Phys.org news

Phys.org / Random physics helps model individual ant motion

Ants make up one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, with many species boasting remarkable physical abilities and social behaviors, and an overall species richness that far exceeds that of mammals. Various ...

Aug 6, 2026
Phys.org / Fluorescent nanosensors help distinguish between healthy and diseased immune cells in blood samples

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab have developed a new method to analyze the condition of immune cells in the blood. The method has been tested on patients with atherosclerosis and can distinguish their ...

Aug 6, 2026
Phys.org / Interlocking molecular propellers create stable 'islands' in artificial lipid membranes

Cells are enclosed by a cell membrane, a sophisticated structure mainly made of lipids that is vital for fundamental biological processes. Artificial lipid membranes have many practical applications, such as drug delivery, ...

Aug 6, 2026
Phys.org / Neanderthal growth hormone receptor increases muscle mass in people today, study shows

Neanderthals were generally more strongly built than most people living today. Their bones show signs of large muscles, and they had characteristic features such as prominent brow ridges and relatively short tooth roots.

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Two origins of life: Free-living cells may have emerged twice as bacteria and archaea diverged

How and where did the first forms of life arise? These are the main questions driving research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). In a new publication in Science Advances, ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Runaway supermassive black hole RBH-1 offers new way to reconstruct ancient merger

Black holes are fascinating regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape them. The largest known black holes, called supermassive black holes, contain millions to billions of times the ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Venus's polygonal plains could point to a watery past

Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Scattered Roman bones point to potential fourth-century purge at Brading Villa

Disarticulated bones found scattered across a luxurious Roman villa on England's Isle of Wight may be evidence of a massacre carried out during a brutal political purge in the fourth century, a new study in Britannia suggests.

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Astronomers catch 'Hatchling' quasar breaking out of its dusty cocoon

Using observations from multiple powerful telescopes, a team of astronomers studied a red quasar nicknamed "the Hatchling" at redshift 3.7. They may have identified one of the clearest examples yet of a quasar caught in transition ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Were there tiny dinosaurs? New study explores one of evolution's biggest mysteries

Dinosaurs are famous for being big, from the towering Tyrannosaurus rex to the colossal Apatosaurus. But a new study published today in the journal Evolution by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Princeton ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / Tiny vortices discovered on the sun's surface

Researchers from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, and the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) in the U.S. have made ...

Aug 5, 2026
Phys.org / A new species of Ice Age toad discovered at La Brea Tar Pits: The spadefoot toad Spea labreae

For the first time, researchers have discovered a new species of extinct amphibian from Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits: a spadefoot toad they have named Spea labreae. Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian ...

Aug 5, 2026