Phys.org news

Phys.org / After 10 years of upgrades, this legendary telescope has returned to chase black holes, asteroids and cosmic chemistry

The Haystack 37m Telescope has been a landmark in radio astronomy and radar studies of the solar system since its first light in 1964. Over the following four decades, it supported NASA's Apollo landings on the moon, made ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / The complete evolution of spin glass from order to chaos

How come our universe is full of disorder, when all elementary particles appear to follow strictly ordered laws of physics? And are there organizing principles behind disorder and apparent chaos?

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Cows can recognize familiar human faces and match them to voices

Cows show a visual preference for new human faces over a familiar one and can match a known handler's voice to their face, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Océane Amichaud of INRAE in ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Better helium reporting to improve fission and fusion materials modeling

Standardizing calculations of the helium byproducts generated in advanced fission and fusion energy system materials can increase reactor safety and longevity, according to a study led by University of Michigan Engineering ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Early complex life clung to oxygenated seafloors for hundreds of millions of years, scientists discover

From the highest mountains to the deepest ocean, the driest desert to the lushest jungle, Earth displays a dazzling array of life-forms. And eukaryotes account for many of these life-forms, including nearly all of the multicellular ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Cities change storms, but the impacts depend on the storm itself

Cities don't just change the landscape, they change the weather. According to a new study analyzing tens of thousands of rain events in Texas, whether urban areas make rain worse, lighter or simply different depends strongly ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Paper calls for biologists to rethink how they analyze the impact of climate

A new paper calls for ecologists and evolutionary biologists to consider how organisms experience climate rather than how weather stations record it when doing climate–biology research. The paper, "Matching climate to biological ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Scientists solve 50-year mystery of plant immunity by unlocking debneyol's blueprint

In a silent war that has raged for millions of years, plants have evolved a sophisticated chemical arsenal to fight back against invading pathogens. Now, a team of researchers from Peking University and Tsinghua University ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Urban aerosols grow faster in polluted air, sharpening climate model gaps

Aerosols and clouds play a key role in Earth's climate budget. However, the extent to which they reflect solar energy depends heavily on how much water the particles can absorb. This so-called hygroscopicity has so far been ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Asteroid impact site reveals possible traces of early life

A discovery by a South Korean research team suggests that impact-generated lakes may have fostered early oxygen-producing life. A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered new evidence that could help explain how Earth's ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / Dominant fish face higher microplastic risk than subordinates in social groups

Fish who display dominant traits are more at risk of consuming microplastic pollution than others in their social group, according to new research. The study, led by the University of Glasgow and published in Proceedings ...

May 20, 2026
Phys.org / How economic growth in low-income countries can also protect biodiversity

For decades, environmental debates have been framed around a stark trade-off: economic growth lifts people out of poverty but comes at the expense of forests, wildlife, and climate stability. More people and richer diets ...

May 20, 2026