Phys.org news

Phys.org / How play and social connection may help some dogs understand words

Some dogs are seemingly more talented than others. So-called gifted word learners (GWL) are rare canines that can rapidly learn the names of toys, a skill that most dogs don't possess. To understand why this is so, researchers ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Open-access software tool helps researchers spot fake journals

Research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals are at the heart of academic integrity. New ideas and discoveries are vetted and checked by experts in the field as the boundaries of scientific knowledge are pushed forward. ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / JWST discovers a new extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxy

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new dwarf galaxy, which received designation CAPERS-39810. Further investigation of CAPERS-39810 revealed that it is an extremely metal-poor galaxy. ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Global warming is speeding breakdown of major greenhouse gas, research shows

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that climate change is causing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance, to break down in the atmosphere more quickly than previously ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Weight-loss drugs are creating an environmental disaster—a new water-based method aims to change that

The world is in the middle of a peptide drug revolution. These short chains of amino acids—the building blocks of proteins—sit at the heart of some of the most successful medicines ever created, from weight-loss injections ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / New model predicts the melting of free-floating ice in calm water

A pair of US researchers have developed a new model to tackle a deceptively simple problem: how a small block of ice melts while floating in calm water. Using an advanced experimental setup, Daisuke Noto and Hugo Ulloa at ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / Reproduction in space, an environment hostile to human biology

As commercial spaceflight draws ever closer and time spent in space continues to extend, the question of reproductive health beyond the bounds of planet Earth is no longer theoretical but now "urgently practical," according ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Political division in the US surged from 2008 onward, study suggests

Divisions within the US population on social and political issues have increased by 64% since 1988, with almost all this coming after 2008, according to a study tracking polarization from the end of the Reagan era to the ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Supermassive black holes sit in 'eye of their own storms,' studies find

Gigantic black holes lurk at the center of virtually every galaxy, including ours, but we've lacked a precise picture of what impact they have on their surroundings. However, a University of Chicago-led group of scientists ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / A new class of strange one-dimensional particles

Physicists have long categorized every elementary particle in our three-dimensional universe as being either a boson or a fermion—the former category mostly capturing force carriers like photons, the latter including the ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / One-of-a-kind 'plasma tunnel' recreates extreme conditions spacecraft face upon reentry

Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet's atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma—a ...

Feb 3, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Urban light pollution disrupts nighttime melatonin in wild nurse sharks

Artificial light from major coastal cities can disrupt the nighttime biology of sharks, according to new research that provides the first-ever measurements of melatonin—a hormone tied to biological rhythms—in wild sharks.

Feb 3, 2026 in Biology