/ 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. In the right combinations and conditions, two-dimensional materials can host intriguing and potentially valuable quantum phases, like superconductivity and unique forms of magnetism. Why they occur, and how they can be controlled, is of considerable interest among physicists and engineers. Research published in Nature Â鶹ÒùÔºics reveals a previously hidden feature that could explain how and why enigmatic quantum phases emerge. /news/2025-10-2d-devices-hidden-cavities-electronic.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 20 Oct 2025 05:00:11 EDT news679923998 Artificial intelligence technology has begun to transform higher education, raising a new set of profound questions about the role of universities in society. A string of high-profile corporate partnerships reflect how universities are embracing AI technology. /news/2025-10-higher-ed-ai-corporate-independence.html Economics & Business Education Wed, 08 Oct 2025 13:01:05 EDT news679147262 Toy dolls are having a Halloween moment. And it's anything but pretty or cute. /news/2025-10-annabelle-chucky-dolls-general.html Social Sciences Wed, 08 Oct 2025 09:19:04 EDT news679133941 Fungi are vital to natural ecosystems by breaking down dead organic material and cycling it back into the environment as nutrients. But new research from the University of Utah finds one species, Marquandomyces marquandii, a ubiquitous soil mold, shows promise as a potential building block for new biomedical materials. /news/2025-10-soil-fungus-durable-hydrogels-potential.html Biochemistry Polymers Wed, 01 Oct 2025 17:24:04 EDT news678558241 In a new study, scientists have shown that chemical receptors that plants use to recognize nitrogen-fixing bacteria have developed the same function independently on at least three separate occasions through a process called convergent evolution. /news/2025-09-receptors-nitrogen-bacteria-evolved-independently.html Plants & Animals Evolution Tue, 30 Sep 2025 16:01:08 EDT news678466861 When Taylor Guitars acquired an ebony mill in Cameroon to supply wood for their renowned acoustic guitars, owner Bob Taylor wanted to give back by planting new trees, even knowing they could take 60–200 years to grow. But scientists knew surprisingly little about the trees—not how many there were, how long they lived or even how to grow one, despite a 200-year history of craftsmen using the wood for piano keys and fretboards for guitars, violins and other stringed instruments. /news/2025-08-elephant-extinction-threaten-rainforests-musical.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:50:01 EDT news675595937 This week, researchers pinned down the age of a complete Homo-genus skull found in Greece in 1960 to at least 286,000 years old. Medical researchers reported that the majority of chronic pain patients discontinue cannabis use within one year. And engineers prototyped solar trees, a new solar technology designed with natural tree morphology that can be incorporated into natural branches in the upper canopies of trees while allowing light to penetrate to underlying vegetation. /news/2025-08-saturday-citations-general-gas-giants.html Other Sat, 23 Aug 2025 08:00:03 EDT news675081846 We're often told it is "unscientific" or "meaningless" to ask what happened before the Big Bang. But a new paper by FQxI cosmologist Eugene Lim, of King's College London, UK, and astrophysicists Katy Clough, of Queen Mary University of London, UK, and Josu Aurrekoetxea, at Oxford University, UK, published in Living Reviews in Relativity, proposes a way forward: using complex computer simulations to numerically (rather than exactly) solve Einstein's equations for gravity in extreme situations. /news/2025-08-big-method.html Astronomy Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:48:11 EDT news674984887 A plucked guitar string can vibrate for seconds before falling silent. A playground swing, emptied of its passenger, will gradually come to rest. These are what physicists call "damped harmonic oscillators" and are well understood in terms of Newton's laws of motion. /news/2025-08-physicists-year-puzzle-quantum-damped.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 15 Aug 2025 14:08:03 EDT news674485681 Solar cells and computer chips need silicon layers that are as perfect as possible. Every imperfection in the crystalline structure increases the risk of reduced efficiency or defective switching processes. /news/2025-07-cosmic-chips-cooling-triggers-phase.html Condensed Matter Tue, 22 Jul 2025 07:30:05 EDT news672386224 The quantum computing revolution draws ever nearer, but the need for a computer that makes correctable errors continues to hold it back. /news/2025-07-error-resistant-quantum-gates-exotic.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 14 Jul 2025 12:46:44 EDT news671716000 Well, it's July 12, which means (a) the Steam Summer Sale is over and (b) it's really hot outside in the northeastern U.S. This week, researchers discovered a cool new fish and named it after Darth Vader. An analysis of the DART mission suggests that while it proved that an impactor could alter the trajectory of an asteroid, it ejected boulders in unpredictable directions that could complicate other impactor missions. And archaeologists uncovered a rock art panel that could depict an elite individual from the First Dynasty. /news/2025-07-saturday-citations-theory-interstellar-comet.html Other Sat, 12 Jul 2025 09:00:01 EDT news671456575 In physics, there are two great pillars of thought that don't quite fit together. The Standard Model of particle physics describes all known fundamental particles and three forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. Meanwhile, Einstein's general relativity describes gravity and the fabric of spacetime. /news/2025-07-large-hadron-collider-snap-theory.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 11 Jul 2025 04:25:28 EDT news671426717 Researchers, in a recent Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters paper, introduce a new mechanism that may finally allow ultralight dark photons to be considered serious candidates for dark matter, with promising implications for detection efforts. /news/2025-06-cosmic-dark-photons.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Jun 2025 07:00:01 EDT news669460467 String theory has long been touted as physicists' best candidate for describing the fundamental nature of the universe, with elementary particles and forces described as vibrations of tiny threads of energy. But in the early 21st century, it was realized that most of the versions of reality described by string theory's equations cannot match up with observations of our own universe. /news/2025-06-theory-swampland-problem-conflicts-dark.