Phys.org news

Phys.org / Evidence of elusive high-energy gravitons in quantum Hall systems

Electrons, negatively charged particles, sometimes coordinate their movements in ways that produce certain collective excitations referred to as quasiparticles. One case in which this occurs is the quantum Hall effect, a ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Scientists just measured the smallest possible contacts for future computer chips

The rise of AI has created an almost insatiable appetite for computing power. Training and running AI systems requires vast numbers of transistors, and engineers are now racing to pack more of them onto every chip. With their ...

7 hours ago
Phys.org / AI faces trusted more than faces of real people, warn researchers

Images of faces created by artificial intelligence (AI) are seen as more trustworthy than images of genuine faces, researchers say, warning of the risks of online fraud and other harms. This is the first study to examine ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Wolves around the world have evolved different skull shapes—humans are also shaping their evolution

A new international study led by researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, shows that wolves living in different parts of the world are not anatomically identical. Their skulls differ in shape and size according to ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Ancient jaw wound reveals possible violence in Homo sapiens 90,000 years ago

Violence, the care of injured or ill individuals, and funerary behavior are among the most challenging aspects of the human past to reconstruct. A study published in Scientific Reports and led by researchers from the Centro ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Researchers break a fundamental rule to create a new concept: Heat that can be directed and 'programmed'

Normally, a material absorbs and emits heat in a linked way: A surface that absorbs heat well at a certain wavelength and direction will also emit heat in the same way. This fundamental relationship, known as reciprocity, ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Why Europe's trees are dying

In Europe, trees are increasingly dying prematurely. A new study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on French forests now shows that it is not only drought but also unusually warm ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Birds' efficient red blood cells convert metabolic 'waste' into fuel for rapid recovery

New research finds that birds can use lactate, often thought of as a metabolic waste product, as a cellular fuel that aids in rapid recovery from a harmful state that impairs oxygen delivery. Hemoglobin, the protein that ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / Massive calving episode in Greenland may foreshadow more rapid ice sheet loss

In November 2025, a study led by Adrien Wehrlé, a researcher in the Department of Geography at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, looked at the massive calving response of one of West Greenland's active glaciers, Sermeq ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Bulk ferromagnetic quasicrystals emerge without rapid quenching, unlocking stable magnetic studies

Ferromagnetism has long been studied in a wide range of periodic crystals and amorphous materials. In quasicrystals (QCs), which possess long-range quasiperiodic order and unconventional rotational symmetries, such as 10-fold ...

7 hours ago
Phys.org / Watching how molecules change shape in slow motion could inform future molecular machines

Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) at Kanazawa University, the Institute for Molecular Science and SOKENDAI have uncovered the hidden mechanism behind a molecular switch—a molecule that can change ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / EV-SELEX speeds GPCR drug discovery by capturing receptor-bound DNA aptamers

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the most abundantly expressed proteins in the human body, regulating diverse physiological processes ranging from pain perception to hormone signaling. Owing to their central roles ...

7 hours ago