Phys.org news

Phys.org / Mapping how Arctic groundwater will respond to thawing permafrost

Dalhousie researchers have revealed how Arctic aquifers—permeable layers of the ground that store and transmit water to rivers, lakes and terrestrial ecosystems—behave today and how these vital resources will change with ...

7 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / A clearer look at critical materials, thanks to refrigerator magnets

With an advanced technology known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), scientists are able to map out a material's electron energy-momentum relationship, which encodes the material's electrical, optical, ...

7 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Nanotubes with lids mimic real biology

When water and ions move together through channels only a nanometer wide, they behave in unusual ways. In these tight spaces, water molecules line up in single file. This forces ions to shed some of the water molecules that ...

7 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Natural magnetic materials can control light in unprecedented ways

Imagine shining a flashlight into a material and watching the light bend backward—or in an entirely unexpected direction—as if defying the law of physics. This phenomenon, known as negative refraction, could transform ...

8 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Perseverance rover completes first AI-planned drive on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has completed the first drives on another world that were planned by artificial intelligence. Executed on Dec. 8 and 10, and led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ...

7 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / As Rubin's survey gets underway, simulations suggest it could find about six lunar-origin asteroids per year

Most near-Earth asteroids are thought to drift in from the main asteroid belt. But a small subset may have a much closer origin: the moon. One intriguing example is 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), an Earth quasi-satellite ...

8 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Dialog / Infrared running of gravity offers a field-theoretic route to dark matter phenomena

The mystery of dark matter—unseen, pervasive, and essential in standard cosmology—has loomed over physics for decades. In new research, I explore a different possibility: Rather than postulating new particles, I propose ...

10 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Focusing and defocusing light without a lens: First demonstration of the structured Montgomery effect in free space

Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a new way to structure light in custom, repeatable, three-dimensional patterns, all without the use of ...

9 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Jupiter's slimmer profile: Giant planet revealed to be narrower at equator

For over 50 years, we thought we knew the size and shape of Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. Now, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have revised that knowledge using new data and technology. In a new study ...

9 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Our ocean's 'natural antacids' may act faster than we thought

Earth's ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to temper the impact of climate change but increasing ocean acidity. However, calcium carbonate minerals found in the seabed act as a natural antacid: Higher ...

9 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Some bottled water is worse than tap for microplastics, study shows

Some brands of bottled water contain significantly higher levels of microplastics than tap water, according to new research by scientists who have developed a novel method for detecting these tiny particles.

9 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / 'Northwest Passage' mechanism of bile acid transport reveals a voltage-dependent pathway

In a study published in Nature on January 28, a research team led by Eric H. Xu (Xu Huaqiang) from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with Ma Xiong from Renji Hospital, determined ...

9 hours ago in Biology