Phys.org news

Phys.org / Programmable light simulates quantum matter across 300 processes without bigger circuits

A team of researchers at the University of Ottawa and its Nexus for Quantum Technologies Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Federico II University in Italy, has developed a programmable quantum simulator that ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / The real Moana story: Why the Polynesians suddenly sailed east

Major drought forced people to migrate across the Pacific beyond Samoa and Tonga and toward the Americas, scientists have discovered. With the new live-action "Moana" film hitting cinemas, a team of geographers and climate ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / New physics-based machine-learning method speeds search for 2D quantum materials

Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a new computational approach to help identify two-dimensional materials that may host unusual quantum behavior. The work, published in Science Advances, focuses on ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum material opens new path for studying unusual electronic behavior

By combining approaches from two rapidly growing fields of quantum physics, researchers at Penn State and Saint Louis University have demonstrated that a novel specialized material can naturally enable a new way to study ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Carbon–bismuth bonds reveal that relativity blurs the textbook line between sigma and pi bonds

Brown University chemists have provided direct evidence that upends the textbook explanation of how triple chemical bonds work in heavy elements. In a study published in Science, the researchers show evidence that when atomic ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Transparent nanosheets could shrink phone cameras while preserving high-resolution color images

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have developed gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) nanosheets that may enhance camera resolution in compact devices, including smartphones and medical endoscopes.

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Aging rewires RNA production, favoring short genes over long neuronal ones

A new Northwestern Medicine study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has explored the impacts of aging on essential cellular processes, findings that could shape the development of future anti-aging ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Young giant gas planet Beta Pic B refuses to reveal its origin

The young planetary system of the 23-million-year-old star Beta Pictoris (short: Beta Pic) is regarded as an iconic circumstellar dust disk, which hosts at least three giant gas planets. Discovered in 2008 by direct imaging, ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Heat waves push tropical forests past photosynthesis limits across 57 million hectares

As heat waves continue one after another, we are feeling their effects on our own bodies: It becomes harder for us to function normally. Trees also have their limits when temperatures are too high. Above a certain critical ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum optics may turn this rare visual phenomenon into an eye test

Modern life depends on quantum physics. It makes technologies such as GPS navigation, MRI scanners and computer chips possible. Now, the same science may also lead to a new way to test the health of our eyes. A University ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Observing oscillations, flares and tornados on the sun

For six and a half days in July 2024, the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III kept its gaze fixed on the sun. The stratospheric flight, which stretched from the northernmost tip of Sweden to Canada's Northwest Territories, ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Medieval Islamic societies considered lovesickness a distinct mental illness, research shows

Lovesickness was taken seriously as a distinct mental illness by physicians in the medieval Islamic world, new research shows. Islamic scholars considered lovesickness, which they called ʿishq, to be different from melancholy—unlike ...

Jul 9, 2026