Phys.org news

Phys.org / High-resolution electron microscopy sheds light on the cellular responses to stress

An international team led by researchers from the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), Germany, has used advanced electron microscopy technologies to capture key cellular mechanisms of stress resistance with near-atomic ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Plastic bottles transformed into Parkinson's drug using bacteria

A drug to treat Parkinson's disease can be made from waste plastic bottles using a pioneering method, a study shows. The approach harnesses the power of bacteria to transform post-consumer plastic into L-DOPA, a frontline ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Microbes in Antarctica survive the freezing and dark winter by living on air

Winter in Antarctica is long and dark. Temperatures remain well below freezing. In many places, the sun sets in April and does not rise above the horizon again until August. Without sunlight, photosynthetic life such as plants, ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Ocean bacteria team up to break down biodegradable plastic

Biodegradable plastics could help alleviate the plastic waste crisis that is polluting the environment and harming our health. But how long plastics take to degrade and how environmental bacteria work together to break them ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Climate action could prevent over 13 million premature deaths, but equity choices matter for global health

A new study published in The Lancet Global Health reveals a previously underappreciated tension at the heart of international climate negotiations: policies designed to protect developing countries from bearing an unfair ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Gold nanoclusters could selectively recognize chiral biomolecules to help detect certain diseases

An extensive computational study by researchers from Finland's University of Jyväskylä predicts that gold nanoclusters could selectively recognize chiral biomolecules. This property may help in detecting certain diseases ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Molecular chains with bite: Customized carbon nanoribbons open a cleaner path to molecular electronics

The longest chains of the conductive polymer poly(p-phenylene; PPP) produced to date are just under one micrometer (thousandth of a millimeter) long—almost an order of magnitude longer than previously possible. A research ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / New study offers insight into tissue-specific gene regulation of sheep

Livestock breeders could soon have more tools to improve the health and quality of their animals, thanks to a recent study that sheds new light on regulatory elements in the sheep genome.

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Origin of lowest density super-puff planet remains a hazy mystery

A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's composition, but also its origin, according to a new study. A team led by Penn State researchers used NASA's ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Light-controlled hydrogel mimics soft human tissue for more realistic cell studies

For decades, lab-grown cells have been studied in materials that don't reflect the softness and flexibility of human tissue. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a water-rich, Jell-O-like material ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Structural modeling reveals phage proteins that manipulate bacterial immune signaling

The genomes of phages—viruses that infect bacteria—are largely composed of "dark matter": genes that encode proteins whose functions remain unknown. Less than four years ago, a team led by Prof. Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann ...

Mar 16, 2026
Phys.org / Personal change thresholds may explain why popular policies fail to spread

Why do widely supported solutions to major problems, such as climate change, so often struggle to gain real traction? A new study suggests that part of the answer lies in understanding why people resist change, and how the ...

Mar 16, 2026