Phys.org news

Phys.org / More activity means less response in active materials

For some time, researchers have assumed that solid materials could gain more useful properties by making their microscopic components more active. Now, a team led by Jack Binysh at the University of Amsterdam has found that ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / Before dinosaurs vanished, a hamster-sized mammal was already shaping what survived next on the Pacific Coast

Mammals and dinosaurs coexisted on Earth until a catastrophic event 66 million years ago killed 75% of life on the planet. Despite the devastation, some animals survived, including rodent-like mammals in the Cimolodon genus. ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / Magnet with near-zero external field could reshape future electronics

An international research team led by DTU has developed a new magnetic material that features a stable internal magnetic structure, almost no external magnetic field, and retains these properties above room temperature. These ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / This life‑threatening bacterium's hidden motor just gave medicine an unexpected opening to fight back

Scientists have mapped in unprecedented detail the structure of Vibrio bacteria, which can cause life-threatening infections linked to antibiotic resistance. The King's College London team behind the study, published in Nature ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / Inside 18 years of ape minds, a vast record that may upend how human intelligence began

A pioneering project led by researchers from the University of Stirling and the Max Planck Institute has opened the door for new insights into the evolutionary origins of human intelligence, by compiling the largest dataset ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Cruise ship pathogen spread in ancient Rome; Plus: Pomegranates, retinal implants

This week, researchers reported that malaria influenced population distribution in Africa thousands of years ago. Mathematicians at MIT report that classical physics formulations can explain quantum phenomena. And a study ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / Gravity's subtle effect on light could improve groundwater, volcano and carbon storage monitoring

A study by University of Wollongong (UOW) physicist Dr. Enbang Li has demonstrated that gravity can subtly influence the behavior of light, a breakthrough that could underpin future technologies for monitoring groundwater, ...

Apr 24, 2026
Phys.org / Self-regulating process governs cosmic order inside star clusters

A team of astrophysicists from Nanjing University and University of Bonn have demonstrated that, rather than being random, the mass of new stars born inside a star cluster is actually governed by a defined process of self-regulation. ...

Apr 24, 2026
Phys.org / Carbon nanotubes are closing the gap on copper conductivity

Carbon nanotubes are one technology that many observers believe hasn't quite lived up to the extreme hype that surrounded them when they first appeared on the scene in the late 1990s. At that time, much was made of their ...

Apr 24, 2026
Phys.org / 'Aquila Booster' challenges theoretical limits of particle acceleration in pulsar wind nebulae

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has detected PeV (1015 eV) gamma-ray emission from a pulsar wind nebula powered by PSR J1849-0001 in the constellation Aquila, marking the discovery of a new PeVatron ...

Apr 24, 2026
Phys.org / New approach to detect ultra-rare part-per-sextillion isotopes could also sharpen dark matter searches

The detection and study of isotopes, atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons, could expand the scope of physics research and enable new scientific discoveries. So far, rare isotopes have been primarily ...

Apr 24, 2026
Phys.org / Neutrinos caught on camera: Testing the first prototype of a new elementary particle detector

Some innovations in physics come from entirely new technologies, others from fresh theoretical insights. Others still take shape by bringing together existing tools in new ways, working out how to combine them to outperform ...

Apr 24, 2026