Phys.org news
Phys.org / New exoplanet survey method finds high rates of closely orbiting planets
Up until now, exoplanet surveys have mostly focused on nearby, bright stars that are sun-like or are red dwarfs, which are known to frequently host planets. While astronomers have discovered thousands of planets this way, ...
Phys.org / New African species confirms evolutionary origin of magic mushrooms
A long-standing debate about the evolutionary origin of the world's most widely cultivated "magic mushroom"—Psilocybe cubensis—may now have been settled by scientists from southern Africa and the United States.
Phys.org / Precisely measuring quantum signals in large spin ensembles
Quantum mechanical effects are known to be easily disrupted by disturbances from the surrounding environment, commonly referred to as noise. To minimize these disturbances, physicists often study these effects in small and ...
Phys.org / Glacial lakes in Alaska are expanding rapidly and could quadruple in size
Alaska's glacial lakes are growing faster than in previous decades. They expanded by more than 150 square kilometers between 2018 and 2024, and could eventually grow to more than four times their current size as glaciers ...
Phys.org / Scientists harness quantum tunneling to boost heavy water production efficiency
A study by scientists at Hunan University introduces a new hydrogen isotope separation method that leverages proton quantum tunneling to produce heavy water, overcoming the key physical limitation faced by current methods ...
Phys.org / Unexpected magnetic response in gold and silver atomic contacts contradicts previous theoretical predictions
Researchers from the Department of Physics and the University Institute of Materials at the University of Alicante (UA) and the Low Temperature and High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) ...
Phys.org / Ultrafast computing: Light-driven logic tops 10 terahertz in WS₂
The future for our computers will literally be at the speed of light. Extremely short light pulses can perform ultrafast logical operations: these are the findings of a study recently published in the journal Nature Photonics. ...
Phys.org / Student serves up fresh solutions to the pancake problem
David Cutler is in the spotlight for his work on a tasty-sounding mathematics problem. In January, the New York Times featured a research paper authored by Cutler and Neil Sloane, the founder of The On-line Encyclopedia of ...
Phys.org / Antarctica undergoes 'Greenlandification' as ice melt accelerates
An article published recently in Nature Geoscience warns that Antarctica's ice masses have begun to experience a process scientists call "Greenlandification." The term refers to the unprecedented retreat of Greenland's outlet ...
Phys.org / Mining the dark transcriptome: Synthesizing the first potential drug molecules from long noncoding RNA
A team from University of Toronto Engineering is the first to synthesize long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) outside the cell—a new approach to drug discovery that has already yielded some promising anti-inflammatory molecules. ...
Phys.org / First absolute dating of Paleolithic paintings in the Dordogne
A research team led by a CNRS researcher has for the first time accurately determined the age of the cave paintings at Font-de-Gaume (Les Eyzies) in Dordogne (southwestern France), according to a study published on March ...
Phys.org / 3D-printed photonic lanterns combine up to 37 multimode lasers into one fiber
Researchers have developed a microscopic 3D-printed optical device that can efficiently combine light from dozens of small semiconductor lasers into a single multimode optical fiber with very low loss. The team demonstrated ...