Phys.org news

Phys.org / Global measures consistently underestimate food insecurity: 1 in 5 who suffer from hunger may go uncounted

International humanitarian aid organizations rely on analyses from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a global partnership that monitors and classifies the severity of food insecurity to help ...

Dec 12, 2025 in Earth
Phys.org / Storm study shows adaptive selection in southeast lizards

How do intermittent events like hurricanes impact natural selection? How do animals adapt to challenging weather? A University of Rhode Island professor has set out to track natural selection in the Anolis lizard over time ...

Dec 12, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Earth's atmosphere may help support human life on the moon

The moon's surface may be more than just a dusty, barren landscape. Over billions of years, tiny particles from Earth's atmosphere have landed in the lunar soil, creating a possible source of life-sustaining substances for ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Researchers discover new protein-RNA interaction with potential to treat tissue scarring

A research team at Florida State University's Institute of Molecular Biophysics and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has discovered how a protein found in the human body interacts with RNA in a way that could lead ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Rare image of Tatooine-like planet is closest to its twin stars yet

In a discovery that's fit for a movie, Northwestern University astronomers have directly imaged a Tatooine-like exoplanet, orbiting two suns. While obtaining an image of a planet beyond our solar system is already rare, finding ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / A new species of tiny orange frog discovered in Brazil's cloud forests

Despite the vast numbers of animal species already identified, the natural world is still capable of springing a few surprises. Deep in the cloud forests of the Serra do Quiriri mountain range in the southern Brazilian Atlantic ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Parker Solar Probe spies solar wind 'U-turn'

Images captured by NASA's Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / All-optical modulation in silicon achieved via an electron avalanche process

Over the past decades, engineers have introduced numerous technologies that rely on light and its underlying characteristics. These include photonic and quantum systems that could advance imaging, communication and information ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Physics
Phys.org / Ultra-hot super-Earth shows signs of thick atmosphere despite extreme conditions

Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system.

Dec 11, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Astronomers examine nuclear star cluster of nearby galaxy Messier 74

By analyzing the data from the PHANGS-MUSE survey, an international team of astronomers has inspected a nuclear star cluster of the nearby large spiral galaxy Messier 74. The new study presented Dec. 3 on the arXiv pre-print ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Ear piercings marked one of the earliest Maya rites of passage, research shows

In a recent study, Ph.D. candidate Yasmine Flynn-Arajdal studied iconographic representations of children in the Classic (ca. 250–950 AD) and Post-classic (ca. 950–1539 AD) imagery, as well as in ethnohistoric and ethnographic ...

Dec 11, 2025 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Why do raccoons cross the road? Research shows they don't

A new study led by researchers from Saint Louis University, the Saint Louis Zoo, and partner organizations recently set out to understand how raccoons use space in one of the nation's largest urban parks.

Dec 11, 2025 in Biology