Phys.org news

Phys.org / It wasn't just water: The hidden force inside Japan's 2011 tsunami changed everything

Mud-rich coastlines could face a greater tsunami risk, at least that may have been the case for the 2011 Tōhoku-oki tsunami that killed more than 19,000 people and led to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. According ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / A vast Indigenous American genome map exposes lost migrations, ancient ancestry and more than a million new variants

Research into human genomic diversity has a number of applications in biomedicine, evolution, and history. However, many populations have historically been underrepresented on the human genomic map. This is the case of Native ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / A new route for plasma-based particle accelerators

Plasma, the fourth state of matter, consists of a gas in which electrons are no longer bound to atoms, which allows electricity to flow freely. When beams of particles moving close to the speed of light travel through plasma, ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / When humidity changes, so do the colors of sweat bees

Nature is a riot of color. In the animal kingdom, many species, from insects to cephalopods, use their permanent color or change it for communication, camouflage, and thermoregulation. While this type of reversible shift ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / Cold fronts in nearby galaxy group may redistribute metals, Chandra and GMRT data reveal

Astronomers from South Africa and India have analyzed archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) regarding a nearby small galaxy group known as IC 1262. Results of the new ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / Soundwaves settle debate about elusive quantum particle

It was a head-spinning discovery. In 2018, researchers in Japan claimed to find concrete evidence of an elusive particle, a Majorana fermion, in a quantum spin liquid called ruthenium trichloride. Majoranas are highly sought-after ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / A philosopher's serpent: New grass-green pitviper discovered in China's Giant Panda National Park

Draped in a uniform coat of vibrant grass-green and possessing eyes that shimmer like amber, a newly discovered pitviper is the latest hidden jewel to be found in the misty mountains of western Sichuan, China.

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / They promised climate action for years, but what these meat and dairy giants were really selling was something else

The meat and dairy industry accounts for 57% of total global food production emissions and at least 16.5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. But the vast majority of environmental claims from the animal agricultural ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / Engineered soil bacterial protein kills colorectal cancer cells by targeting their mitochondria

Researchers at Umeå University have turned a protein from soil bacteria into a potential new weapon against colorectal cancer. Their study published in Cell Death Discovery shows how an engineered bacterial protein can trigger ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / The 'resource curse': Why natural resource abundance can be a double-edged sword

Natural resources—such as fossil fuels, water, and minerals—are materials found in the environment that are essential for life and highly utilized in production. Though these resources are viewed as essential to economic ...

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / NASA unveils Roman telescope to map universe, find 10,000s of exoplanets

NASA unveiled a new telescope on Tuesday to scan vast swaths of the universe for planets outside our solar system and probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

Apr 22, 2026
Phys.org / Light-powered propulsion expands space exploration possibilities

Reaching the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, would take hundreds of thousands of years using current rocket propulsion technology. Researchers in the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M ...

Apr 22, 2026