Phys.org news

Phys.org / Astronomers discover the earliest known flickering quasar

A supermassive black hole lies at the heart of every galaxy, including the Milky Way. When a black hole is active, it pulls material in as a whirlpool of high-temperature gas and dust. As this cosmic material piles up and ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / How Artemis II livestreamed hi-def videos and images from the moon to Earth

This April, humanity had front-row seats to space as the Artemis II Orion spacecraft transmitted crystal-clear footage of its historic journey around the moon from more than 250,000 miles (about 402,000 kilometers) back to ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Superheated magma may explain why similar volcanoes erupt in very different ways

Scientists have shed light on a thermal process in magma that may help explain why similar volcanic systems can produce very different eruptive behaviors.

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / 50 years of data reveals true extent of climate change impacts on kelp forests

New research from the University of Victoria (UVic) has found that some kelp forests around Vancouver Island were disappearing far earlier than scientists previously thought, highlighting that climate change has been altering ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Medicinal plants yield carbon nanoparticles that glow red and flag toxic metals

What do iron, lead and nickel have in common? These heavy metals are an indispensable part of many industries. However, they also share a dark reality: They are serious environmental and public health threats. Every day, ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Cosmic bombardment may have opened Earth's crust for prebiotic chemistry

Asteroids and planetesimals regularly bombarded Earth between about 4.6 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, during the Hadean and Archean eons. Because few rocks today are more than 4 billion years old, our understanding of ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Headless skeletons offer new insights into farming societies 7,000 years ago

Dozens of human skeletons, lying apparently randomly on and next to each other, with their skulls missing, present a terrifying sight at first glance. Since 2022, this is what researchers have been excavating in a 7,000-year-old ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Antibiotics drive resistance in waterways—even after they break down

Antibiotics continue to drive resistance in bacteria, even after they are broken down in wastewater treatment plants and discharged into rivers and seas, new research published on World Oceans Day has shown for the first ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / DNA design unlocks nanometer-scale catalyst control for cleaner hydrogen production

The fixed idea that DNA is only a molecule that stores genetic information is being challenged. KAIST researchers have developed a technology that controls the chemical environment around catalysts at the nanometer scale ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Bacteria can learn and form memories without a brain

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that bacteria can learn from past experiences, store memories across generations and adapt their behavior to changing environments, all without a brain or nervous system. ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / X-ray scans uncover Nazi symbols hidden beneath postwar painting

Erich Mercker (1891–1973), a painter from Munich, was quite successful in his day. Between 1933 and 1945, he painted works containing Nazi symbolism, including "Die Stätte des 9. November," which depicts the Feldherrnhalle ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Cloud-tested quantum noise model predicts superconducting qubit errors with sevenfold better accuracy

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have developed a practical, comprehensive noise-modeling framework for a popular class of ...

Jun 8, 2026