Phys.org news

Phys.org / Black hole feeding bursts may explain JWST's Little Red Dots in early universe

A new theoretical study may have cracked one of the most puzzling discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): Little Red Dots, spotted across the early universe. The paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server on ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / California's tectonic stress has reached record level, earthquake model reveals

Earthquakes usually occur along fracture zones in Earth's crust, where large tectonic plates slide past one another and become locked. Stress builds up over long periods and is suddenly released in the form of an earthquake. ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Critically endangered Chinese pangolin found in Nepal's sacred forest

The rare Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) has been spotted for the first time in Sunsari District in eastern Nepal. This brings the total number of districts in the country where the critically endangered species has ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Newfound sound wave scattering rule may lead to less bulky, more effective soundproofing

Researchers in China recently uncovered a quantum-inspired rule governing how sound is scattered by certain physical properties of a material. Their research, published in Physical Review Letters, may lead to the ability ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Elusive Cozumel dwarf fox reappears in first confirmed photos after two decades

A publication has revealed the first photographic evidence and confirmed sighting of the Cozumel dwarf fox in more than 20 years. Published in the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation by researchers Travis D. Bayer, ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Frozen rat chromosome springs back to life inside a mouse embryo

Scientists in Japan have developed a rat-mouse hybrid embryo from a single frozen rat chromosome transplanted into a mouse egg cell. The achievement is proof that genetic material can sometimes remain functional after cryopreservation ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Nickelate superconductors share a common electronic fingerprint

Superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with zero electrical resistance at specific temperature ranges, have proved very promising for the development of quantum computers and other cutting-edge technologies. ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Why this $10 spectrometer chip could bring real-time chemical sensing to wearables

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech, a startup founded by the same research group, have unveiled a fundamentally new type of optical spectrometer that delivers laboratory-grade precision in a device ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Physicists create new family of Schrödinger-cat states

Quantum mechanics, unlike classical physics, allows objects to exist in more than one state at the same time. This idea is often illustrated by Schrödinger's cat, imagined as being both alive and dead until it is observed. ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / River wildlife moves freely once dams are removed, but so too can invasive species

Almost a quarter of all freshwater species are threatened with extinction. The removal of human-made barriers from rivers, such as dams and weirs, is a popular way to restore water flow and sediment transport to its natural ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Hidden geometry explains why kernel methods separate complex data so well

Are two sets of data genuinely different, or is it because of randomness? This question, known as the two-sample testing problem, becomes notoriously difficult in modern datasets, because they are often high-dimensional, ...

Jun 8, 2026
Phys.org / Ancient hominins selected basalt sources for specific tools nearly 800,000 years ago, study reveals

A new study finds that ancient hominins nearly 800,000 years ago deliberately selected specific basalt sources for different stages of tool production rather than simply using whatever stone was available nearby. By tracing ...

Jun 8, 2026