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140 recent stories from Phys.org
One of nature's greatest spectacles—a rare total solar eclipse—cast its shadow on Wednesday, briefly turning day into night in Russia's remote Arctic north and western Iceland before heading toward mainland Europe.
Aug 12, 2026
One of nature's greatest spectacles—a rare total solar eclipse—cast its shadow on Wednesday, briefly turning day into night in Russia's remote Arctic north and western Iceland before heading toward mainland Europe.
Phys.org ·
More than 70% of massive stars are born in close binary systems, where gravitational tugs and mass transfer between companions dramatically alter their evolution. Yet once the interaction ends—whether through mass transfer, merger or the supernova explosion of one partner—the surviving star often appears as a solitary object, hiding its turbulent past. For decades, astronomers have struggled to detect these hidden histories.
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Food insecurity is a major problem in many parts of the world, particularly Africa, where more than 300 million people regularly go hungry. Now, using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, researchers from Morocco have developed a way to produce fertilizer from local African rocks, which could make it easier for farmers to grow the crops needed to feed local residents.
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A new study suggests a protective vest tested on a manikin during NASA's first Artemis moonshot could drastically cut the radiation exposure of lunar astronauts during severe solar storms.
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A team of paleontologists from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) studying penguin fossils from Seymour Island off the Antarctic Peninsula have demonstrated how ancient bird bones can act as chemical archives of past climate change. The researchers used nondestructive X-ray mapping to examine the elemental composition of penguin remains spanning millions of years. They uncovered key insights into how Antarctica shifted from a warm, humid environment to a cooler world. The work is published in the journal Fossil Record.
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The first bird to inhabit Earth used its robust hind legs to make two or three powerful leaps while flapping its way to flight, according to a study by the University of Southampton published in Developmental Biology.
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Across the United States, the number of people who do not have and do not want to have children is growing. While they are twice as likely to live in California as Louisiana, individual demographic characteristics are the strongest predictors of who is childfree, according to a study published in PLOS One by Zachary Neal and Jennifer Watling Neal from Michigan State University, U.S.
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There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event horizon, and everything falls inward to a point of infinite density where our equations return nonsense. It isn't so much an answer as an admission that we've run out of physics.
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For thousands of years, the Anindilyakwa people have lived in deep connection with the waters surrounding Groote Eylandt, a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Phys.org ·
More than 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with a new candidate added to the list every 10 minutes. Even if the transplant is carried out successfully, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications, elevating their risk of broader infections, and adhere to a strict lifestyle for the rest of their lives—all while facing the possibility that their body could reject the donated organ at any time.
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The decades-old scientific quest to create brand-new proteins has been turbocharged in the era of artificial intelligence.
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In 2005, a research team led by University of Zurich economics professor Ernst Fehr published a study in the journal Nature that provided evidence for the first time that intranasally administered oxytocin can increase trusting behavior in humans. Oxytocin is a hormone and neurotransmitter produced naturally in the body that influences social interactions, among other things.
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Food and pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly seek lipids with carefully controlled fatty-acid compositions. However, natural oils usually contain mixtures of closely related fatty acids, and conventional enzymes often cannot distinguish reliably between them.
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Students who attended public school pre-K performed better academically through high school than those in family-based child care, according to new research from Florida International University.
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Whether it's neurons responding to electrical signals or plants stretching toward light, nature is filled with examples of biological materials that respond to their environment. Now, researchers want to develop new responsive materials for a wide range of applications, such as sensing or low-energy technologies. However, achieving a balance of useful properties at the molecular level is challenging.
Phys.org ·
Modern biomedicine increasingly relies on enormous amounts of image data. Although computers can do part of the analysis work, biologists often still need to look through the images themselves. This takes time.
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