Phys.org news

Phys.org / Living alligators expose why juvenile fossils can fool classification methods

Fossil finds are exciting moments that sometimes introduce the world to an ancient mammal or dinosaur that existed millions of years ago. But a longstanding problem in paleontology is that fossils are often incomplete, and ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Air from Greenland snow shows industrialization's impact on atmospheric methane

An international team of researchers, including scientists from Utrecht University and the University of Maryland, has reconstructed the concentration of clumped isotopes of methane in air from the past for the first time. ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Schrödinger‑like charges in six‑molecule clusters point to new quantum components

Researchers from the University of Basel have published details of how electrons within a cluster of molecules interact with one another and can be controlled. Their findings pave the way for new approaches to developing ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Invertebrates can distinguish good from bad bacteria

Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Kiel University (CAU) have examined immune system function in an early-branching animal—a sea anemone. They discovered that the immune systems of these animals ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Pump that recreates human heartbeat blood flow on lab chips inspired by an accordionist

For more than 25 years, lab-on-a-chip technology has allowed researchers to model human organs and blood vessels using real human cells in artificial microscopic environments. These microphysiological systems (MPS) may replicate ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Climate change reshapes waterborne disease risks as pathogens respond differently, review finds

Climate change is altering the spread of waterborne diseases around the world, according to a comprehensive review published today in Nature Reviews Microbiology. The publication is the most up-to-date, comprehensive analysis ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Scientists achieve all-electrical control of single-molecule quantum states

Quantum technologies promise revolutionary advances in computing, sensing and information processing. However, controlling individual quantum bits (qubits) at the atomic scale remains a major challenge because conventional ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / How ions flow like a liquid through a solid crystal

A research team led by the University of Osaka, working with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), RIKEN and the Institute of Science Tokyo, has uncovered a fundamental mechanism behind ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Hybrid material confirms antiferroelectricity can coexist with switchable polarization

Many of the advanced electronic components surrounding us in everyday life rely on polar materials to function. Polar materials have an uneven distribution of electric charge. This gives them a positive and a negative side ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Tiny gene edit cuts cadmium in rice by 48% without reducing yields

Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a serious threat to global food safety. As a toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, cadmium can accumulate in agricultural soils through industrialization and urbanization before entering the ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / What animals do before going to war

Social animals use a suite of preemptive behaviors in anticipation of conflict, including staying quiet, monitoring their surroundings, conducting raids and bonding through play. In a review published in Trends in Ecology ...

Jul 16, 2026
Phys.org / Braided, exotic particles could build reliable, universal quantum computers

A truly useful quantum computer must be able to run any algorithm, with the same versatility an ordinary laptop offers. Physicists have now shown a new way to give a quantum computer exactly that flexibility, harnessing the ...

Jul 16, 2026