Phys.org news

Phys.org / Why subduction zones act as the Earth's 'gold kitchens'

Earth's "gold kitchen" lies deep beneath the seafloor. Island arcs, whose volcanoes form above subduction zones where one oceanic plate sinks beneath another, are often particularly rich in gold. The reasons for this have ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Gemini South confirms long-suspected link between the composition of exoplanets and their host stars

Astronomers have discovered that a giant planet, WASP-189b, echoes the composition of its host star, providing the first direct evidence of a foundational concept in astrobiology. This discovery was achieved through the first-ever ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / How gossiping mushroom networks share your public urination secrets

Psst, have you heard that mushrooms can "gossip" and spread information to their neighbors? Underneath the umbrella-like shapes we see on the forest floor is a hidden underground network that allows mushrooms to communicate. ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Time lapse video shows trees give visual clues as they rehydrate each spring

With the arrival of spring a few weeks ago, new buds and colors on the trees started to appear. Along with that new growth, a UBC Okanagan researcher has determined that some trees in spring also provide simple, visual clues—raised ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / A 500-million-year-old clawed predator rewrites the origin of spiders and horseshoe crabs

It had been a long day of teaching for Rudy Lerosey-Aubril. As a reward, he returned to cleaning an intriguing Cambrian arthropod fossil he had recently received for review. At first, the specimen showed all the expected ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Hidden features in X-rays could radically change how we measure and understand them

Hidden features uncovered in X-ray signals are set to overturn a key scientific theory and fundamentally change how X-rays are interpreted across fields of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science, new research reveals. ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / New model shows how behavioral flexibility affects animal evolution

When the environment changes dramatically, animals from mollusks to crows can make big changes in their behavior that enable them to survive. For example, marmots and ground squirrels in California are spending more time ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Free software lets laptops simulate how aging evolves under selection

Why do some species live for only weeks while others survive for centuries? Researchers at the Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena have developed AEGIS, a freely available software tool that enables ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Cosmic collision of galaxies mapped by Maunakea telescope

An astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is using data from the Canada–France–Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT) on Maunakea to help reconstruct a slow-motion cosmic collision, one that has been unfolding for hundreds of ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Nature's photocopiers caught 'doodling'—scientists say it could revolutionize how DNA is written

New research has discovered that the molecular machines responsible for copying our DNA have a surprising hidden talent—an ability to create entirely new and highly sophisticated DNA sequences from scratch. The study, led ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Helical liquid crystals can flip light's chirality under ultralow electric fields

The direction in which the electromagnetic field of circularly polarized light rotates can be easily reversed by applying a voltage, RIKEN researchers have demonstrated. This could enable a new generation of optical devices ...

Apr 1, 2026
Phys.org / Accuracy test for protein language models shines light into AI 'black box'

AI language models, used to generate human-like text to power chatbots and create content, are also revolutionizing biology by treating complex biological data like a language. Language models are increasingly used, for example, ...

Apr 1, 2026