Phys.org news

Phys.org / NASA fuels its moon rocket in a crucial test to decide when Artemis astronauts will launch

NASA fueled its new moon rocket in one final make-or-break test Monday, with hopes of sending astronauts on a lunar fly-around as soon as this coming weekend.

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / How bacteria learned to target numerous cell types

Viruses attack nearly every living organism on Earth. To do so, they rely on highly specialized proteins that recognize and bind to receptors on the surface of target cells, a molecular arms race that drives constant evolution. ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Resilience bonds could serve as an insurance solution to address climate change risks

Researchers with Lehigh University's Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, led by anthropologist David G. Casagrande, have identified two urgent challenges the United States faces in adapting to climate change: ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Other Sciences
Phys.org / New class of catalysts could dramatically change playing field in nickel catalysis

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have reported a breakthrough in nickel catalysis that harnesses a rare oxidation state of nickel that has proved challenging to control yet is highly valued for its ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Air pollution causes social instability in ant colonies, triggering attacks on returning nest mates

A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has shown in a new study that ants returning from habitats affected by air pollution are attacked when they re-enter the colony. The cause: air pollution, ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / AI mapping reveals over 20,000 malaria protein interactions across parasite life cycle

An international research team headed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and the Center for Structural Systems Biology and Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany has revealed ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Bigger is not always better: Smaller leaves optimize light use in soybeans

In efforts to better understand how soybean plants capture and use light, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigated how leaf size and shape affect light distribution within the crop canopy. Using ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Tiny new dinosaur Foskeia pelendonum fills in an evolutionary gap

An international team has described Foskeia pelendonum, a tiny Early Cretaceous ornithopod from Vegagete (Burgos, Spain), measuring barely half a meter long. Led by Paul-Emile Dieudonné (National University of Río Negro, ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Perseverance rover completes first AI-planned drive on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has completed the first drives on another world that were planned by artificial intelligence. Executed on Dec. 8 and 10, and led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Our ocean's 'natural antacids' may act faster than we thought

Earth's ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to temper the impact of climate change but increasing ocean acidity. However, calcium carbonate minerals found in the seabed act as a natural antacid: Higher ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / As Rubin's survey gets underway, simulations suggest it could find about six lunar-origin asteroids per year

Most near-Earth asteroids are thought to drift in from the main asteroid belt. But a small subset may have a much closer origin: the moon. One intriguing example is 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3), an Earth quasi-satellite ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Mapping how Arctic groundwater will respond to thawing permafrost

Dalhousie researchers have revealed how Arctic aquifers—permeable layers of the ground that store and transmit water to rivers, lakes and terrestrial ecosystems—behave today and how these vital resources will change with ...

Feb 2, 2026 in Earth