Phys.org news

Phys.org / Two blazing quasars caught waltzing into a merger

Astronomers, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have confirmed the existence of a close quasar pair housed in a pair of merging galaxies seen when the universe was less than a billion years old, ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / Can warning videos blunt misinformation? What a 12-country test found

The internet and social media platforms have given rise to a rising wave of misinformation, with many users now posting fake news, AI-generated photos or videos and other types of misleading content online. Over the past ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / This new tool makes AI's role in student writing visible

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed college writing. As paper drafts are increasingly co-written with AI, professors are left wondering not whether students are using AI, but how. A 2025 AI in Education ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / AI-enhanced microscopy produces crisp, real-time video inside live cells

Using artificial intelligence, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new way to watch the inner workings of living cells in real time. The process both captures images that are twice as sharp ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / The threat of light pollution puts the world's darkest skies in the Atacama Desert at risk

It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust. A faint spark appears in the darkness; then another, brighter one. Soon, stars, planets and entire constellations emerge. Before long, a whole galaxy stretches across the sky, visible ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / Extreme stability in ultrafast nanomagnetism aids the development of faster data storage

For the first time, researchers have mapped how the boundaries of magnetic nanostructures behave on extremely short timescales. The work of physicist Johan Mentink of Radboud University shows that these boundaries are much ...

Apr 26, 2026
Phys.org / Studying the emergence of leaders in moving crowds of pedestrians

When humans are moving as a crowd, their movements tend to be highly coordinated, similarly to the collective motions of bird flocks or other groups of animals. These group behaviors can limit collisions in dynamic environments, ...

Apr 25, 2026
Phys.org / The platypus is even weirder than thought, scientists discover

They already have the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, lay eggs like reptiles and have venom like snakes.

Apr 25, 2026
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 / When the rain comes, some NYC subway riders stay home. Scientists are now mapping exactly who, and where

On a sweltering August afternoon or in the teeth of a winter storm, New York City subway riders make a quiet calculation: Is the trip worth it? A new study published in npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport takes a detailed ...

Apr 25, 2026