Phys.org news

Scientists have developed a way for certain types of compostable plastic to break down much faster in marine environments, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. The breakthrough comes from tiny enzymes embedded in ...

Scientists may add a new dwarf planet to the official roster of our solar system. The distant, icy body, provisionally dubbed 2026 ED138, orbits our system beyond Pluto. It was spotted earlier this month by a scientist combing ...

A Southwest Research Institute–led study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system ever identified. The observations ...

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have found a rare disk of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our solar system. Unlike in similar ...

Dr. Martin Wessendorf is a neuroscientist and an associate professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. His work focuses on how the brainstem controls the function of neurons in the spinal cord. Daniel Wang also researches ...

Envision a material whose magnetic properties and electronic topology can be toggled by exposure to light, paving the way for future electronic devices that do not rely on traditional electrical switching, which wastes energy ...

Earth may have produced much of its water during the planet's formation, as rocky pebbles reacted with the hydrogen-rich atmosphere surrounding the young planet, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience. The ...

The well-known star Betelgeuse has a mysterious houseguest—and it's shaking the rafters, rattling the pipes and slamming the cupboards (metaphorically speaking). It's causing enough subtle atmospheric disturbance that it ...

When identical charges repel each other but are confined to the surface of a sphere, they seek the arrangement with the lowest possible energy. The idea is simple, but the problem gets harder to solve with every charge added. ...

Hula hooping may be literal child's play, but as it turns out, the physics behind the gym-class staple is so complicated that scientists have spent decades trying to understand how the hula hoop defies gravity.

Scientists hunting for a new malaria treatment may have found a solution within a historical natural compound collection housed at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

Advanced nanoscale imaging technology has revealed the diversity of living cells in human milk and uncovered new insights into how these cells are structured, what they contain and how they use nutrients.