Phys.org news

Phys.org / Deep-sea crustaceans caught hitching rides on giant sea spiders

Some types of marine life appear to have it easy. While exploring thousands of meters below the waves in the Chilean Margin in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, scientists observed tiny shrimp-like crustaceans known as amphipods ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Cuttlefish suckers reveal how they grip rough prey—and could inspire better technology

Cephalopods are a group of soft-bodied marine mollusks that include cuttlefish, octopuses, squid and nautiluses. Many of these mollusks have muscular suckers on their arms that allow them to seize prey or grip other surfaces ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Virtual biotech company puts thousands of AI scientist agents to work on drug discovery

The latest company to spin out of a Stanford Medicine lab is a biotech undertaking with 37,000 employees—and none of them are human. There's no lab space, no lunch breaks and no payroll. It's an artificial intelligence-powered ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / New krypton-88 data narrow a key gap in stellar strontium models

An international research team has reported the first experimental investigation of a nuclear physics reaction essential for understanding how the element strontium is produced in stars—specifically in stellar environments ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Chemists overturn 40-year assumption about a key class of superconductors

Scientists at Warwick have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using an advanced 3D imaging technique ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Japanese supercomputer simulations may explain Webb's Little Red Dots

Of all the discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope, the multitude of Little Red Dots it has observed is among the most enigmatic. Now, simulations using the Japanese Supercomputer ATERUI III have explained the nature ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Close-up images show defects locking electrons into stable Wigner solids

A team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed an approach that enabled them to directly observe how electrons interact with defects in advanced ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / A new bridge for quantum networks: Physicists convert microwaves to light using 2D magnets

Physicists at The City College of New York have demonstrated a new way to transfer microwave signals onto light using magnetic waves inside a layered semiconductor. The work establishes a materials platform for building interfaces ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Fossil plankton shells reveal reduced nitrogen fixation in warmer oceans 3 million years ago

Nitrogen is a key nutrient because it fuels the growth of plankton, which forms the basis of the marine food web. Two opposing processes determine the global nitrogen cycle: nitrogen fixation and denitrification.

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / Ubiquitin marks abnormal glycogen for destruction to protect the brain, study finds

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have discovered a previously unknown cellular defense system that protects the brain from abnormal glycogen accumulation, which is linked ...

Sep 17, 2026
Phys.org / A finely tuned mess—how disorder can make networks more stable

Perfection is overrated—at least when it comes to complex systems like the power grid, food webs and advanced materials. For decades, scientists generally assumed that networks function most reliably when their individual ...

Sep 17, 2026
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 ...

Sep 17, 2026