Phys.org news

Dialog / Blood-clotting protein may be SARS-CoV-2's hidden accomplice, helping it hide from antibodies and reach blood vessels

Fibrinogen, the abundant plasma protein best known for forming blood clots, may play a second and far less benign role during SARS-CoV-2 infection: acting as a molecular bridge that simultaneously hides the virus from neutralizing ...

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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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
Phys.org / Nanoparticle flu vaccine protects against three influenza strains in mice

A new nanoparticle vaccine could one day give patients immunity to the flu with fewer trips to the doctor and without requiring health officials to correctly guess which flu strains will become dominant each year.

Aug 24, 2026
Phys.org / LST-1 and MAGIC telescopes shatter distance record for the very high-energy blazar OP 313

On Aug. 15, the CTAO LST Collaboration and the MAGIC Collaboration released findings from observations of OP 313, the most distant very-high-energy blazar ever recorded. The paper, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, presents ...

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 / A 2-degree twist creates a nanoscale grid that traps light energy at room temperature

You may have once tried taking a close-up picture of a computer screen and noticed a wavy, rippling effect. This optical effect occurs whenever two fine, repeating grids overlap and slightly misalign, such as when the pixel ...

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