Phys.org news

Phys.org / How body size and habitat shape the vocal repertoires of primates

Biologists, zoologists and psychologists have been trying to trace the origins of human language for centuries. One well-known theory, known as the social brain hypothesis, suggests that increasingly complex social lives ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Long-range magnetic interactions govern how a ferrimagnet approaches its phase transition

Close to a phase transition, very different materials can follow the same mathematical rules. The concept of universality, which groups seemingly distinct systems based on their common properties, was developed to describe ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Tomato roots reveal hidden steps in 400-million-year-old fungal partnership

Scientists at VIB and Ghent University have produced the first high-resolution, cell-by-cell map of how tomato roots respond to colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These ancient fungal partners help plants absorb ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Drier soils may turn late summer into prolonged extreme heat

The summers of recent years have been hot, but not unusual from a meteorological perspective. According to researchers at Leipzig University, though, the next extreme summer would far exceed anything we have experienced so ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Distinct neurons drive mice's social sounds and squeaks

Mice use almost completely distinct sets of neurons for their two different types of vocalizations—the squeaks they produce when in distress or fighting and the whistle-like ultrasonic vocalizations they use when communicating ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Each degree of warming could add a month of intolerable heat for 1 billion people

The threat that rising temperatures fueled by climate change pose to the health of older people has been dramatically underestimated, according to a U.S. modeling study published Tuesday.

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Ancient Egyptian tomb shows how burial trends changed over hundreds of years

The Theban Necropolis, opposite Luxor, consists of more than 400 tombs. In a new Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology study, researchers in Spain examined part of one of these tombs—chamber three in tomb TT 209—to reconstruct ...

Aug 18, 2026
Phys.org / Male Neanderthal pelvises resemble those of modern females, challenging decades-old assumptions

A new study by the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, published in Scientific Reports, offers an explanation for one of the striking differences between men and women: the evolutionary development ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / AI agents coordinate behavior based on majority opinion—even when said opinions are meaningless

A new study published in Science Advances takes a closer look at how AI agents' choices are influenced by their peers. The team found that more advanced models tend to follow the majority when shown other agents' choices, ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Molecular memory: How a mother's age echoes in her offspring's cells

In humans and many other animals, a mother's age can affect the physical and behavioral characteristics of the next generation. Scientists call these changes maternal age effects, and while they are widespread across the ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / Dark matter may be gravitationally lensing a likely source of cosmic neutrinos

Astronomers have discovered that the jet of a distant blazar has been gravitationally lensed by an unseen source of dark matter. Led by Silke Britzen at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the team's ...

Aug 17, 2026
Phys.org / First pair of feeding supermassive black holes found in a Green Pea galaxy

Astronomers have discovered the first confirmed dual active galactic nucleus in a Green Pea galaxy, revealing two supermassive black holes growing at the same time inside a compact, intensely star-forming system. X-ray observations ...

Aug 17, 2026