Phys.org news

Phys.org / Platypus fur adds another strange feature to an increasingly long list

The combination of a beaver-like body and duck-like bill of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is only the first of a long list of strange features on this unique creature. These odd mammals also lay eggs, have venomous ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Neanderthals may have used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties, experiments suggest

Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers led by Tjaark Siemssen of the University ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find

Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Challenging a 300-year-old law of friction

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that arises without any mechanical contact, driven purely by collective magnetic dynamics. The study, published ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / The way you walk can reveal your true feelings

Whether you're striding with purpose, swaggering with confidence, or trudging slowly along the street, the way you walk can reveal how you're feeling, according to new research published in the journal Royal Society Open ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Microwave quantum network shows resilience against heat-related disturbances

Quantum communication systems are emerging solutions to transmit information between devices in a network leveraging quantum mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement. Entanglement is a quantum effect that entails a link ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Clearest evidence yet that giant planets spin faster than their cosmic lookalikes

For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars. Through a telescope, these cosmic ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Is glass a solid or a super slow liquid? Physicists create equilibrium glassy phase from rod-shaped particles

Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Most mass spectrometers can process just a few molecules at once: Reengineered prototype does a billion simultaneously

Mass spectrometry is already a powerful tool for determining what kind and how many molecules are present in a given sample. But most instruments still analyze their molecules one or just a few at a time, an approach that ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / Clearing circular RNA from cells extends lifespan, C. elegans study reveals

Cells in our bodies produce RNA based on genetic information stored in DNA, and RNA serves as a blueprint for making proteins. Researchers at KAIST have discovered a new phenomenon: Removing "circular RNA" that accumulates ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / NASA's Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up

In a happy twist of fate, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings are published in the journal ...

Mar 18, 2026
Phys.org / A 'consortium' of bacteria cooperates to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can't stomach

Plastic trash has reached the world's most remote locations, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest. Hundreds of plastic-eating microbes that could help us clean up have been discovered over the past ...

Mar 18, 2026