Phys.org news

Phys.org / North America's oldest known pterosaur unearthed in Petrified Forest National Park

A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America's oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight.

Jul 7, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Individual defects in superconducting quantum circuits imaged for the first time

Individual defects in superconducting quantum circuits have been imaged for the first time, thanks to research by scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Physics
Phys.org / Solid catalyst breaks the rules: Oxygen evolution steps can happen simultaneously

Oxygen evolution is considered one of the most energy-intensive steps in water electrolysis and is therefore a key factor for more efficient green hydrogen production. Modeling of the reaction mechanisms has so far been based ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Physicists reveal how a lone spinon emerges in quantum magnetic models

Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw and the University of British Columbia have described how a so-called lone spinon—an exotic quantum excitation that is a single unpaired spin—can arise ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Physics
Phys.org / Growing surface meltwater in East Antarctica signals new risks for global sea levels

Research involving the University of Liverpool has discovered a trend of increasing surface meltwater in East Antarctica. In an ambitious new study, they produced the first Antarctic-wide, high-resolution monthly dataset ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Earth
Phys.org / PodGPT: AI model learns from science podcasts to better answer questions

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), has marked a transformative shift in data analysis, interpretation and content generation. These models, trained on extensive ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Study uncovers how harmful RNA clumps form—and a way to dissolve them

Look inside a brain cell with Huntington's disease or ALS and you are likely to find RNA clumped together. These solid-like clusters, thought to be irreversible, can act as sponges that soak up surrounding proteins key for ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Chemistry
Phys.org / A new way to wobble: Scientists uncover mechanism that causes formation of planets

Instead of a tempest in a teapot, imagine the cosmos in a canister. Scientists have performed experiments using nested, spinning cylinders to confirm that an uneven wobble in a ring of electrically conductive fluid like liquid ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Beyond the alpha male: Primate studies challenge male-dominance norms

New findings by researchers at the University of Montpellier, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and the German Primate Center in Göttingen resolve why male-female power asymmetries vary across ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Research on ice-forming compound could improve pipeline safety, carbon capture and storage

Canadians may think they're intimately familiar with ice in all its forms, but there is one kind that most have probably never heard of. Clathrate hydrates are tiny crystalline cages of ice that can trap other gases or liquids ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Chemistry
Phys.org / For fish, hovering uses double the energy of resting, study finds

Fish make hanging motionless in the water column look effortless, and scientists had long assumed that this meant that it was a type of rest. Now, a new study reveals that fish use nearly twice as much energy when hovering ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Biology
Phys.org / Quantum enhancement discovery could improve medical technologies

Technologies such as biomedical imaging and spectroscopy could be enhanced by a discovery in research that involved several institutions, including the University of Glasgow. Scientists have found that two-photon processes, ...

Jul 7, 2025 in Physics