Phys.org news

Phys.org / Mule helps scientists build the clearest horse and donkey genomes yet

A mule has helped researchers build the most complete reference genomes to date for horses and donkeys, giving scientists access to complex regions of DNA that earlier versions could not fully capture.

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / The 'wonder material' graphene can be made using a kitchen blender, a mobile phone and a newspaper

There is something slightly ridiculous about using a kitchen blender to make graphene. This is, after all, the "wonder material" associated with futuristic technologies. You might reasonably expect its production to involve ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / Meteorite dust holds records of magnetism that may have helped form the sun

Around 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system was little more than a giant ball of gas and dust. Over the next few million years, this "solar nebula" underwent a huge transformation, flattening into a disk of matter that ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / Supersized quantum sensors make faint photons easier to catch

Our everyday life is flooded with photons, the quantum building blocks of light. For cutting-edge technology, from quantum computing to deep-tissue imaging, detecting every single photon counts.

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / New study reveals how space rocks become meteorites

What happens to a space rock as it falls through Earth's atmosphere and becomes a meteorite? By studying 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct phases in the journey ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / How fusion reactions can survive flaws—up to a point

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that implosions designed for inertial fusion energy (IFE) can tolerate significant imperfections before performance abruptly declines, a finding that ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / New free-space optical link adds a wireless component to the nation's longest quantum network

There's a new lighthouse on Long Island. But instead of shining light to guide ships through waterways, this one transmits and receives particles of light that carry quantum information. Perched atop a seven-story building ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / One step closer to the ideal glass—simulations reveal hidden order at absolute zero

In the physical sense, glass is not limited to familiar window glass; it forms whenever a liquid is cooled so quickly that it cannot crystallize. As a result, glass has an amorphous structure—that is, its "building blocks" ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / Natural gas drilling could raise salt levels, in turn boosting radium in water

Pennsylvania ranks second in U.S. natural gas production, accounting for about one-fifth of U.S. output in 2024, and has one of the most extensive histories of energy extraction in the country. A team of researchers from ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / Wildlife trafficking spreads across social media, putting thousands of species at risk

Researchers monitoring online activity for six weeks in mid-2025 found primates, birds, snakes, frogs, orchids and many other wildlife groups advertised for sale across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Wildlife is ...

Aug 24, 2026
Dialog / A bird's eye view of illegal logging and its consequences in the Peruvian Amazon

When I first arrived in Peru's Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in 2005, a local youth surprised me with an offer to sell me a live owl, despite the fact that we were in a protected area where commercial hunting was prohibited. ...

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / Corners in focus: Metasurface enables motion tracking without digital image processing

A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has developed a new optical corner-detection imaging method that uses azimuthal Hilbert transform metasurfaces and is designed to work as a universal framework. The ...

Aug 24, 2026