Phys.org news
Phys.org / Light-activated nanoparticles could help surgeons find and destroy brain cancer remnants
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain cancer. It's difficult to treat because tumor cells infiltrate the surrounding brain tissue, making it hard for surgeons to remove the cancer completely without damaging healthy ...
Phys.org / Your next handbag could start with mushrooms
The search for leather alternatives has led researchers somewhere unexpected: fungi. Although traditional leather is durable, producing it requires animal agriculture, which carries negative environmental impacts. Meanwhile, ...
Phys.org / Interlocking molecular propellers create stable 'islands' in artificial lipid membranes
Cells are enclosed by a cell membrane, a sophisticated structure mainly made of lipids that is vital for fundamental biological processes. Artificial lipid membranes have many practical applications, such as drug delivery, ...
Phys.org / Sizing errors can hide true nanoparticle behavior
Nanoscience, which studies small objects, has a big problem. According to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the field confronts a pervasive data analysis error that can give ...
Phys.org / Astronomers catch massive star's death from the first explosive moment
In March 2026, the Einstein Probe detected a brief flash of soft X-rays emitted from a galaxy about 500 million light-years away. The flash, dubbed EP260321a, immediately triggered a worldwide observing campaign. Within an ...
Phys.org / Tiny vortices discovered on the sun's surface
Researchers from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Solar Observatory (NSF NSO), the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, and the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) in the U.S. have made ...
Phys.org / Using the Earth's magnetic field to hunt for axions and dark photons
Dark matter's existence is all but certain—astronomers believe it makes up about a quarter of the universe's total energy content—yet its true identity has eluded us for decades. Two of the leading candidates for dark matter ...
Phys.org / Neanderthal growth hormone receptor increases muscle mass in people today, study shows
Neanderthals were generally more strongly built than most people living today. Their bones show signs of large muscles, and they had characteristic features such as prominent brow ridges and relatively short tooth roots.
Phys.org / Two origins of life: Free-living cells may have emerged twice as bacteria and archaea diverged
How and where did the first forms of life arise? These are the main questions driving research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). In a new publication in Science Advances, ...
Phys.org / Runaway supermassive black hole RBH-1 offers new way to reconstruct ancient merger
Black holes are fascinating regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape them. The largest known black holes, called supermassive black holes, contain millions to billions of times the ...
Phys.org / Astronomers catch 'Hatchling' quasar breaking out of its dusty cocoon
Using observations from multiple powerful telescopes, a team of astronomers studied a red quasar nicknamed "the Hatchling" at redshift 3.7. They may have identified one of the clearest examples yet of a quasar caught in transition ...
Phys.org / Venus's polygonal plains could point to a watery past
Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked ...
