Phys.org news
Phys.org / How temperature swings impact the growth of young songbirds
Climate change threatens to cause increasingly extreme and variable temperature swings, affecting everything from urban infrastructure to global food supplies. In the animal kingdom, the hardest hit may be the youngest and ...
Phys.org / GP Com observations sharpen picture of a rare ultracompact binary system
Using the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian astronomers have conducted optical photometric observations of an ultracompact binary known as GP Com. Results of the observational campaign, presented in the ...
Phys.org / In good spirits: Why haunted houses are perfect places to connect with others
A pounding heart, shaking limbs, chills and a churning stomach—it's no wonder that fear is an emotion we usually try to avoid. At least most of the time. We may not like having the wits scared out of us in a real-life crisis, ...
Phys.org / Why Kamchatka's magnitude 8.8 earthquake brought a smaller tsunami—and where risk may remain
On July 29, 2025, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred near the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was so powerful that it ranks as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded by modern instruments. Using this giant earthquake as a learning ...
Phys.org / A longstanding quantum roadblock just fell, opening existing fiber networks to ultra-secure light signals
Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have broken a longstanding barrier by managing to send single photons—that can't be copied or split and thus are secure—in the network of optical fibers we already have. This opens ...
Phys.org / Quantum computing's next dark horse emerges from a frozen surface, where almost nothing behaves as expected
Quantum bits (qubits) are the fundamental building blocks of quantum information processing. A novel qubit platform invented at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory exhibits noise levels thousands ...
Phys.org / A hidden food boom across Central Africa is pushing wildlife and rural diets toward a precarious edge
The total annual biomass of wild meat consumed across Central Africa has increased from an estimated 0.73 million metric tons in 2000 to 1.10 million metric tons in 2022. This increase is threatening wildlife populations ...
Phys.org / DAMPE satellite reveals cosmic rays share spectral break near 15 teravolts
A century after their discovery, cosmic rays—particles of extreme energy originating from the far reaches of the universe—remain a mystery to scientists. The DAMPE (Dark Matter Particle Explorer) space telescope is tackling ...
Phys.org / Laser-plasma accelerators can preserve polarization of Helium-3 ions
Particle accelerators such as those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva are typically highly complex large-scale devices. In these ring-shaped facilities, which are often several kilometers ...
Phys.org / Water molecules found to actively drive gene transcription process
Researchers have uncovered a previously hidden layer of complexity in how genes are activated, showing that water molecules play a direct and essential role in one of the most fundamental processes in biology: DNA transcription.
Phys.org / Buried in soil, a 100-million-year-old bacterial toxin could reshape pest control and antibiotic discovery
In every backyard, park, and playground on Earth, the ground is teeming with a type of bacteria called Streptomyces—one of the most abundant organisms on the planet. While these dirt-dwelling microbes are known for producing ...
Phys.org / Measurement of nuclear reactions at record-low energies opens new pathways for astrophysics research
An international research team has achieved an important milestone for astrophysics at GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt: In the CRYRING@ESR storage ring, scientists were able to measure nuclear reactions at extremely low energies for ...