Phys.org news

Phys.org / Animal-bone records reveal how cattle and sheep fueled medieval England's changing economy

As populations expanded in medieval England, key changes occurred in the uses of cattle and sheep to produce food and materials, according to a study published Sept. 2, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Matilda Holmes of the ...

Sep 2, 2026
Phys.org / Electric fish keep from blinding themselves with these brain cells

The brain cells you see in the above image help an African fish decode electric signals to spot prey, scan its murky surroundings and communicate with its fellows. By rigorously mapping how these cells in the electrosensory ...

Sep 2, 2026
Phys.org / Bio-based plastic turns into fertilizer after use

Plastic waste is one of the world's fastest-growing environmental problems. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 report, global plastic ...

Sep 2, 2026
Phys.org / Tracking emperor penguins from space

For the first time, geographers from Durham University have used freely available satellite radar images to track emperor penguins through the polar winter—giving a year-round view of their movements. Monitoring the endangered ...

Sep 2, 2026
Phys.org / A summer odyssey: Female dotterels seek multiple mates across Northern Europe

On a high Norwegian plateau in late May, patches of bare ground begin to appear through the snow, and with them arrive some of Europe's most approachable birds. Eurasian dotterels breed on exposed mountain ridges and Arctic ...

Sep 2, 2026
Phys.org / Geomagnetic superstorm shook GPS accuracy across the US—its timing may have averted agricultural losses

On Nov. 11, 2025, Earth experienced a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by solar flares and coronal mass ejections from an active sunspot region. While this kind of storm brings beautiful auroras admired in many areas around ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / Giant impact could have formed an intact moon within five hours, simulations suggest

New Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeling, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Arizona, shows fundamental differences in how the moon may have formed from the giant impact that created the ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / A supermassive black hole erupted in X-rays, and its radio jets followed 300 days later

By combining roughly two decades of observations from NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope with radio monitoring, astronomers have caught a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Perseus Cluster suddenly flaring in X-rays, and ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / Resin-mounted wallaby teeth reveal rare 1,200-year-old ornaments in Queensland

While sorting through animal bones in a rock shelter in Queensland, Australia, archaeologists came across a tooth where something was "not quite right." Stuck to the tip of its root was a blackish-brown ball of glue-like ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / Switching gravity on and off leaves particles behind, mathematical model finds

Hawking radiation causes black holes to eventually evaporate. This is because particle pairs are spontaneously created near the event horizon (the position of the last ray of light that can escape the black hole's gravitational ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / Food innovation in your kitchen: Giving peas, beans and lentils a surprisingly meat-like bite

Separating things and then putting them back together is a common principle in industrial food production. Agricultural raw materials are broken down into their individual constituents, such as proteins, starches and fats, ...

Sep 1, 2026
Phys.org / Old-growth tropical forests bear lasting legacy of ancient Maya civilization

Rainforests in Central America that have remained largely untouched by modern human activities could bear the invisible imprint of ancient Maya civilizations. New research has found that forest structure in Belize, such as ...

Sep 1, 2026