/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Turbulence is everywhere, yet much about the nature of turbulence remains unknown. During the last decade, physicists have discovered how fluids in a pipe or similar geometry transition from a smooth, laminar state to a turbulent state as their speed increases. /news/2025-09-turbulence-fluid-pipe-discontinuous-transition.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Soft Matter Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:27:57 EDT news676823274 Abiotic organic synthesis during geological processes has long drawn scientific interest, as it is believed to have laid both the material and energetic groundwork for the emergence of early life on Earth. /news/2025-09-iron-laden-fluids-abiotic-synthesis.html Earth Sciences Thu, 04 Sep 2025 12:10:04 EDT news676206145 The composition of sweat makes it a valuable diagnostic fluid. While it is mostly water, the small fraction containing electrolytes, metabolic byproducts, and chemical traces can reveal important information about a person's health. Today, commercial sweat-based sensors can already track dehydration, electrolyte loss, and more. One emerging application is the measurement of lactic acid in sweat. /news/2025-09-sugar-based-stabilizer-sensors-acidic.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Thu, 04 Sep 2025 09:54:04 EDT news676198441 Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a novel framework for understanding and controlling the flow behavior of granular hydrogels—a class of material made up of densely packed, microscopic gel particles with promising applications in medicine, 3D bioprinting, and tissue repair. /news/2025-09-advanced-granular-hydrogel-mechanics-biomedical.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 02 Sep 2025 17:18:04 EDT news676052281 In 1951, physicist Julian Schwinger theorized that by applying a uniform electrical field to a vacuum, electron-positron pairs would be spontaneously created out of nothing, through a phenomenon called quantum tunneling. /news/2025-08-physicists-vacuum-tunneling-2d-superfluid.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 01 Sep 2025 15:00:02 EDT news675677083 For several decades, a central puzzle in quantum physics has remained unsolved: Could electrons behave like a perfect, frictionless fluid with electrical properties described by a universal quantum number? /news/2025-09-graphene-reveals-electrons-frictionless-fluid.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:53:13 EDT news675949986 Summertime is beer time—even if the consumption of alcoholic beer is declining in Switzerland. And for beer lovers, there is nothing better than a head of foam topping the golden, sparkling barley juice. But with many beers, the dream is quickly shattered, and the foam collapses before you can take your first sip. There are also types of beer, however, where the head lasts a long time. /news/2025-08-foam-belgian-beers.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Soft Matter Sat, 30 Aug 2025 10:00:03 EDT news675418201 Regulating the flow of protons across the chloroplast and modulating the activity of its CFo-CF1 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase protein are key to protecting plants from excessive light energy absorbed during photosynthesis, report researchers. /news/2025-08-unraveling-proton-translocation-dynamics-photoprotective.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 29 Aug 2025 13:30:22 EDT news675693017 In everyday life, all matter exists as either a gas, liquid, or solid. In quantum mechanics, however, it is possible for two distinct states to exist simultaneously. An ultracold quantum system, for instance, can exhibit the properties of both a fluid and a solid at the same time. /news/2025-08-superfluid-simultaneously-solid.html Soft Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:12:03 EDT news675605521 Plants have a sophisticated internal communication system to help them optimize energy production. Now, a new study by an international team of scientists led by Penn State researchers reveals for the first time the molecular messengers that control how and when plants "breathe" and "eat," which could have implications for agriculture. /news/2025-08-messenger-cue-revealed.html Plants & Animals Agriculture Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:42:04 EDT news675340921 Plants produce all the amino acids essential for human life. This commonly occurs in specialized cell organelles, so-called plastids. A research team headed by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now decoded the mechanism by which plants distribute these amino acids within their organisms. /news/2025-08-re1-proteins-emerge-key-players.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:37:03 EDT news675085021 Last summer, Stephanie McNamara got her first glimpse of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado. The park is a monument to sand, where dunes stretch across 30 square miles and tower nearly 750 feet high, making them the tallest such formations in North America. /news/2025-08-arrakis-dune-real-life-perils.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:30:02 EDT news675008551 In the past, scientists believed that the fast-acting biochemistry of genes and proteins was responsible for directing the forces that shape developing organs. But a new study from Syracuse University shows that steady, powerful flows of tissue might be equally significant in shaping an organ's development as biochemistry. By understanding this physical process, doctors could find ways to prevent or treat human illness. /news/2025-08-steady-tissue-important-genes-biochemistry.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 21 Aug 2025 14:56:03 EDT news675006961 Stylolites—irregular seams that occur in limestone—have been found to affect how acoustic waves move through rock samples. Laboratory-based insights from KAUST researchers offer an improved understanding of how these features impact acoustic imaging techniques, which are used to analyze induced microseismic events during hydraulic fracturing. /news/2025-08-stylolites-complicate-propagation-sedimentary-samples.html Earth Sciences Wed, 20 Aug 2025 12:30:03 EDT news674911801 Poohsticks, the game in which Piglet and Winnie the Pooh throw sticks into the river from one side of a bridge, and then rush over to the other side to see whose stick appears first, is all about current flow. Disappointingly, neither Piglet nor Pooh mention fluid dynamics despite its pivotal importance in determining who won. /news/2025-08-penguins-tides.