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Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

What kills Schrödinger’s cat? Gravity may not be the answer
Science News

What kills Schrödinger’s cat? Gravity may not be the answer

Physicists have put a decades-old idea about why the strange rules of quantum mechanics disappear in our everyday world to one of its toughest experimental tests yet. Deep beneath Italy’s Gran Sasso mountain, researchers searched for an extremely faint radiation signal predicted by a theory suggesting that tiny fluctuations in spacetime, caused by gravity, gradually destroy quantum superpositions. After 62 days of measurements with a highly shielded germanium detector, they found no such signal.

📅 2026-09-21 09:24:50    •    ScienceDaily
The devastating Nepal floods highlighted the danger of glaciers. Here's where the next disaster may occur.
Science News

The devastating Nepal floods highlighted the danger of glaciers. Here's where the next disaster may occur.

The massive Nepal-Tibet flood on Aug. 26 showed just how devastating glacier-related disasters can be. As of Sept. 16, the event killed at least 1,400 people, with more than 6,000 people still missing. The Himalayas, with their steep slopes studded with rapidly melting glaciers, are high risk, but areas across much of the world carry the risk of glacier-related disasters, including one tropical region that is at particular risk, experts told Live Science."Slope failure from glacier shrinkage is occurring everywhere," Mark Carey, a professor of environmental studies and geography and director of The Glacier Lab at the University of Oregon, told Live Science in an email. Nepal-Tibet floodThe r...

📅 2026-09-21 09:00:00    •    Live Science
Millions take calcium and vitamin D for bone health. A major review finds little benefit
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Millions take calcium and vitamin D for bone health. A major review finds little benefit

A sweeping review of more than 153,000 adults found that calcium and vitamin D supplements, alone or together, do little to prevent fractures or falls in most older people. Researchers say the findings challenge routine supplementation for prevention and point instead toward strategies such as balance and resistance exercise.

📅 2026-09-21 01:59:17    •    ScienceDaily
'Nothing short of a minor miracle': 'Rusty treasure' found in the Danube is full of 2,200-year-old iron bars that could equip an entire army with weapons
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'Nothing short of a minor miracle': 'Rusty treasure' found in the Danube is full of 2,200-year-old iron bars that could equip an entire army with weapons

More than two millennia ago, a ship carrying a wealth of iron sank in the Danube River in what is now Austria. Archaeologists have identified the "rusty treasure" as a collection of 500 iron bars — the largest cache of ancient iron ever discovered in Europe and enough metal to equip an army.The assortment was discovered in 2019, when workers who were extracting gravel from the river near the village of Deinham spotted a few unusual double-pointed iron objects and reported them to the Austrian monument authority. "It is nothing short of a minor miracle that the largest mass find of prehistoric iron bars in Europe did not end up at scrap dealers," Peter Trebsche, an archaeologist at the Univer...

📅 2026-09-20 23:01:00    •    Live Science
Cooling liquids reveal self-limiting particle clusters behind glass transition
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Cooling liquids reveal self-limiting particle clusters behind glass transition

Before diving into the mystery of glass, theoretical physicist Corentin Laudicina takes us back to high school physics for a moment. Although he has spent years studying exactly what happens in a material during the glass transition, he also understands that his research is not the easiest thing to explain off the cuff at the cafeteria table.

📅 2026-09-20 21:30:01    •    Phys.org
Tiny beach-dwelling crustaceans are big-time sand movers, shaping the California coast
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Tiny beach-dwelling crustaceans are big-time sand movers, shaping the California coast

Stand on the damp sand on a California beach and chances are you're standing on top of an active earthworks site. Sand hoppers (Megalorchestia spp.), the tiny, shrimp-like creatures commonly found eating away at kelp on the shore, have been found to move massive amounts of sand, excavating up to 50 kg (110 pounds) of sand per meter (3.3 feet) of shoreline per day.

📅 2026-09-20 20:20:01    •    Phys.org
To understand the solar cycle, notice how the sun sleeps
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To understand the solar cycle, notice how the sun sleeps

The sun is such a constant in our lives that it can be difficult to imagine our star ever changing. But the sun can be quite variable. There are times when its magnetic field is turbulent and generates many sunspots and other times when it is quiet and dormant. Since the 1800s, we've known that these active and passive periods follow an 11-year pattern known as the solar cycle. But even after centuries of observation, we still have a difficult time predicting exactly when solar maximum will occur and just how intense it will be. This is important because solar activity can have a significant impact on our modern technological infrastructure.

📅 2026-09-20 17:20:01    •    Phys.org
Virtual cells built from 4D AI models and 'digital twins' could speed up drug discovery
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Virtual cells built from 4D AI models and 'digital twins' could speed up drug discovery

Mitochondria—tiny structures that convert nutrients into energy—are often depicted as discrete kidney bean-shaped objects. But in reality, they form a dynamic, interconnected network throughout the entire cell, rapidly splitting and fusing as they're transported to where energy is needed most.

📅 2026-09-20 16:00:05    •    Phys.org
Magma influx explains short-lived bulge at Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano
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Magma influx explains short-lived bulge at Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano

In 2024, D. Sarah Stamps' team detected and tracked a short-lived bulge in the land around a volcano in Tanzania. In a paper published Sep. 18, Stamps identified the cause of the uplift: 1 million cubic meters of magma pouring into an existing magma reservoir about 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers) underground.

📅 2026-09-20 15:00:01    •    Phys.org
8 common food additives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease
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8 common food additives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease

Common preservatives hiding in processed foods may carry unexpected heart risks, with heavy consumption linked to substantially higher rates of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Researchers identified eight widely used preservatives associated with hypertension, although the observational study cannot prove they were directly responsible.

📅 2026-09-20 12:43:41    •    ScienceDaily
Scientists discover a hidden “ID card” in cat urine
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Scientists discover a hidden “ID card” in cat urine

Cats may identify one another through a surprisingly durable chemical “calling card” made from 13 unusual fatty acids in their urine. The compounds appear linked to mysterious fat droplets in the kidneys and may represent a scent-recognition system shared across the cat family.

📅 2026-09-20 12:24:21    •    ScienceDaily
Scientists may have solved a 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls mystery
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Scientists may have solved a 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls mystery

Researchers may have solved a long-running mystery surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls by proposing that the Qumran sect really did use its distinctive 364-day calendar. Its perfectly ordered 52-week system kept holidays on the same weekdays, but it slowly drifted out of sync with the seasons because it was shorter than the true solar year.

📅 2026-09-20 11:58:13    •    ScienceDaily
New nanoparticles make hidden chemical differences light up
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New nanoparticles make hidden chemical differences light up

Scientists have developed ultra-bright nanoparticles that can detect tiny amounts of chemicals and distinguish between molecules that look almost identical. The technology could one day provide a cheaper way to catch dangerous drug impurities or trace pollutants using simple low-cost lasers.

📅 2026-09-20 11:35:28    •    ScienceDaily