35 C Phys.org
Elections 2026Science & Environment / Phys.org
Dr. Karl Deisseroth spent hours fielding congratulatory calls after learning early Monday that he had won a Nobel Prize for medicine for helping to open a new field of brain science called optogenetics.
In optogenetics, scientists control neurons by stimulating them with light
Research involving Durham University Business School reveals how retailers target customers most likely to spend more. Shoppers who take a more carefree approach to spending are more likely to receive personalized discount codes from retailers, according to the research.
Much of the field of sociology treats systemic racism as its default explanation for racial disparities rather than as an open question that requires further investigation and evidence, according to a recent position paper. The assumptions and moralization surrounding the origins of race-based disparities have undermined the discipline and made it difficult
For decades, fisheries managers have struggled to restore recruitment in wild lake trout populations across the Great Lakes region, with limited success. Returning this species to its former abundance is hampered by overfishing, sea lamprey predation, invasive species and habitat alterations.
A new global review of observed climate change impacts on plant communities reveals major gaps in where and how we monitor some of the world
More than half of the Ecuadorian Amazon has been marked for oil drilling, overlapping with Indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity. The ecological and cultural impacts of oil extraction are well documented and have fueled some of Latin America
Isaac Larsen, an associate professor in the College of Natural Sciences
Why does the expansion of wind energy sometimes meet with local resistance, even though renewable energy generally enjoys broad support? RIFS researcher J
The Surinam toad is one of the strangest frogs on Earth. Flat-bodied, tiny-eyed and adapted to the murky waters of the Amazon basin, it hunts well despite having very poor vision. When a fish swims close, the frog suddenly opens its mouth and sucks the prey inside in a fraction of a second.
When you walk into a bakery and smell fresh cookies, the enticing smell draws you in. After you eat a handful of cookies, though, the same smell likely doesn
Moving large animals around is a seductive idea in conservation. If there are plenty of animals in one place and too few in another, moving some between the two seems an obvious solution. Sometimes it is. But with animals as large, mobile and socially complicated as elephants and rhinos, the move itself can turn out to be the straightforward part.
The universe may be trapped in its own comfort zone, and a researcher in the College of Engineering and Computer Science has helped explain why it cannot seem to leave. A new study suggests the universe could be locked into its current state by the same kinds of quantum effects that scientists study when trying to preserve fragile information inside a quantum computer.
Since Labor won the 2024 general election, policy focused on children in the early years
Imagine two candidates with identical qualifications interviewing for the same job. One arrives carrying a bottle of water, while the other walks in with an iced coffee. Should that difference matter?
Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and turned into amber, and the fossil preserved within it has now enabled a team of researchers from the School of Zoology and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History to identify and describe a new species: Cretodorus noonoo, or
Popular culture often depicts people with psychopathy as cold, emotionless and hollow, but a recent University of Mississippi study found that the language associated with psychopathic traits is more complicated than often described.
Forest soils store an estimated 40% of the world
Many medical specialties now require graduating doctors to be skilled in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for diagnosing patients and performing procedures. POCUS uses a portable ultrasound device to help clinicians make fast, accurate medical decisions. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education lists this skill as an official milestone for graduation. Even though training is improving for its potential use in treating head, eye and nerve conditions, POCUS is only moderately used
One of the unresolved mysteries about the history of the Americas is when the first people arrived. Despite extensive debate centering on genetic, archaeological and environmental evidence, there is still no consensus or conclusive proof. Did they enter before, during or after the coldest period of the last ice age, known as the Last Glacial Maximum? Evidence from recent analysis of ancient DNA is providing fresh clues.
Like Earth, most planetary bodies circle their star in stable, detached orbits. These companionable systems can suddenly change when a planet comes too close to its star. In such a close encounter, a star can pull the planet in and swallow it whole.
