Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

Climate change contributing to permafrost thawing and glacial thinning
Science News

Climate change contributing to permafrost thawing and glacial thinning

An international team of glaciologists and climate scientists, including professor Bethan Davies from Newcastle University, carried out a rapid scientific analysis and identified the role of climate change and its impacts on the high-altitude landscape.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 22:00:04    β€’    Phys.org
Laser shocks turn plastic into ultra-small, high-purity nanodiamonds
Science News

Laser shocks turn plastic into ultra-small, high-purity nanodiamonds

Nanodiamonds are tiny diamond particles that usually measure mere millionths of a millimeter. They are extremely hard, stable and heat-resistant and highly adaptable for various purposes in medicine, new materials, catalysis and energy technology. By compressing plastic with lasers, researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Rostock are now able to systematically produce high-purity, ultra-small diamonds with a narrow size distribution. This is impossible to achieve with conventional methods such as explosions. As a scalable technology, laser compression offers great potential for improved, clean and sustainable production of ultra-small nanodiamonds...

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:40:06    β€’    Phys.org
Trump administration overhauls key protection for endangered species
Science News

Trump administration overhauls key protection for endangered species

President Donald Trump's administration will no longer treat the unintentional killing of protected wildlife as unlawful, officials confirmed Thursday, in a shift conservationists say effectively guts the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:40:04    β€’    Phys.org
Electron and photon beams drive same gold-forming reaction toward different nanoscale structures
Science News

Electron and photon beams drive same gold-forming reaction toward different nanoscale structures

Beauty and mysteryβ€”it is hard to imagine a more alluring combination, and this is precisely what we encounter when we observe phenomena in the nanoworld. But are we really sure that observations made using modern microscopic techniques do not influence what is happening there? A comparison of images of copper oxide nanoparticles reacting with chloroauric acid, obtained using electron and photon beams, has yielded unexpected results.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:30:01    β€’    Phys.org
Identifying old-growth forests in Northern Europe requires common scientific criteria
Science News

Identifying old-growth forests in Northern Europe requires common scientific criteria

Old-growth forests are some of Europe's most valuable natural ecosystems, but they are also among the most threatened. Their role in conserving biodiversity, regulating the climate, preserving cultural heritage and supporting people's well-being is invaluable. According to a rough estimate, only around 3% of Europe's forests meet the criteria for primary or old-growth forests, and their extent continues to decline rapidly in Northern Europe.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:10:01    β€’    Phys.org
A new rulebook for designing stable dilute alloy catalysts
Science News

A new rulebook for designing stable dilute alloy catalysts

Dilute alloy catalysts could improve fuel, plastic and pharmaceutical production, but their instability under heat holds back widespread use. Researchers at University of Michigan Engineering built a stability rulebook for this class of materials, which are made of a tiny amount of an active dopant metal dispersed in an inert host metal. A study outlining the rulebook was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:00:09    β€’    Phys.org
Close-up images show defects locking electrons into stable Wigner solids
Science News

Close-up images show defects locking electrons into stable Wigner solids

A team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed an approach that enabled them to directly observe how electrons interact with defects in advanced semiconductor devices in unprecedented detail. The team's methodology included an innovative simulation tool that enabled accurate theoretical interpretations of its experimental observations.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 21:00:01    β€’    Phys.org
How accurately can we measure the ocean's deepest point?
Science News

How accurately can we measure the ocean's deepest point?

How deep is the deepest oceanβ€”and how precisely can we actually measure it? A Japanese research team led by the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), SOKENDAI, the University of Tokyo and other Japanese institutions has mapped the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench using the EM124 multibeam echosounder aboard the research vessel Hakuho-maru. Their study is published in the journal Scientific Data.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 20:50:01    β€’    Phys.org
Disorder is key to tuning a high-temperature superconductor
Science News

Disorder is key to tuning a high-temperature superconductor

Cornell physicists have discovered that minimizing disorder, not varying electron count, is the key factor for controlling superconductivity in the unique material iron selenide (FeSe), a new insight for understanding high-temperature superconductors.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 20:40:01    β€’    Phys.org
A new bridge for quantum networks: Physicists convert microwaves to light using 2D magnets
Science News

A new bridge for quantum networks: Physicists convert microwaves to light using 2D magnets

Physicists at The City College of New York have demonstrated a new way to transfer microwave signals onto light using magnetic waves inside a layered semiconductor. The work establishes a materials platform for building interfaces that could one day link quantum computers through optical networks. The research, titled "Microwave-to-optical transduction using magnon–exciton coupling," was led by the Laboratory for Nano and Micro Photonics (LaNMP) at CCNY, headed by physics professor Vinod M. Menon. It appears in the journal Nature Materials.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 20:30:01    β€’    Phys.org
Global water report reveals drying rivers and erratic swings between too little and too much
Science News

Global water report reveals drying rivers and erratic swings between too little and too much

Rivers across the globe in 2025 had one of the driest years in more than three decades, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It shows a continuation of the long-term decline in Earth's freshwater storage and glacier retreatβ€”trends with serious implications for people and economies in the future.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 20:20:01    β€’    Phys.org
Decoding the DNA switches behind gene regulation
Science News

Decoding the DNA switches behind gene regulation

Understanding gene regulation may be key to interpreting human disease genetics. Genes are regulated in part by stretches of DNA called enhancers, which define when, where and how strongly each gene is turned on. Mapping enhancers and how they function in specific cell types is necessary for understanding gene regulation and disease-related genetic variants. But the location and activity of enhancers are highly cell type-specific, making it difficult to accurately predict enhancer–gene interactions.

πŸ“… 2026-09-17 20:00:11    β€’    Phys.org