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:16:20 EDT news674820977 Scientists have uncovered a key piece of the puzzle behind the unusual "slow earthquakes" occurring off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. /news/2025-08-discovery-hidden-faults-mystery-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:30:02 EDT news674725558 Since sending the first human into space in the 1960s, the solution to one key challenge has remained elusive: the efficient and reliable production of oxygen in space. On the International Space Station, this problem is addressed by heavy and energy-intensive systems that are not ideal for long-duration space missions. /news/2025-08-magnetism-efficient-oxygen-production-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:57:20 EDT news674737034 In everyday life, continuously doing work on a system is found to heat it up. Rubbing your hands together warms them. Hammering a piece of metal makes it hot. Even without knowing the equations, we learn from experience: driving any system, whether by stirring, pressing, or striking, leads to a rise in the system's temperature. /news/2025-08-quantum-gas-physicists-body-dynamical.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 14 Aug 2025 14:00:16 EDT news674378821 Similar to humans, plants can become infected with more than one virus at a time, opening the door for more severe infections and new disease variants. But these mixed infections are often under-studied and poorly understood. /news/2025-08-insight-virus-interactions.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Wed, 13 Aug 2025 13:14:48 EDT news674309685 Neutrinos—ghostly particles that rarely interact with normal matter—are the sun's secret messengers. These particles are born deep within the sun, a byproduct of the nuclear fusion process which powers all stars. /news/2025-08-sun-secret-messengers-dune-reveal.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:48:05 EDT news674297282 Our sun is about five times less magnetically active than other sunlike stars—effectively a special case. The reason for this could reside in the planets in our solar system, say researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). In the last 10 years, they have developed a model that derives virtually all the sun's known activity cycles from the cyclical influence of the planets' tidal forces. In a new study published in Solar Â鶹ÒùÔºics, they have now demonstrated that this external synchronization automatically curbs solar activity. /news/2025-08-planets-subdue-solar.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:50:04 EDT news674207402 Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" has stirred the souls of art lovers for over a century. Now, its swirling skies may also speak to physicists, as it echoes the patterns of quantum turbulence. /news/2025-08-quantum-starry-night-physicists-capture.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 08 Aug 2025 05:00:01 EDT news673796597 NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission with agency astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov is preparing to return to Earth in early August after a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station. During their stay, McClain, Ayers, and Onishi completed dozens of experiments and technology demonstrations, helping push the boundaries of scientific discovery aboard the orbiting laboratory. /news/2025-08-nasa-spacex-crew-science-mission.html Space Exploration Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:47:06 EDT news673692421 Newly developed DNA nanostructures can form flexible, fluid, and stimuli-responsive condensates without relying on chemical cross-linking, report researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo and Chuo University, in the journal JACS Au. /news/2025-08-dna-nanostructures-mimic-molecular-chemical.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:10:06 EDT news673690201 Scientists at the Center for Cell Dynamics, School of Biological and Behavioral Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with Carl Zeiss, have developed an innovative live-cell imaging technique that combines an exceptional resolution of 60 nanometers with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, while significantly reducing light-induced cellular damage. This advancement allows researchers to observe intricate cellular processes with unprecedented clarity, opening new avenues for understanding fundamental biological mechanisms, including DNA repair and chromosome dynamics. The technology can also facilitate novel live-cell dynamics based drug target and drug screening methods that transcend the diffraction limit of systems. /news/2025-08-super-resolution-imaging-method-gentle.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:00:03 EDT news673530744 A new paper led by a York University professor and published today in Nature Astronomy introduces a simple theoretical framework to describe the evolution of the coupled interior–atmosphere system of hot rocky exoplanets known as "lava planets." /news/2025-07-lava-planets-evolve.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:23:57 EDT news673014232 Quantum field theory (QFT) is a physics framework that describes how particles and forces behave based on principles rooted in quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein's special relativity theory. This framework predicts the emergence of various remarkable effects in curved spacetimes, including Hawking radiation. /news/2025-07-simulating-hawking-effect-quantum-field.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:30:01 EDT news672915017 Researchers have demonstrated that microscopic drug delivery containers can be magnetically steered to their targets, advancing the development of precision medicine for treating diseases such as cancer. /news/2025-07-precision-drug-delivery-magnetic-triggered.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:20:01 EDT news672589067 Scientists at the University of Stuttgart's Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics (IAG) have produced a novel dataset that will improve the development of turbulence models. With the help of the Hawk supercomputer at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), investigators in the laboratory of Dr. Christoph Wenzel conducted a large-scale direct numerical simulation of a spatially evolving turbulent boundary layer. /news/2025-07-supercomputer-simulation-turbulent-boundary-layers.html Soft Matter Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:10:05 EDT news672579177 Inspired by a hitchhiking fish that uses a specialized suction organ to latch onto sharks and other marine animals, researchers from MIT and other institutions have designed a mechanical adhesive device that can attach to soft surfaces underwater or in extreme conditions, and remain there for days or weeks. /news/2025-07-fish-adhesive-device-soft-tissues.html Biotechnology Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:00:01 EDT news672421040