Phys.org news

Phys.org / Connected habitats help frogs keep protective microbes and curb deadly fungus

Maintaining connections between natural habitats may support beneficial microbes that help wildlife defend against disease. In a new study of tropical amphibians, a team led by Penn State biologists found that amphibians ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Why climate models and ocean observations diverge, and what it means for rain and drought

Scientific models have predicted that climate change will drive oceans in the Northern Hemisphere to warm faster than oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. However, observational data over the last 70 years show the opposite—that ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / The physics of brain development: How cells pull together to form the neural tube

In about one out of every 1,000 pregnancies, the neural tube, a key nervous system structure, fails to close properly. Georgia Tech physicists are now helping explain why this happens, having uncovered the physics that drive ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / To thwart pathogens, researchers are giving beneficial microbes what they really want

University of California San Diego researchers have developed a new tool for understanding and modifying any microbiome, including the human microbiome. The approach, called Microbial Interaction and Niche Determination (MIND), ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Two paths to scalable quantum computing: Optical links between fridges and higher-temperature qubits

Superconducting qubits—bits of quantum information—have been widely considered a promising technology for moving quantum computing forward. But there's still much work to be done before they can be brought out of a near absolute ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Lost millennium of Galapagos deep-sea corals linked to major Pacific climate shift

Scientists have discovered that deep-water corals in the Galapagos region vanished for more than 1,000 years before eventually recovering. The findings reveal that deep-water coral ecosystems may be more susceptible to climate ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Cocaine pollution alters salmon behavior in the wild, study reveals

An international study, led by researchers from Griffith University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Zoological Society of London and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, is the first to demonstrate ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / How primitive plants evolved to survive Earth's most catastrophic extinction event

Earth responded to its most severe past warming event by evolving a new and bizarre type of photosynthesis that allowed a group of primitive plants to survive. Research led by the University of Leeds has revealed how lycophytes—a ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Madagascar's ancient baobabs store 700 years of climate secrets—what they reveal

Madagascar is home to seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on the planet. Many of the trees have been alive for well over 1,000 years. The ancient trees have become symbols of Madagascar itself. ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Cracking a long-standing problem in high-entropy alloy nanoparticle synthesis

Composed of five or more elements in nearly equal amounts, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have emerged as promising catalysts due to their compositionally complex surfaces that can accelerate chemical reactions. Until now, scientists ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Hypertriton appears more tightly bound than expected, sharpening the picture of nuclear forces

An international research team of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has succeeded in determining the binding energy of the hypertriton with unprecedented precision. ...

Apr 20, 2026
Phys.org / Ant supergene reveals surprising twist in evolution of social behavior

In the spring, ants are once again hard at work. Beyond their everyday presence, ants are also key model organisms in cutting-edge evolutionary genetics research, helping scientists understand how social behavior and cooperation ...

Apr 20, 2026