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 09 Jun 2025 12:50:31 EDT news668692227 An international team led by Innsbruck quantum physicist Peter Zoller, together with the US company QuEra Computing, has directly observed a gauge field theory similar to models from particle physics in a two-dimensional analog quantum simulator for the first time. The study, published in Nature, opens up new possibilities for research into fundamental physical phenomena. /news/2025-06-2d-quantum-simulator.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:14:49 EDT news668261686 Across the cosmos, many stars can be found in pairs, gracefully circling one another. Yet one of the most dramatic pairings occurs between two orbiting black holes, formed after their massive progenitor stars exploded in supernova blasts. If these black holes lie close enough together, they will ultimately collide and form an even more massive black hole. /news/2025-06-star-quakes-monster-simulate-black.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:07:05 EDT news668182021 Nature categorizes particles into two fundamental types: fermions and bosons. While matter-building particles such as quarks and electrons belong to the fermion family, bosons typically serve as force carriers—examples include photons, which mediate electromagnetic interactions, and gluons, which govern nuclear forces. /news/2025-05-dimensional-anyons-exotic-quasiparticles-coldest.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 28 May 2025 11:00:07 EDT news667639621 You scrambled up a Rubik's cube, and now you want to put it back in order. What sequence of moves should you make? /news/2025-05-algebra-alphabet-soup-language-algorithms.html Mathematics Thu, 15 May 2025 12:08:04 EDT news666529681 A study published in Nature has established a new benchmark in modeling the universe's most extreme events: the collisions of black holes and neutron stars. This research, led by Professor Jan Plefka at Humboldt University of Berlin and Queen Mary University London's Dr. Gustav Mogull, formerly at Humboldt Universität and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Â鶹ÒùÔºics (Albert Einstein Institute), and conducted in collaboration with an international team of physicists, provides unprecedented precision in calculations crucial to understanding gravitational waves. /news/2025-05-insights-black-hole-gravitational-unveiled.html Astronomy Wed, 14 May 2025 11:00:21 EDT news666281641 In the context of quantum physics, the term "duality" refers to transformations that link apparently distinct physical theories, often unveiling hidden symmetries. Some recent studies have been aimed at understanding and implementing duality transformations, as this could aid the study of quantum states and symmetry-protected phenomena. /news/2025-04-duality-unitary-linear-depth-quantum.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 01 May 2025 07:00:01 EDT news665157136 During the latter part of the 20th century, string theory was put forward as a unifying theory of physics foundations. String theory has not, however, fulfilled expectations. That is why we are of the view that the scientific community needs to reconsider what comprises elementary forces and particles. /news/2025-04-einstein-field-theory.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 10 Apr 2025 10:24:52 EDT news663499484 A team of physicists have discovered a new approach that redefines the conception of a black hole by mapping out their detailed structure, as shown in a research study recently published in Journal of High Energy Â鶹ÒùÔºics. /news/2025-04-theoretical-physicists-unveil-supermazes-decode.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:21:03 EDT news662901661 A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. There are two main types of black hole; stellar mass and supermassive black holes, and they differ in size, formation, and impact on their host galaxy. Stellar mass black holes, a few to dozens of times the mass of the sun, form from collapsing massive stars. Supermassive black holes, on the other hand, are millions to billions of times more massive and tend to live in the center of galaxies and grow through accretion and mergers. /news/2025-04-ultralight-dark-early-black-hole.html Astronomy Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:54:03 EDT news662831642 How gravity causes a perfectly spherical ball to roll down an inclined plane is part of the elementary school physics canon. But the world is messier than a textbook. /news/2025-03-dirac-plate-hairy-ball-theorem.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 27 Mar 2025 16:35:03 EDT news662312101 Ask almost any physicist what the most frustrating problem is in modern-day physics, and they will likely say the discrepancy between general relativity and quantum mechanics. That discrepancy has been a thorn in the side of the physics community for decades. /news/2025-03-quantum-entanglement-sensors-gravity.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:24:26 EDT news660842656 In a new Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters study, researchers propose an experimental approach that could finally determine whether gravity is fundamentally classical or quantum in nature. /news/2025-03-distinguishing-classical-quantum-gravity-stochastic.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:20:01 EST news660395365 When you look at your surrounding environment, it might seem like you're living on a flat plane. After all, this is why you can navigate a new city using a map: a flat piece of paper that represents all the places around you. This is likely why some people in the past believed the Earth to be flat. But most people now know that is far from the truth. /news/2025-02-universe-mathematicians-topology.html Mathematics Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:23:06 EST news659798583 Superconducting materials are similar to the carpool lane in a congested interstate. Like commuters who ride together, electrons that pair up can bypass the regular traffic, moving through the material with zero friction. /news/2025-02-physicists-key-aspect-superconductivity-magic.html Superconductivity Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 05 Feb 2025 11:00:08 EST news657883337 The vast majority of earthquakes strike inside the Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes and tectonic activity that wraps around the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean. But when an earthquake hits, the areas that experience the strongest shaking aren't always the places that suffer the greatest damage. /news/2025-02-migration-housing-quality-factors-earthquake.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:00:01 EST news657820371