Phys.org news

Phys.org / Exotic harvestmen once lived in Europe

A German-Bulgarian research team led by SNSB paleontologist Christian Bartel has discovered a new species of harvestman in 35-million-year-old Ukrainian and Baltic amber. The animal is related to harvestmen that are now extinct ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Unraveling the secrets of telomerase, an enzyme linked to aging and cancer

A central question in molecular biology is how cells protect their chromosomes from damage during repeated cell division. At the heart of this protective process is an enzyme called telomerase. Now an international research ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Designing proteins by their motion, not just their shape

Proteins are far more than nutrients we track on a food label. Present in every cell of our bodies, they work like nature's molecular machines. They walk, stretch, bend, and flex to do their jobs, pumping blood, fighting ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Why student samples can mislead: Higher education may shift values toward Western norms

A new study published in Nature Communications finds that worldwide, people with higher levels of education are more culturally similar to those in Canada, the U.S., U.K., and other Anglo, industrialized countries and countries ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Study in search of a tropical spring is first to show some birds flip their breeding season in response to climate

In 2014, Felicity Newell joined the Florida Museum of Natural History as a doctoral student, then promptly left the country in search of a tropical spring. It's a concept she started thinking about while doing biological ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Breaking recalcitrant lignin bonds with electricity for conversion into value-added chemicals: An e-biorefinery

A research team led by Professor Jaehoon Kim at Sungkyunkwan University and Dr. Dong Ki Lee at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a highly efficient catalytic process that electrochemically ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Unlocking the cell's 'gatekeeper': Researchers discover critical RNA quality-control factor, LENG8

How do cells ensure that the "blueprints" of genetic information-RNA are accurate and intact before they are exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for protein production? A study led by Professor Yongsheng Shi's team ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / Unraveling active magma by drilling in the heart of volcanoes

Although volcanic eruptions are spectacular natural events that occur around the world every day, most volcanoes spend the majority of their time not erupting. To accurately forecast volcanic activity, it's important to characterize ...

Mar 27, 2026
Phys.org / New framework suggests dark energy could be evolving—and may be linked to the Hubble tension

A team of cosmologists in China has introduced a mathematical framework that investigates two of the deepest mysteries in cosmology at the same time. Publishing their research in The Astrophysical Journal, Yun Chen and colleagues ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / Novel measurement confirms a 50-year-old prediction: Dark points are faster than light

A research group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports in Nature an unprecedented achievement in electron microscopy: the direct measurement of "dark points" within light waves. By doing so, the researchers ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / Earth's magnetic field creates a previously undetected pocket of protection from radiation on the moon

High-energy particles called galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) bombard unprotected objects in space, often causing damage. Earth, however, is protected by its magnetic field, which creates a protective shell around the planet that ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum experiment shows events may have no fixed order

For the first time, a team of physicists in Austria has carried out an experiment that appears to verify the principle of indefinite causal order: an idea that suggests that timelines of events can exist in multiple orders ...

Mar 26, 2026