Phys.org news

Phys.org / 3D nanotech blankets offer new path to clean drinking water

Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous pollutants. Created through a combination of soft chemistry gels and electrospinning—a technique where electrical ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Scalable nanotechnology-based lightsails developed for next-generation space exploration

Researchers at TU Delft and Brown University have developed scalable nanotechnology-based lightsails that could support future advances in space exploration and experimental physics. Their research, published in Nature Communications, ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Megastudy finds a simple way to boost math progress

American students have been falling behind in math for decades—with test scores that consistently rank in the bottom 25% globally compared to students in other developed countries—and the COVID-19 pandemic made the situation ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound during video conferences

Most job candidates know to dress nicely for Zoom interviews and to arrange a professional-looking background for the camera. But a new Yale study suggests they also ought to test the quality of their microphones.

Mar 24, 2025 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Biologists discover ancient neurohormone that controls appetite

A team of biologists at Queen Mary University of London has discovered that a neurohormone controlling appetite in humans has an ancient evolutionary origin, dating back over half a billion years. The findings, published ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Event Horizon Telescope allows close study of accelerating jets from black holes

An international team of researchers used multi-wavelength observations of active galactic nuclei to study how black holes launch relativistic jets. The sixteen sources were observed with the Event Horizon Telescope during ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Updated physical model helps reconstruct sudden, dramatic sea level rise after last ice age

Around 14,500 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age, melting continental ice sheets drove a sudden and cataclysmic sea level rise of up to 65 feet in just 500 years or less. Despite the scale of the event, known as ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Earth
Phys.org / Light-induced symmetry changes in tiny crystals allow researchers to create materials with tailored properties

Imagine building a Lego tower with perfectly aligned blocks. Each block represents an atom in a tiny crystal, known as a quantum dot. Just like bumping the tower can shift the blocks and change its structure, external forces ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / High-precision quantum gates with diamond spin qubits achieve error rate below 0.1%

Researchers at QuTech, in collaboration with Fujitsu and Element Six, have demonstrated a complete set of quantum gates with error probabilities below 0.1%. While many challenges remain, being able to perform basic gate operations ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Physics
Phys.org / Webb unmasks true nature of the 'Cosmic Tornado' spiral galaxy

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a beautiful juxtaposition of the nearby protostellar outflow known as Herbig-Haro 49/50 with a perfectly positioned, more distant spiral galaxy. Due to the close proximity ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / 'Chimpanzee 'engineers' have implications for understanding human technological evolution

A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Dr. Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Research Affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, has discovered that chimpanzees living in Gombe ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Mountains as biodiversity engines: How uplift may shape species evolution

A new study co-authored by researchers at Indiana University sheds light on how the forces that shape mountain ranges also influence the evolution of species. In the study, "Direct effects of mountain uplift and topography ...

Mar 24, 2025 in Biology