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154 recent stories from Phys.org
University of Bristol–led researchers have identified a naturally occurring gut molecule that could strengthen chickens' immune response against a wide range of bacterial infections. This development, published today, Aug. 12, in The Journal of Immunology, offers a major step forward in sustainable farming and the global fight against antibiotic resistance.
Aug 12, 2026
University of Bristol–led researchers have identified a naturally occurring gut molecule that could strengthen chickens' immune response against a wide range of bacterial infections. This development, published today, Aug. 12, in The Journal of Immunology, offers a major step forward in sustainable farming and the global fight against antibiotic resistance.
Phys.org ·
Online conflict tends to advance social movements rather than undermine them, according to new research from McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management.
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Signals ride on waves of one kind or another: light, sound, radio. But new carriers are needed to relay information in next-generation devices. Disturbances or waves in magnetic materials called magnons could be an efficient option—if scientists can tame them.
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Place-based decarbonization schemes designed to help communities become more sustainable must involve local people earlier and consider the range of different community responses in their development if they are to be successful and gain fuller community support, researchers have said. Countries worldwide are exploring a range of ways to transition to low-carbon energy systems to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy security, including different place-based approaches that take the social and technical characteristics of a place into consideration in their design.
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Most people underestimate how much light a pair of sunglasses blocks out. A typical dark pair removes around 80% to 90% of the visible light reaching the eye.
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The use of nanoparticles in drug delivery offers key advantages: they can enable targeted drug delivery, protect active ingredients from premature degradation, extend their duration of action in the body and reduce side effects. However, as soon as nanoparticles come into contact with blood, proteins from the blood adsorb onto their surface—forming a so-called protein corona. This corona influences whether the particles are taken up by cells, how they distribute in the body or whether the immune system recognizes and attacks them.
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Before tropical cyclones can significantly strengthen, they generally must first become vertically aligned, with their rotating centers stacked through the atmosphere. New research using nearly three decades of NOAA Hurricane Hunter observations identifies four features that can help a tilted storm become aligned and more capable of intensifying.
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River and canal ships generate roughly a quarter of the world's shipping carbon dioxide emissions, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change. And that's despite the fact that these bodies of water make up less than 1% of Earth's total navigable waterways.
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From the American West to Europe, droughts are drying up rivers, fueling destructive fires and reshaping ecosystems. They are also changing the spread of infectious diseases, leading to surges in illnesses like cholera and West Nile virus around the world.
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Tropical forests store enormous amounts of carbon and harbor most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, but scientists fear that increasingly severe droughts threaten their ability to survive and continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. A new study published in Nature offers unexpected hope, however, and shows that tropical trees may be more adaptable to drought than scientists had previously believed.
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Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black hole star"—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas. This object, described in a study published today in Nature by researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators, may help explain how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang.
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Much like an indecisive single person on a dating app, female treefrogs struggle to pick the most desirable mates when they have too many options to choose from. According to a new study published Aug. 12 in the journal iScience, when female Cope's gray treefrogs gather around ponds during mating season to listen to large groups of males chirping in noisy "choruses," they struggle to pick the most desirable male. The researchers call this phenomenon "choice overload," and it may affect the way species evolve over time.
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In a rare study of snakes as nest predators, scientists found nesting birds were loath to strike rattlesnakes even though they likely had no previous experience with vipers.
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The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network—known as NDAWN—isn't just measuring precipitation amounts and temperatures across the state. It's also playing a role in developing tools for crop disease management.
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According to new research, viewers often dismiss, trivialize or even romanticize signs of cat distress during "play" interactions, raising concerns for cat welfare.
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Scientists at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC) and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence on Aging Research have demonstrated in a biomedical study that ribosomes, the protein factories of our cells, face an unusually tough challenge when building large, membrane-embedded proteins. When protein synthesis fails, ribosomes recruit quality control factors to eliminate the resulting defective proteins.
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