However, a new study led by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Engineers solve puzzle of Arctic sea ice movement

Arctic sea ice moves and spreads in ways that wind alone cannot explain. A new UC Riverside-led study finds that collisions between individual pieces of ice provide a surprisingly simple explanation for these movements, potentially ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Compact optical screen could pave the way for cheaper infrared cameras

New research led by the ARC Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) at the University of Melbourne demonstrates a new way to make invisible infrared light visible without relying on the expensive ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Dual findings reveal how to control coherence in plasmonic nanolasers

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have uncovered two complementary mechanisms that govern coherence in miniaturized lasers composed of metallic nanoparticle arrays incorporated into an optical gain material, ...

Sep 16, 2026
Phys.org / Beach-burrowing beasties may shovel more sand than any other animal on Earth

At just an inch (2.5 centimeters) long, the sand hoppers skipping across California's Isla Vista Beach at dawn don't exactly look like a force of nature. But a new study reveals that these shrimp-like creatures might be doing ...

Sep 16, 2026