Phys.org news

Phys.org / Ancient 100-kilometer Himalayan glacier once reached lower than many of India's famous hill stations

A new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews dates the dramatic collapse of one of the largest glaciers ever documented in the Himalayas. The findings overturn a long-held assumption about what sustains wet-climate ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / AI reveals hidden San Andreas Fault movements

When people think about geological faults, they usually think about earthquakes. Yet faults do not move only during earthquakes. Sometimes they slip silently, without generating noticeable shaking, releasing stress over hours ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Ancient rocks reveal Earth's past warm periods were cooler than thought

Earth's temperature has been much cooler in the past than previously thought, meaning it could be moving toward the warmest it's ever been.

Jul 9, 2026
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 / Image: Curiosity rover sees Martian sulfur up close

This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals, the first ever seen on the Red Planet.

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 / Using mechanical vibrations instead of magnetic memory for quantum computing

Quantum computers still face limits when it comes to storing information. Researchers at ETH Zurich are now turning to mechanical vibrations rather than electromagnetic memory. Their new vibrating memory can store significantly ...

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 / Study identifies key mechanism regulating how cells use fat to generate energy

An international study by scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has identified a fundamental mechanism that regulates ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / 'Check your ingredients': A new blueprint for using Fermi's 'Golden Rule'

Underpinning much of modern technology, from smartphones to scanning tunneling microscopes to particle colliders, is Fermi's Golden Rule. Named for 20th-century Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi (but actually discovered ...

Jul 9, 2026