Phys.org news

Phys.org / Catching light in air: Programmable Mie voids boost light matter interaction

Atomically thin semiconductors such as tungsten disulfide (WS2) are promising materials for future photonic technologies. Despite being only a single layer of atoms thick, they host tightly bound excitons—pairs of electrons ...

16 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Tech upgrade reveals even finer transcription detail inside cells

In 2021, a technology developed at the University of Michigan, called Seq-Scope, revolutionized the ability to map gene activity within intact tissue at microscopic resolution, enabling researchers to measure all expressed ...

17 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Scared of spiders? The real horror story is a world without them

Members of the arachnid class—think spiders, scorpions and harvestmen (daddy long legs)—are often the targets of revulsion, disgust and fear. Yet, they are crucial for ecosystems to thrive. Given the crash in worldwide ...

18 hours ago in Biology
Dialog / Built to withstand, or built to worry? Housing and disaster risk perception

I have always been interested in how people make decisions under uncertainty—especially decisions about safety. But it was not until I began studying housing conditions and disaster risk that I realized how deeply our built ...

15 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / How flatworms keep their regeneration powers on track

Scientists have discovered a key biological safeguard that helps one of nature's most impressive regenerators, the planarian flatworm, correctly rebuild its organs. The new research, published in Nature Communications, illuminates ...

16 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Antarctica has lost 10 times the size of Greater Los Angeles in ice over 30 years, satellite data reveal

A comprehensive 30-year study led by University of California, Irvine glaciologists has produced a circumpolar ice grounding line migration map of Antarctica. An amalgamation of three decades of satellite data compiled and ...

18 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Ultrasound-activated 'nanoagents' kill superbugs hiding in biofilms

Scientists have designed nanoagents that act like smart drug-delivery capsules—carrying an antibiotic deep into bacterial infection sites and releasing it only when activated by gentle ultrasound. Delivering antibiotics ...

16 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / MeerKAT discovers record-breaking cosmic laser halfway across the universe

Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have discovered the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected. It is located in a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away, opening a ...

23 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / A crystal that 'comes alive': Heat-driven bubbles push it forward while it changes fluorescence color

In a study published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, researchers from National Taiwan University report that a seemingly solid, nonporous organic crystal can undergo dramatic structural and mechanical transformations ...

16 hours ago in Chemistry
Phys.org / Smart fluorescent molecules provide cheaper path to sharper microscopy images

Multiphoton microscopy is used in biomedical research to study cells and tissues. Today, so-called two-photon microscopy is used to study processes within cells, but the technique has limitations in terms of image resolution. ...

17 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / New 2D membrane reactor improves photocatalytic synthesis

Chinese researchers have developed a photocatalytic membrane reactor that dramatically improves the synthesis of imines—a class of compounds essential to the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and advanced synthetic ...

16 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Survival training in a safe space—how staged risk helps young predators learn dangerous prey

Adaptation is essential for survival. Across species, it occurs over many generations through evolution and natural selection. Individual animals, however, can also adapt within their own lifetimes—through learning. For ...

18 hours ago in Biology