Phys.org news

Phys.org / As glaciers retreat, Greenland seals may lose key feeding hotspots

Studying foraging behavior in marine mammals is especially difficult. Unlike terrestrial animals, which can often be directly observed, marine mammals feed underwater and across vast, remote areas, making it challenging to ...

Feb 18, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Bacterial strain from 5,000-year-old cave ice shows resistance against 10 modern antibiotics

Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Astronomers may have just found one of the missing links in galaxy evolution

A team of 48 astronomers from 14 countries, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has discovered a population of dusty, star-forming galaxies at the far edges of the universe that formed only a billion years after ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Not all humans are 'super-scary' to wildlife, animal behavior study suggests

Humans have climbed to the top of the food chain by skillfully hunting, trapping, and fishing for other animals at scales that far exceed other predators, altering how the animals behave and earning the tag of a "super-predator." ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / AI system TongGeometry generates and solves olympiad-level geometry problems

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a prestigious competition featuring talented high school students from around the world, in which competitors solve complicated mathematical problems. Geometry problems from ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Massive ceramics haul from a 14th-century shipwreck reveals Singapore's trading past

Singapore was a thriving trading hub hundreds of years before popular narratives depicted it as a quiet fishing village, according to a study of the cargo of a centuries-old shipwreck. Sometime during the middle of the 14th ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Nanoengineers realize an on-chip excitonic hyperlens

When light passes through materials, it typically changes direction and bends in predictable ways. This change in direction, known as refraction, is caused by a change in the speed of light as it enters a new medium. In some ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Double white dwarf system detected in a nearby stellar cluster

Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have discovered a compact binary system consisting of two white dwarfs in the center of a nearby globular cluster designated NGC 6397. The finding was presented in a paper ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Honey bees navigate more precisely than previously thought

A team from the University of Freiburg led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw studied the flight behavior of honey bees. Using a drone, the researchers tracked honey bees as they flew between ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Scientists raise 300,000 surfclams offshore, proving open-ocean aquaculture can work

Rutgers researchers have made a discovery that could change the future of seafood farming in New Jersey. A study led by marine scientist Daphne Munroe has shown that Atlantic surfclams can be successfully farmed in the open ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / A bacterium's built-in compass, explained: Single-cell magnetometry confirms Earth-field alignment

Some bacterial species possess an astonishing ability: They use Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves. To better understand this mechanism, the team led by Argovia-Professor Martino Poggio from the Swiss Nanoscience ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Scientists discover recent tectonic activity on the moon

Scientists have produced the first global map and analysis of small mare ridges (SMRs) on the moon, a characteristic geological feature of tectonic activity. Published in The Planetary Science Journal Dec. 24, 2025, the analysis ...

Feb 17, 2026 in Astronomy & Space