Phys.org news

Phys.org / Saturday citations: Two T. rexes and new exercise guidance that scientists are not calling 'easy'

John Hammond voice: "Welcome... to Saturday Citations." We're talking about different types of T. rexes today, along with some unwelcome news about cardiovascular health, but this week also brought news about the connection ...

May 23, 2026
Phys.org / SpaceX launches its biggest, most beefed-up Starship yet on a test flight

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.

May 23, 2026
Phys.org / AI makes a major breakthrough in a math problem that had stumped experts for decades

For nearly 80 years, mathematicians have struggled to solve a classic geometry puzzle first posed by Paul Erdős in 1946: the planar unit distance problem. The question posed by the legendary Hungarian mathematician was, on ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Astronomers discover a super-Earth orbiting a nearby red dwarf

Astronomers from Italy and Brazil have investigated a nearby red dwarf star known as Ross 318 and have discovered an exoplanet orbiting this star, which is at least six times more massive than Earth. The discovery is reported ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Hi-res microscopes give biologists petabytes of data. Scientists are creating an AI assistant to make sense of it

In a cramped, windowless room on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, two bespoke microscopes—each a Swiss Army knife for high-resolution imaging—operate around the clock gathering data that will help train a game-changing ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Physicists figure out how to reduce formation of 'viscous fingers'

When they reach the bottom of a soap dispenser, frugal handwashers might try adding water to the bottle to push out the last bit of soap. But usually, the water drills right through the soap and jets out an only slightly ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Why we live alone—and what it means for the climate and our sense of community

Solo living in your own home places a greater strain on the planet's resources than living with others, as everyone needs their own appliances—a toaster, a washing machine and so on. The Nordic countries stand out: Almost ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / 'Designer' superconducting diamond: Researchers uncover path to multi-modality quantum chips

Diamond is extremely valuable to science and technology not for its sparkle but for its extreme hardness, high thermal conductivity, transparency to a large fraction of the light spectrum, and a host of other exceptional ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Hidden for 100 years, bright pink shrub identified as new Australian species

Botanists at the University of New England (UNE) have formally described a new plant species endemic to northeastern New South Wales (NSW), ending more than a century of scientific misidentification. The research has been ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Novel porous gel changes color, shrinks and hardens when it detects target molecules

Researchers at Kyoto University and Tohoku University have developed a new porous polymer gel that selectively recognizes specific molecules (referred to as "guests" in the study) through coordination chemistry and converts ...

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Nickelate reveals nodeless gap, providing key clue to high-temperature superconductivity

The mechanism of high-temperature (TC) superconductivity is a key challenge in condensed matter physics. Recently, Chinese scientists made significant progress in the study of high-TC nickelate superconductors.

May 22, 2026
Phys.org / Understanding the mechanisms of collective cell movement

Like schools of fish and flocks of birds, our cells can also migrate collectively in coordination with their neighbors. This harmonious movement of cells occurs during embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. ...

May 22, 2026