Phys.org news

Phys.org / Tungsten may suffer more radiation damage in fusion reactors than expected

Fusion reactors, devices that generate energy by fusing light atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures, could contribute to ongoing efforts aimed at producing electricity more sustainably. The extreme environment inside ...

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Neptune's tiny moons tell the story of Triton's destructive capture

Neptune's moon and ring system stand out among the giant planets because of the strange imbalance between its one very large moon and its many tiny moons. Its largest moon, Triton, makes up more than 99% of the mass of all ...

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / After commercial whaling nearly erased them, blue and fin whales are slowly reclaiming the southeast Atlantic

More than 40 years after the end of commercial whaling, new research reveals a recent increase in sightings of the world's two largest whale species in the southeastern Atlantic. The findings, published in the African Journal ...

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Nonrepeating photonic crystal may enable more tunable, reliable semiconductor lasers

Over the past two decades, photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) have shown promise as a type of advanced semiconductor laser useful in defense- and aerospace-related applications. Typically, these devices are ...

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Black-box technologies could undermine confidence in scientific findings

Scientists are increasingly relying on powerful data sources and tools that they often cannot fully understand, inspect or verify, according to a new study.

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Four more belugas arrive at Chicago aquarium from shuttered Canadian theme park

Four more belugas have arrived at a Chicago aquarium as part of a plan to move Canada's last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park to aquariums in the United States and Spain.

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Scientists simulating ant swarms find a 'first mover' can set the colony in motion

In ant colonies, a single ant can be the catalyst for a wave of mob activity, launching brief bursts of coordinated movement involving hundreds or even thousands of swarming workers, according to new simulations from New ...

Aug 15, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum Latin squares cannot solve Euler's 36 officers problem without entanglement

Latin squares are arrangements of symbols in a grid in which every symbol appears exactly once in each row and column. These symbol arrangements, which were first studied more than three centuries ago, are now widely used ...

Aug 14, 2026
Phys.org / Mysterious Cygnus Bubble may trace back to microquasar, astronomers suggest

Astronomers have proposed a new explanation for the mysterious Cygnus Bubble, a vast cloud of ultra-high-energy gamma rays stretching thousands of light-years across the sky. While the bubble has generally been linked to ...

Aug 14, 2026
Phys.org / Rings forged from meteorites may have been fashionable among ancient Greek elites

Meteorites provided a rare but ready source of iron for ancient Bronze Age cultures before smelting became common. A new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, sheds light on how the ancient Minoan and ...

Aug 14, 2026
Phys.org / Guangzhou crucibles provide earliest direct evidence of brass-making in East Asia

For centuries, scholars have read ancient documents describing the production of brass in 10th-century A.D. China. The problem was that the earliest physical evidence of brass production would be found nearly 600 years later, ...

Aug 14, 2026
Phys.org / Human blood may have helped preserve ancient Chinese rock art for 2,000 years

The Huashan rock art landscape in southern China, close to the border with Vietnam, is a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage site. Thousands of images are painted on river cliffs across more than 80 locations stretching 260 ...

Aug 14, 2026