Phys.org news

Phys.org / X-ray tracking reveals uneven expansion in young supernova remnant G292.0+1.8

By analyzing data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Dutch astronomers have investigated a young, oxygen-rich supernova remnant known as G292.0+1.8. Results of the new study, published June 29 on the arXiv preprint server, ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: Blue zone longevity; soft tissue find predates dinosaurs; black hole collisions simplified

This week, researchers reported finding nanoplastics in Antarctic soils for the first time, suggesting they were delivered via long-range atmospheric transport. A study associates the use of hormonal birth control with the ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / A robot that reads bacteria by touch, without staining or chemical labels

Fast identification of bacteria is important in health care, food safety, environmental monitoring and infection control. One of the most common first steps is gram classification, which separates bacteria into gram-positive ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / Cast away: Tracing the voyage of a plastic bottle cap and its hitchhiking marine species

Researchers have traced the journey of a plastic bottle cap recovered near the waters of southern Japan by combining data from the label, chemical clues in tiny shells and ocean current simulations. They found 307 organisms, ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / Grasses provide most of the world's calories—but we're only now starting to learn how they grow

If we want to dismiss something as irrelevant, we'd say that it's "as boring as watching the grass grow." And yet grasses—including corn, wheat and rice—make up most of the plant-based calories humans eat, as well as most ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / Tiny worms reveal backup circuits that keep survival reflexes from failing

A research team led by Professor Chaogu Zheng from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with scientists from Princeton University and Columbia University, has discovered ...

Jul 11, 2026
Phys.org / Intricate molecular mechanisms help bacteria evade immune detection

Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a novel mechanism used by the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea to evade immune detection and achieve widespread infection, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings ...

Jul 11, 2026
Dialog / Dark energy flips its sign, but the Hubble tension refuses to budge

For nearly a century, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. In the late 1990s, two independent teams, the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team, led by ...

Jul 10, 2026
Phys.org / Capturing the cosmic 'drift' before a star is born

Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of ...

Jul 10, 2026
Phys.org / Why natural forests survive heat waves better than planted forests

When a record-breaking drought and heat wave swept across China's Yangtze River Basin in 2022, forests across the region faced an extreme test. The event provided a rare opportunity for researchers to test how different forests ...

Jul 10, 2026
Phys.org / Darwin's 150‑year‑old hillside steps mystery may have a new answer from virtual grazing animals

Steep hillsides and mountainsides in many regions worldwide are often covered in characteristic step-like patterns, also known as terracettes. These repeating landforms have fascinated scientists for more than a century, ...

Jul 10, 2026
Phys.org / New Jurassic dinosaur species identified in Thailand from a single bone

A new study published in Scientific Reports describes the identification of a new species of long-necked dinosaur found in the Phu Kradung Formation in Thailand. The team calls the dinosaur Uragasaurus kalasinensis and says ...

Jul 10, 2026