Phys.org news

Phys.org / Swiss lake symbiosis reveals unexpected role in nitrogen cycling

A publication led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, shows that microscopic partnerships between ciliates and bacteria play a role in the nitrogen cycle of lakes. The ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / New heat-regulating fabric feels fluffy like cotton—but doesn't get wet

Once cotton gets wet, it pulls heat from your body. This is helpful when you're exercising or outside on a hot day, but dangerous in the bitter cold. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have created an ultralight ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Reversible chirality switching in MoS₂ generates spin currents without magnets

A newly developed method allows researchers to dynamically switch chirality—a particular lack of mirror symmetry—to generate spin currents in semiconductors, researchers from Science Tokyo report. Their approach relies on ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / How evolution can make cells smaller without slowing down their growth

A new study led by Marco Fumasoni, principal investigator at Fundação GIMM, shows that evolution can substantially reduce cell size without significantly compromising cells' ability to grow. The work, carried out in yeast ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / New swine influenza vaccination technique can greatly strengthen disease protection

Husker scientists have developed a new swine influenza vaccination technique whose low cost and adaptability can greatly strengthen disease protection.

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / How bacteria exploit human cell metabolism to sharpen infections and potentially evade treatment

A research team at the University of Greifswald's Research Training Group RTG-PRO "Proteases in pathogen and host: importance in infection and inflammation" has discovered a new mechanism by which bacterial pathogens adjust ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Volcanic shifts suggest Andes mountain growth comes in powerful bursts rather than a slow and steady rise

Scientists have discovered that the southern Andes Mountains don't rise slowly and steadily as previously thought. Instead, the range builds itself in short, powerful "pulses" every few million years.

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Oddball exoplanet challenges what it means to be a hot Jupiter

New research led by a scientist at IPAC—a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech—studying the hot Jupiter CoRoT-2 b has settled on one of the three leading hypotheses explaining why its ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Plants maintain photosynthesis in hotter, drier climates by coordinating biochemical processes to stabilize CO₂ levels

Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have uncovered a mechanism that helps plants continue photosynthesizing under extreme heat and dry air conditions—a finding that could improve how scientists predict ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Frozen Greenland middens preserve 4,500 years of farms, seal hunts and toilets

Greenland has a long and checkered history of human settlement: several Paleo-Inuit cultures since approximately 2,500 BCE, descendants of Vikings between the 10th and 15th centuries, and early modern Danes since 1721. All ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Tracing a neutrino ghost to a distant 'shadow blaster' galaxy

Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles of the universe. They live a ghostly existence with no electric charge, very little mass and extremely few interactions with matter. They are also the most abundant particles ...

Jun 17, 2026
Phys.org / Third time's the charm for a row of faint galaxies without dark matter

A Yale-led team of astronomers has found a third galaxy devoid of dark matter—located alongside the other two in a formation that has never been seen before. Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third ...

Jun 16, 2026