Phys.org news

For years, social media companies have faced pressure from users and government watchdogs to stop misinformation from distorting elections, deepening political divisions and undermining Americans' trust in institutions. But ...

Poxviruses have a long history in human disease as well as medicine: The first-ever vaccine was developed to protect against smallpox, which has since been eradicated. Despite this, scientists still don't fully understand ...

Everyday shower habits, such as applying shampoo or pausing the water while washing, are driving up water waste, argues a new study from the University of Surrey.

Summer days featuring conditions that promote wildfire ignition, intensity and spread have more than doubled across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy and Greece since 1981, according to a study in Scientific ...

In a study published in Nature Communications biophysicists unravel the mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and maintain their function. The findings may help design treatments for muscle diseases such as dilated ...

Quantum fluctuations influence direction-dependent electrical transport in chiral magnets, researchers from Science Tokyo report. In chiral magnetic systems, electric current flows differently depending on its direction, ...

When catastrophic wildfires capture global headlines, such as the unprecedented blazes sweeping through southern Europe this summer or the devastating 2019–20 "Black Summer" in Australia, they are almost always preceded by ...

Algae are increasingly being explored as sustainable "living factories" that can convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into renewable fuels, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other valuable products.

Despite the promise of rebounding green sea turtle numbers, many sea turtle populations continue to flounder under the pressures of changing climates, overfishing and urbanization.

Pharmaceutical drugs often rely on chemical compounds found in the body. Take phosphate, a common compound cells use as a chemical switch. In a process called phosphorylation, cells can add a phosphate to a molecule and turn ...

How much of what you see on social media comes from sources that repeatedly post falsehoods? And if that content quietly vanished from your feed, would you believe anything different months later?

Amina Helmi's passion for the Milky Way is clear as soon as one steps into her small office at the University of Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands.