Phys.org news

Phys.org / Greater nutrient variety can counterintuitively shrink microbial diversity, experiments reveal

Microbial communities are considered particularly diverse—in soil, water and the human body. A common assumption in ecology is that the greater the diversity of available nutrients, the more species can coexist. A research ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / How the most widespread parasite on Earth reads its genome

A parasite carried by billions of people worldwide often causes harmful infections during pregnancy and in immunocompromised individuals and is a leading infectious cause of blindness in South America. Once it enters the ...

17 hours ago
Phys.org / Study could help event organizers prevent crowd crushes and stampedes

McGill researchers have found that dangerous crowd conditions leading to surges and stampedes may not emerge suddenly but instead develop gradually, as repeated physical contact and pushing accumulate and become synchronized ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Deep-space CubeSat could stretch solar storm warnings from 15 minutes to 3 hours

Space weather warnings could be received hours before Earth is hit rather than minutes with the help of a miniature UK-built instrument soon to be stationed in deep space. MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College) is part ...

16 hours ago
Phys.org / AI falls short on context and cultural rhetoric in United Nations speech translations

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in translation, questions have been raised about whether it could eventually replace professional interpreters. A joint study led by Lingnan University found ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / New machine-learning tool improves accuracy of genomics research

University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have identified a widespread source of error in a popular method for studying the genome and created a machine-learning tool to correct it. The free tool could improve ...

16 hours ago
Phys.org / Wealthier North Carolina neighborhoods may be hotspots for insecticide-resistant tiger mosquitoes

The choices people make to control mosquitoes in their own backyards may be helping some of those mosquitoes survive the very insecticides meant to kill them, according to two new studies from North Carolina State University. ...

17 hours ago
Phys.org / Scientists map how the flu virus rewires the human cell from the inside

Researchers at EMBL Hamburg and collaborators at the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) have mapped how the influenza A virus rewires infected human cells in unprecedented detail. To do this, the ...

21 hours ago
Phys.org / AI tool reveals climate shifts may have fueled bursts of bird evolution

University of Michigan researchers have used an AI tool to demonstrate that birds in the group Passeriformes evolved in rapid evolutionary bursts and that these bursts frequently coincided with climate shifts throughout Earth's ...

21 hours ago
Phys.org / Underwater drones discover coral reefs off Benin, long presumed dead, teeming with life

A coral reef, missing and presumed dead, has been found alive and well off the coast of Benin. Surveys in the 1960s, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef but assumed it ...

Jul 20, 2026
Phys.org / Dragonfly aerial fights follow some simple rules

Dragonflies are renowned for their remarkable flying abilities. Male dragonflies often compete for territory and mating opportunities, engaging in fascinating in-flight battles. Researchers at Imperial College London and ...

Jul 19, 2026
Phys.org / A century-old stellar mystery may finally have an explanation

For more than a century, astronomers have puzzled over a strange discrepancy in the historical record. Theta Eridani, a modest star in the constellation Eridanus, is the third-brightest star in its constellation, with a magnitude ...

Jul 19, 2026