Phys.org news

Phys.org / NASA fuels its moon rocket in a crucial test to decide when Artemis astronauts will launch

NASA fueled its new moon rocket in one final make-or-break test Monday, with hopes of sending astronauts on a lunar fly-around as soon as this coming weekend.

9 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Reshaping gold leads to new electronic and optical properties

By changing the physical structure of gold at the nanoscale, researchers can drastically change how the material interacts with light—and, as a result, its electronic and optical properties. This is shown by a study from ...

8 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Some tropical land may heat up nearly twice as much as oceans under climate change, sediment record suggests

Some tropical land regions may warm more dramatically than previously predicted, as climate change progresses, according to a new CU Boulder study that looks millions of years into Earth's past. Using lake sediments from ...

8 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / New database reveals how Americans use water

Water powers our lives. It feeds our crops, keeps factories running, generates electricity, and fills our taps. But until now, no one had a clear, national picture of how much water we're using—and for what.

9 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Analyzing an enigmatic enzyme with potential for new antibiotic drug discovery

An analysis of an unusual enzyme could result in a new generation of antimicrobial medicines to counter antibiotic resistance. Key details in the enzyme-driven biosynthesis of a natural molecule with potent antibiotic activity ...

9 hours ago in Chemistry
Dialog / Infrared running of gravity offers a field-theoretic route to dark matter phenomena

The mystery of dark matter—unseen, pervasive, and essential in standard cosmology—has loomed over physics for decades. In new research, I explore a different possibility: Rather than postulating new particles, I propose ...

13 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Mapping how Arctic groundwater will respond to thawing permafrost

Dalhousie researchers have revealed how Arctic aquifers—permeable layers of the ground that store and transmit water to rivers, lakes and terrestrial ecosystems—behave today and how these vital resources will change with ...

10 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Natural magnetic materials can control light in unprecedented ways

Imagine shining a flashlight into a material and watching the light bend backward—or in an entirely unexpected direction—as if defying the law of physics. This phenomenon, known as negative refraction, could transform ...

11 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / A clearer look at critical materials, thanks to refrigerator magnets

With an advanced technology known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), scientists are able to map out a material's electron energy-momentum relationship, which encodes the material's electrical, optical, ...

10 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Nanotubes with lids mimic real biology

When water and ions move together through channels only a nanometer wide, they behave in unusual ways. In these tight spaces, water molecules line up in single file. This forces ions to shed some of the water molecules that ...

10 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Tibet's tectonic clash: New satellite view suggests weaker fault lines

A study on tectonic plates that converge on the Tibetan Plateau has shown that Earth's fault lines are far weaker and the continents are less rigid than scientists previously thought. This finding is based on ground-monitoring ...

4 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Perseverance rover completes first AI-planned drive on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has completed the first drives on another world that were planned by artificial intelligence. Executed on Dec. 8 and 10, and led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ...

11 hours ago in Astronomy & Space