Phys.org

Doubts about the standard model of cosmology are deepening after a new study identified fundamental problems in a recent analysis that defended the conventional view that the universe is currently undergoing accelerated expansion driven by dark energy.

For centuries, scientists have been fascinated by the remarkable coordinated movements of flocking birds, swarming insects and schooling fish. Researchers have studied these natural phenomena to understand the rules of interactions between individuals that can produce complex group-level behavior. A collaboration of physicists and neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego has been studying schools of micro glassfish (Danionella cerebrum) to understand how the interactive mental p

Scientists have been hard at work for more than 20 years to instruct biological systems, such as E. coli cells, to produce proteins they don

In micro- and nanotechnology, highly precise components with tall, narrow structures (high aspect ratios) made from semiconductor materials like silicon are important. A promising fabrication method is gas-phase metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch). In this plasma-free process, a thin metal layer defines the pattern on the silicon substrate. The etching step takes place in a chemical environment, where the reaction occurs only at the interface between the metal and silicon. The metal cataly

Bees are the most important pollinators of flowering plants, and approximately 10% of flowering plants are functionally specialized for buzz pollination. Buzz pollination is a mechanism in which pollen can be extracted from flowers only through the application of mechanical vibrations. Many important crops, such as tomatoes, eggplants and blueberries, are buzz-pollinated because they conceal their pollen in so-called poricidal anthers

Electrically charged raindrops, a naturally occurring phenomenon, can break down surfaces treated with protective coatings, according to new research published in Nature. This previously overlooked corrosion mechanism highlights the need for a new method of preserving metal objects like cars, ships, buildings and cultural heritage sites.

While quantum computing could be the future, it is currently plagued by finicky hardware. To make the technology practical, researchers must demonstrate that it consistently and continuously works and performs at scale. In a new study, published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Ion Storage Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, created a robust process for entangling trapped-ion qubits. The

All the forests in the world pale in comparison to the ocean when it comes to absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The ocean is the world

Imagine the Western Plains of North America, from Texas to Alaska, submerged under a broad, shallow seaway. To the west lay the ancestral Rocky Mountains. To the east were low-lying plains traversed by large, sluggish rivers.

Green spaces could play a key role in helping cities cope with the effects of climate change, yet they still play only a minor role in climate strategies. These were the findings of researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), who analyzed the climate strategies of 25 major European cities.

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Oulu have produced the first chromosome-level reference genome for the Saimaa ringed seal. The sequence of every chromosome in the seal

Artificial intelligence is often discussed with a simple safeguard in mind: Keep a human in the loop. But what happens when AI is already shaping the information, options and recommendations that inform a decision?

As climate change drives more frequent and intense heat waves, plants face growing challenges to survive and remain productive. Researchers at VIB, Ghent University, KU Leuven and their international collaborators have uncovered an evolutionary innovation that helps plants cope with high temperatures.

When a cell gets ready to divide, it shuts down its gene-reading machinery almost entirely. For decades, the mechanism behind that shutdown was only partially understood. A new study co-led by Alarc

Everyone shares a similar moral compass about right and wrong, but where liberals and conservatives disagree is over who counts as a victim, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Scientists have identified an unexpected source of genetic variation in human sperm that occurs earlier in sperm development than previously thought. Published in Nature, researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators found that one type of genetic recombination involving chromosomes, called non-crossover gene conversion, happens before the cell divisions that produce sperm.

Machine learning doesn

Spreading finely crushed basalt across farmland has been promoted as a relatively simple way to remove large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study led by Cornell researchers suggests the real-world potential of this method, known as enhanced weathering, may be far smaller than widely cited estimates.

Researchers have discovered a thermal asymmetry deep beneath the surface across Mars

Florida gets a lot of attention for its sinkholes, especially when they swallow cars and entire houses. But its sinkhole risk has nothing on Alaska

Researchers affiliated with UTHealth Houston, competing under the team name Novamab AI, placed among the top five teams in the international AIntibody Challenge, a blinded, prospective benchmark published in Nature Biotechnology.

