Phys.org news

Phys.org / North Atlantic deep waters show slower renewal as ocean ventilation weakens

The ocean is continuously ventilated when surface waters sink and transport, for example, oxygen and carbon to greater depths. The efficiency of this process can be estimated using the so-called water age, which describes ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Failed battery chemistry offers new way to destroy PFAS

Researchers in the lab of Asst. Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) have spent three years looking for failure, scouring the academic literature for ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Beyond chemistry: How mechanical forces shape brain wiring

During brain development, neurons extend long processes called axons. Axons link different areas of the brain and carry signals within it and to the rest of the body. Growing axons "wire up" the brain by following precise ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Water makeup of Jupiter's Galilean moons set at birth, new study finds

While Io, the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, appears completely dry and devoid of water ice, its neighbor Europa is thought to harbor a vast global ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. A new international ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Drones reveal how feral horse units keep boundaries

For social animals, encounters between rival groups can often lead to conflict. While some species avoid this by maintaining fixed territories, others, like the feral horses, live in a "multilevel society" where multiple ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / How shifting tectonic plates drove Earth's climate swings

Carbon released from Earth's spreading tectonic plates, not volcanoes, may have triggered major transitions between ancient ice ages and warm climates, new research finds.

Jan 20, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / To fight cancer, scientists customize cellular protein

Precise methods for shredding or repairing and replacing specific cancer-causing proteins in a malignant cell, developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, could have applications beyond cancer to a wide range of ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Intricacies of Helix Nebula revealed with Webb

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has zoomed into the Helix Nebula to give an up-close view of the possible eventual fate of our own sun and planetary system. In Webb's high-resolution look, the structure of the gas being ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Pūkeko birds combine sound elements to create complex call sequences for communication, study reveals

Pūkeko use sound elements to create calls and combine them to create complex call sequences in order to expand the range of options for expressing themselves—these are the findings of an international team including Konstanz ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / ALMA reveals teenage years of new worlds

Astronomers have, for the first time, captured a detailed snapshot of planetary systems in an era long shrouded in mystery. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / The last spiny dormouse in Europe

Today, only one species of the spiny dormouse survives, in southern India. However, the oldest spiny dormouse in evolutionary history, a member of the rodent family, was found in sediment dating back 17.5 to 13.3 million ...

Jan 20, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / A two-week leap in breeding: Antarctic penguins' striking climate adaptation

A decade-long study led by Penguin Watch, at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, has uncovered a record shift in the breeding season of Antarctic penguins, likely in response to climate change.

Jan 20, 2026 in Biology