Phys.org news
Phys.org / Amazonian study identifies most effective ways of conserving biodiversity and carbon
As the 2026 El Niño intensifies across the Amazon, new research highlights the urgent need to better protect the region's remaining forests from disturbances.
Phys.org / What ancient Mars rocks reveal about its buried carbonate stores
Carbonate minerals are among the best records of past liquid water on Mars: They form when water carrying dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with rock, and their composition reflects the chemistry of both. Yet Mars has surprisingly ...
Phys.org / Capybaras in the desert? Fossil casts doubt on Atacama as world's oldest continuously dry region
Ask any zoo-goer and they will tell you that capybaras are adorable. Ask a scientist specializing in the rodents, which resemble oversized guinea pigs, and they will tell you they are obligate semiaquatic herbivores that ...
Phys.org / Threatened bumblebee populations in England and Wales face severe genetic declines
A new study reveals that an important pollinator is rapidly losing genetic diversity in Britain. Moss carder bumblebees were once widespread across the UK, living in flower-rich meadows, marshes and heathlands, where they ...
Phys.org / Is dark matter 'natural?' Physicist puts the question to the test
Dark matter is one of the oldest open problems in physics. It makes up most of the matter in the universe and shapes how galaxies form and move, yet no one has ever directly detected it. Physicists have proposed dozens of ...
Phys.org / How a simple game of 20 questions could help make AI fit for the future
Artificial intelligence programs used to classify images could be trained much more cheaply using a surprisingly simple method inspired by the childhood game of 20 Questions, according to new research posted to the arXiv ...
Phys.org / Wild honeybee populations in the EU are on the Red List for the first time
Populations of the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) are under immense pressure in the wild in Europe. New research published in Conservation Science and Practice from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart and Agroscope ...
Phys.org / Endurance running or endurance diving—which came first?
A new study combines paleoanthropology and diving physiology to address a fundamental question in human evolution: Why did humans evolve their exceptional aerobic endurance? Did our ancestors begin endurance running to exhaust ...
Phys.org / Sixteen new fungus species found hiding in Thailand's flowers
Researchers have discovered 16 new species of fungus living unnoticed inside garden flowers and wildflowers across northern Thailand, more than quintupling the number of such fungi known to occur in the country. The findings ...
Phys.org / Handheld scanner delivers lab-quality chemical composition maps using infrared light
Researchers have developed a compact, handheld mid-infrared imaging spectrometer that can produce high-resolution chemical maps of a sample without using stains or labels. With further development, the handheld device might ...
Phys.org / Earth's atmosphere is getting less dusty: That could be adding to global warming
Atmospheric desert dust has long swirled around the globe, but a new UCLA study presents the strongest evidence yet that global dust is mysteriously decreasing. Because atmospheric dust has a slight overall cooling effect ...
Phys.org / Robotic lab sets up and runs optics experiments on demand
Every new generation of phone display, television screen and solar panel is the result of precision optics experiments, which use lasers and other light sources to measure the optical properties of candidate materials. These ...