Although digital platforms make it possible to sell the same product globally, prices often vary across countries because of differences in purchasing power, currencies, taxation and other market conditions. At the same time, the transparency of online prices enables consumers to compare prices across regions easily. Companies therefore must balance local affordability with the need to avoid excessive international price differences.
A new app is designed to help teachers stay healthy in their day-to-day work. The digital tool is the result of a three-year collaborative project between the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and health insurance provider AOK Bayern.
The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), a photoelectric effect that generates photocurrent without a p
Even the most chaotic quantum systems keep a permanent mark of their own past
Municipalities are increasingly mowing dikes and verges in stages, so that insects can make longer use of the plants growing there. Mowing is essential to keep a dike strong, explains ecologist Constant Swinkels of Radboud University.
For more than 70 years, fusion energy researchers have used a particular equation to judge whether a plasma would stay hot and dense enough
CSI may have spawned innumerable spinoffs, but it turns out you can
Disease and heat pose a deadly combination for coral reefs, according to a new University of Georgia study published in the journal Coral Reefs.
A year or so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the city of Murmansk in Russia
Building with nature is an important concept in our coastal defense. After all, by harnessing natural processes, we are more resilient to sea level rise. A good understanding of these processes is therefore indispensable. Ecologist Paul Berghuis, affiliated with Utrecht University and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), delved into the world of dune formation and discovered that within young dune landscapes, dunes and grasses do not arrange themselves randomly but follow a f
In 2014, members of a local museum found fragments of an ancient fossil dating to the end of the Pliocene or early Pleistocene epoch in a seaside cliff on the Argentine pampas. They belonged to a large predator, but the only group they fit, saber-toothed marsupial relatives, had supposedly gone extinct earlier, leaving the identity of the fossil a mystery. That was until Eric del Campo, a paleontologist at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires and lead author of the study, and
Almost every ceremonial object or ornament of the medieval papal monarchy has disappeared or lost its original purpose. Yet one survives: the golden rose. On Sept. 26, 2026, during Pope Leo XIV
The 2026 U.S. midterm campaigns are the first in which AI-generated political ads are regularly appearing on people
When a prairie river carries more water in one year than another, the obvious place to look for an explanation is the sky. A year with more snow and rain should have more water in rivers. That was also how I initially thought about year-to-year changes in river flow. But while studying the Prairie Pothole Region, I learned that this is only part of the story. What happens after water reaches the ground can be just as important as how much falls from the sky.
Scientists used machine learning and super-resolution microscopy to overcome a challenge that has stymied research into the natural history of grasses for decades. Their method allowed them to detect subtle differences among grass pollen grains and trace changes in grass diversity and the proportions of the two main photosynthetic types of grasses at one site over a period of 25,000 years.
Researchers have demonstrated a technique that uses a laser to produce a plasma beam antenna capable of transmitting radio waves. The article,
Epithelial cells form the body
One of the hardest challenges in wildlife conservation arises when the habitat of a species in need of protection overlaps with land used by humans. Wolves and bears can kill livestock, elephants can damage homes and other property and wild boar can damage crops.
As they fly about their usual business of pollinating flowers, bumblebees could help protect fruit trees from disease by carrying a natural treatment directly to where it is needed.
Ofsted reports are an influential factor parents consider when choosing an elementary school, with families abandoning schools after poor reports, according to new research.
Zebras grazing in a UK park might sound like the stuff of a high-budget Hollywood blockbuster, but new research suggests it could one day be vital in the fight against climate change, and that the British public might not mind as much as you
Rutgers scientists have identified natural repellents against an invasive blueberry pest, a discovery made accidentally when fruit flies invaded their laboratory.
Astronomers have discovered the first example of a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf, a world that appears to have formed from the remains of the dead star it now orbits.
A new study led by an academic staff member from the University of Otago
DNA analyses of ancient remains have revealed a previously unknown extinct bovine species that inhabited southern Siberia during and even before the last ice age. The extinct species was related to modern yaks but followed a separate evolutionary path for hundreds of thousands of years. The findings are published in Current Biology.