Phys.org

A journey back in time to the Late Cretaceous: A swampy rainforest with conifers and tree ferns stretches as far as the eye can see, dinosaurs roam through the misty wetlands, and the climate is mild and warm. The average annual temperature is 12

Tiny, soft polymer particles

In 1967, a solar storm nearly triggered World War III by jamming early-warning radar systems in the United States, causing U.S. leaders to think the Soviet Union was responsible. Though society averted catastrophe thanks to timely information from solar forecasters, the threat from space weather remains real.

When it comes to bees, most of us can identify the ubiquitous honey bee (Apis mellifera) and that

One big dream of ultrafast science has been to watch changes in nanoparticles or biomolecules on their natural timescale. Experimentally, this can be realized by taking two snapshots of the same object only femtoseconds apart. However, no detector is fast enough to record the two snapshots separately

Picture a senior English classroom.

How do related proteins develop different functions? This is the question investigated by a research team involving Kiel University, DESY and the Center for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB). Led by Holger Sondermann, professor at Kiel University and head of the Structural Microbiology group at DESY, the researchers reconstructed the common ancestor of two bacterial enzymes and produced the long-extinct protein in the laboratory.

Water has always been one of California

Researchers from Flinders University have found that flushing toilets can release aerosols and bioaerosols into the surrounding air, with some studies detecting particles at heights corresponding to adults

Tsushima leopard cats are an endangered species found only on this isolated island. The most recent government survey estimated the population at around 150 individuals, and because domestic cats also inhabit the same landscape, introgression is a legitimate conservation concern.

The waters of the remote Scottish island of Jura have long been famous for making whiskey. Now, the island

Astronomers have detected extreme, never-before-seen behavior from a rare kind of pulsar and stumbled on a surprising link to one of astronomy

Investment funds increasingly promise to deliver social or environmental benefits alongside financial returns. Regulators rightly ask whether these

The case against social media has become so well rehearsed that most people can easily merge it into ordinary conversation: It makes people lonely. It sorts them into camps. It hands them a room full of people who already agree with them and calls that a community.

Scientists have discovered that one of the most unusual creatures in the animal kingdom is far more diverse and evolutionarily complex than previously known. An international team led by the University of G

When two black holes crash together and merge, the newly formed black hole rings like a bell, sending out gravitational waves with specific frequencies that fade over time. This brief, fading pattern of waves is called ringdown, and it may hold secrets about what is hiding around black holes.

Over the summer, Europe provided a stark new set of images of climate change. Wildfires raced across forests and grasslands, rivers and reservoirs dried up in droughts, and extreme heat disrupted everyday life.

More than two dozen University of Victoria researchers contributed to

University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies has published a new white paper,

We know the first five years are a crucial time in a child

After a bad night

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the largest multispectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey of the cosmos, has released its 20th data release (DR 20). It is also the third release of the survey

What do the water system in Flint, Michigan, the electrical grid in Puerto Rico and your search engine have in common? They are all critical infrastructure

Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors.

War destroys laboratories and instruments. It also severs the human networks through which science reproduces itself. It disrupts mentorship, collaborations and informal ties that turn students into researchers.

Australians could be given the option of opting out of powerful social media algorithms under new legislation cracking down on Big Tech, a minister said Monday.

About 1 million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The consequences for their health and income can be significant and long-lasting, with costs to the economy as well.

A routine blood sample contains a diverse collection of immune cells that can reveal important clues about health and disease. These cells, known as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), are widely used to study infections, autoimmune disorders, cancer and the immune system

While the highly virulent avian influenza strain has only recently been discovered on Australian shores, researchers at Deakin University have been working behind the scenes for years, anticipating what an outbreak might look like.

Certain chemical substances, broadly called luminogens, have an inherent ability to emit light. Most fluorescent molecules emit light in solution but lose their emission in the solid state, where the molecules aggregate.

Since scientists can

With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani

As the electronics in our technology keep shrinking, traditional silicon-based chips are approaching their fundamental physical limits. Yet the wires connecting them might be able to shrink beyond conventional dimensions, as scientists have created one of the longest single-atom copper chains to date that could serve as molecular wires.

The Pantone color of the year for 2026 is white. It

Acrid smoke hung heavily over the Malaysian town of Serian, seeping into homes and cloaking roadside stalls, as residents navigated an air-quality emergency fueled by transboundary haze from Indonesia

Conformational changes in proteins are vital to their function yet remain challenging for state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, such as AlphaFold3, to predict. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS), and the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI introduced a repulsive force between predicted structures, allowing AlphaFold3 to sample the multiple conformational states that its default settings rarely capture.

A study led by the University of Jyv

Astronomers have found two clouds of hydrogen near the Whirlpool galaxy that appear to contain almost no stars. The clouds, discovered with China

Here

Narwhals have nature

After an eight-year journey, a spacecraft carrying European and Japanese probes began the monthslong, high-risk approach to Mercury on Thursday to study the sun-scorched planet.

Rice University researchers have used a magnetically levitated particle to search for ultraheavy dark matter, extending the hunt for some of the heaviest possible forms of the invisible matter thought to hold galaxies together. Led by Christopher Tunnell, associate professor of physics and astronomy, the researchers used a tiny floating magnet as a highly sensitive detector designed to register the faint push an ultraheavy dark matter particle could produce as it passed through.

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) has become a routine part of working life, but overreliance on the technology may erode managers

School suspensions are associated with a complex combination of socioeconomic disadvantage, special educational needs, peer relationships and students

The catastrophic flooding in July 2021 claimed the lives of more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium. The high death toll makes it clear that hazard mapping and risk communication must be improved urgently. Researchers at the University of Potsdam, the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, the University of Louvain and Johns Hopkins University analyzed the locations and specific circumstances of 224 deaths. Their findings show that many occurred outside the officially mapped flood hazard zones an

Beneath the Arctic Ocean is an orchestra featuring natural and human composers, from cracking sea ice and whistling beluga whales to humming shipping-vessel engines. Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory heard some of this cacophony when analyzing data from commercial off-the-shelf sensors that they integrated and deployed in 2024 during the U.S. Navy

Researchers at Lund University have developed a new type of light-emitting diode based on thin, branched nanowires that could offer significantly higher efficiency and lower production costs than current technology. By controlling where in the structure the light is generated, the researchers have reduced the losses that would otherwise limit the amount of light that can be used. Their study is published in the journal Nano Research.

Why do some ants help nestmates in distress while others don

Researchers have completely suppressed superconductivity in magic-angle graphene by screening interactions between electrons, helping resolve a long-running debate about the origin of the phenomenon.

The human body and its gut microbiome produce thousands of small molecules that shape how the body functions