Water stored in dams and reservoirs for humans to use often evaporates, especially in hot regions like southern Africa. Rising temperatures speed up evaporation, leaving less water for people, farming and industry. Daniel Kwasi Kpeglo has just completed a Ph.D. in physics. He explains his laboratory research into a new design

An international study led by researchers at the George Washington University indicates clear global evidence that permafrost is thawing across much of the planet. Using more than two decades of field observations from 156 monitoring sites across the Arctic, Antarctic and high-mountain regions, the study found increases in the thickness of the active layer, the uppermost layer above permafrost that thaws and refreezes each year. The findings confirm that permafrost degradation accelerated global

Artificial intelligence could help evaluate climate protection projects more effectively and channel funding more precisely to where it is needed. Nevertheless, banks and insurance companies in Ghana have so far made very little use of the technology. A new study conducted at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) in collaboration with the Durban University of Technology in South Africa investigated the reasons behind this. The study is published in Discover Sustainab

The majority of plant seeds have the special ability to almost completely dry out and yet remain viable. While most living cells die with a 90% loss of water, cells in seeds enter a biological state of dormancy. With a moisture content of less than 10%

The use of fossil fuels alters both the concentration and the carbon isotope composition of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Since surface water exchanges carbon dioxide with the atmosphere, this also alters the isotopic composition of the carbon dissolved in the ocean. In a new study, a team from MARUM

As climate change makes extreme weather more frequent and intense, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires and storms are increasingly disrupting roads, railways, airports and waterways. Roads have been closed in Germany during this summer

When it comes to invading healthy cells, Legionella bacteria rely on blending in rather than breaking in. New research from Van Andel Institute scientists demonstrates how a protein produced by Legionella mimics the behavior of the host cell

The reality of sexual violence against older women is an issue that remains significantly underreported and misrepresented in Australia. Almost 50 sexual assaults occur every week in aged care. Sexual assault against older women is commonly perpetrated by intimate partners or someone they know.

The Roman Space Telescope is designed to directly image exoplanets using complex optomechanical systems developed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Model checking helps automatically verify whether hardware and software systems satisfy specified requirements. It has become an important formal verification technique, but two major challenges remain: state-space explosion, which limits the size of systems that can be checked, and long verification times.

Since we cannot look into the interiors of stars and planets, we rely on lab experiments to replicate the physical processes that occur there. Led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an international research team has produced the first experimental verification of a theoretically predicted flow state deemed characteristic of the interiors of rapidly rotating celestial bodies. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) also participated in the study, which has been publishe

Can DNA traces in just two liters (0.5 gallons) of water reveal how a river

Anyone traveling by train across Europe spends a surprisingly large portion of the trip not on a moving train. Today, about 25% of travel time is spent on transfers and layovers at train stations because of poorly coordinated timetables.

Efficiently controlling heat generation has become a major challenge as the semiconductors used in smartphones, computers and similar devices have become higher-performing and more miniaturized. The way heat is transmitted is determined by the vibration of the atoms that constitute a material, but it is not easy to directly examine, at the atomic scale, how neighboring atoms vibrate in coordination with one another.

Capuchin monkeys hunt prey when fruits and vegetables become scarce, potentially mirroring the habits of human ancestors, according to a study published in PLOS One by Susana Carvalho (Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique), Noemi Spagnoletti (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) and colleagues.

New research by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) shows that globally, up to 560 million children ages 0

Are organizations ready for plant-based food at work? A new study from the University of Copenhagen explores this question and shows that only a small proportion of workplaces in Denmark are ready for this change

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have shown that making extremely small changes to the structure of a material can dramatically improve its ability to respond to electrical signals. Published recently in Science Advances, the breakthrough could help create a new generation of wireless devices that can change frequency on demand, making communication systems more flexible and energy efficient.

They live in some of the most inaccessible waters on Earth, where ocean temperatures hover around freezing. Because they move through areas that humans rarely reach, they have been able to help researchers with a special task.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have identified a potential new target to prevent the spread of Chagas disease. The parasitic infection is transmitted through the bite of the kissing bug in Central and South America and, more recently, in the United States.

Soil is the foundation of our food supply. It stores water, carbon and nutrients and is home to a large share of the world

Saturn

Microplastics are turning up almost everywhere

It might not yet be the phenomenon that is Wordle, but for hundreds of thousands of players, Digit Party has scratched the itch of a casual brain teaser to break up their day.

In the Lac T

As of August 2026, the world is bracing for what forecasters describe as one of the strongest El Ni

The sights and sounds of the Jurassic era are long gone, and we will never know for sure what that ancient world looked and sounded like. Fossils can offer clues, and reconstructions can give us a sense of the noises some animals might have made. Now scientists have turned their attention to insects and reconstructed the calls of Jurassic relatives of modern-day crickets and katydids (grasshopper-like insects).

Before you prompt AI to answer another question or perform another task, a Wake Forest computer scientist wants you to know it could expose your sensitive data.

When you look at someone, you usually look at their face. It serves as one of the most important sources of social information in primates, so the evolution of face perception has attracted considerable scientific attention. While an abundance of this research has centered on humans and other great apes, very little has focused on gibbons.