Phys.org news
Phys.org / Map suggests up to 30% of western bird hotspots face severe wildfire risk
Up to 30% of bird diversity hotspots, places where large numbers of different bird species occur, in the western United States face threats from high-severity wildfires in the future that could eliminate critical forest habitats, ...
Phys.org / A ring to transcribe them: The unique path of poxviruses
A research team at the University of Würzburg has deciphered another aspect of poxviral gene activation. They have revealed a unique viral mechanism: A molecular ring anchors the viral copying machine to the DNA. Their findings ...
Phys.org / New durable hybrid materials enable faster radiation detection
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have developed new hybrid materials that challenge conventional thinking about how light-emitting compounds work and could advance the field of fast radiation detection. The research, ...
Phys.org / Chiral myosin steers actin into stable rotating rings without a template, study finds
Living cells are highly organized, yet they are not assembled using rigid blueprints or by following a predetermined plan. Instead, order emerges on its own from countless interactions between molecules that are constantly ...
Phys.org / AI system TongGeometry generates and solves olympiad-level geometry problems
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a prestigious competition featuring talented high school students from around the world, in which competitors solve complicated mathematical problems. Geometry problems from ...
Phys.org / Massive ceramics haul from a 14th-century shipwreck reveals Singapore's trading past
Singapore was a thriving trading hub hundreds of years before popular narratives depicted it as a quiet fishing village, according to a study of the cargo of a centuries-old shipwreck. Sometime during the middle of the 14th ...
Phys.org / Bacterial strain from 5,000-year-old cave ice shows resistance against 10 modern antibiotics
Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent ...
Phys.org / Nanoengineers realize an on-chip excitonic hyperlens
When light passes through materials, it typically changes direction and bends in predictable ways. This change in direction, known as refraction, is caused by a change in the speed of light as it enters a new medium. In some ...
Phys.org / Double white dwarf system detected in a nearby stellar cluster
Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have discovered a compact binary system consisting of two white dwarfs in the center of a nearby globular cluster designated NGC 6397. The finding was presented in a paper ...
Phys.org / Honey bees navigate more precisely than previously thought
A team from the University of Freiburg led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw studied the flight behavior of honey bees. Using a drone, the researchers tracked honey bees as they flew between ...
Phys.org / Not all humans are 'super-scary' to wildlife, animal behavior study suggests
Humans have climbed to the top of the food chain by skillfully hunting, trapping, and fishing for other animals at scales that far exceed other predators, altering how the animals behave and earning the tag of a "super-predator." ...
Phys.org / Scientists discover recent tectonic activity on the moon
Scientists have produced the first global map and analysis of small mare ridges (SMRs) on the moon, a characteristic geological feature of tectonic activity. Published in The Planetary Science Journal Dec. 24, 2025, the analysis ...