Phys.org news

Phys.org / Yangtze River fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline

The Yangtze River Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot, has endured severe ecological degradation over several decades due to intense human activity, leading to a marked decline in aquatic biodiversity. In order to halt this ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Nanolaser on a chip could cut computer energy use in half

Researchers at DTU have developed a nanolaser that could be the key to much faster and much more energy-efficient computers, phones, and data centers. The technology offers the prospect of thousands of the new lasers being ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Oldest known reptile skin impressions dated to 298 million years found in Germany

An international research team led by Dr. Lorenzo Marchetti from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has described the oldest known impressions of reptile skin from the Thuringian Forest in central Germany. Particularly remarkable ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Climate change is driving rising agricultural water use in Central Asia

Even as farmers shift toward less water-intensive crops, climate change is pushing agricultural water consumption upward in Central Asia. A new study by IAMO researchers shows that rising temperatures and atmospheric water ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Temporal evolution of GRB 240825A afterglow provides insight into origins of optically dark gamma-ray bursts

Researchers from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted a new study on the temporal evolution of the afterglow from gamma-ray burst GRB 240825A. The study offers new evidence to better ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Global analysis tracks 3,100 glacier surges as climate change rewrites the rules

While most of the world's glaciers are retreating as the climate warms, a small but significant population behaves very differently—and the consequences can be severe. A team of international scientists, led by the University ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / A new turbulence equation for eddy interactions: AI and physics team up to tackle notoriously difficult question

The currents of the oceans, the roiling surface of the sun, and the clouds of smoke billowing off a forest fire—all are governed by the same laws of physics and give rise to a complex phenomenon known as turbulence. But ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Driven electrolytes are agile and active at the nanoscale

Technologies for energy storage as well as biological systems such as the network of neurons in the brain depend on driven electrolytes that are traveling in an electric field due to their electrical charges. This concept ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / A little protein with a big role in building Earth's carbon fixing machinery

An international team of scientists has discovered that a small, low-abundance protein plays a surprisingly big role in assembling carboxysomes—specialized bacterial microcompartments that enable efficient carbon fixation ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Sea turtles are nesting earlier but producing fewer eggs, 17-year study finds

Climate change is reshaping life on Earth at an unprecedented pace. Across the globe, species are shifting their ranges, altering migration routes and breeding earlier in the year in response to rising temperatures. But while ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Plants retain a 'genetic memory' of past population crashes, study shows

Researchers at McGill University and the United States Forest Service have found that plants living in areas where human activity has caused population crashes carry long-lasting genetic traces of that history, such as reduced ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / New perspectives on how physical instabilities drive embryonic development

Multicellularity is one of the most profound phenomena in biology, and relies on the ability of a single cell to reorganize itself into a complex organism. It underpins the diversity in the animal kingdom, from insects to ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology