Phys.org news

Phys.org / Krill buildup could slow fin whale filter-feeding unless baleen stays 15% clear

Usually there's safety in numbers, but it doesn't always work that way. Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) filter-feed on immense shoals of krill, engulfing colossal mouthfuls of water containing up to 144 kg of the crustaceans. ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Ancient 100-kilometer Himalayan glacier once reached lower than many of India's famous hill stations

A new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews dates the dramatic collapse of one of the largest glaciers ever documented in the Himalayas. The findings overturn a long-held assumption about what sustains wet-climate ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / New physics-based machine-learning method speeds search for 2D quantum materials

Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a new computational approach to help identify two-dimensional materials that may host unusual quantum behavior. The work, published in Science Advances, focuses on ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Quantum material opens new path for studying unusual electronic behavior

By combining approaches from two rapidly growing fields of quantum physics, researchers at Penn State and Saint Louis University have demonstrated that a novel specialized material can naturally enable a new way to study ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Self-propelled microparticles scrub stubborn biofilms, improving wound care and instrument cleaning

Newly developed microparticles can infiltrate stubborn bacterial matrices and release tiny oxygen bubbles to clean surfaces and wounds more efficiently than hydrogen peroxide or other cleaning agents alone, researchers at ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Ancient fossil may reveal animal kingdom's earliest right-handedness at 550 million years old

Scientists have uncovered what may be the earliest evidence of "right-handedness" in the animal kingdom, dating back more than half a billion years. The discovery comes from the fossil record of Spriggina floundersi, an organism ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Aging rewires RNA production, favoring short genes over long neuronal ones

A new Northwestern Medicine study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has explored the impacts of aging on essential cellular processes, findings that could shape the development of future anti-aging ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Stress protection of Amazon trees, induced by climate warming, may alter atmosphere chemistry

The Amazon rainforest is one of the largest carbon reservoirs on Earth. It is also the world's largest source of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These carbon-based gases are naturally released by vegetation. They ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Neutron imaging reveals how water limits CO₂ storage in recycled concrete

The construction sector faces two problems at once: it emits large amounts of CO₂ and produces vast quantities of concrete waste. But what if part of that waste could be used to trap carbon instead of ending up as rubble?

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / Study identifies key mechanism regulating how cells use fat to generate energy

An international study by scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has identified a fundamental mechanism that regulates ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / 'Check your ingredients': A new blueprint for using Fermi's 'Golden Rule'

Underpinning much of modern technology, from smartphones to scanning tunneling microscopes to particle colliders, is Fermi's Golden Rule. Named for 20th-century Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi (but actually discovered ...

Jul 9, 2026
Phys.org / The ghost in Orion's shell: Hydrogen maps show repeated stellar feedback sculpted around Orion Nebula

An international team led by Juan Diego Soler at the University of Vienna used two of the world's most powerful radio telescopes to uncover previously hidden structures within the Orion Nebula. The project produced the sharpest ...

Jul 9, 2026