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Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

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

📅 2026-09-17 21:00:01    •    Phys.org
How accurately can we measure the ocean's deepest point?
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How accurately can we measure the ocean's deepest point?

How deep is the deepest ocean—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.

📅 2026-09-17 20:50:01    •    Phys.org
Disorder is key to tuning a high-temperature superconductor
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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.

📅 2026-09-17 20:40:01    •    Phys.org
A new bridge for quantum networks: Physicists convert microwaves to light using 2D magnets
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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.

📅 2026-09-17 20:30:01    •    Phys.org
Global water report reveals drying rivers and erratic swings between too little and too much
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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 retreat—trends with serious implications for people and economies in the future.

📅 2026-09-17 20:20:01    •    Phys.org
Decoding the DNA switches behind gene regulation
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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.

📅 2026-09-17 20:00:11    •    Phys.org
Vapor-phase synthesis of MXenes could expand their technological applications
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Vapor-phase synthesis of MXenes could expand their technological applications

MXenes are two-dimensional nanomaterials first synthesized at Drexel University in 2011. They have been recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as an emerging technology with "true potential to transform our world." But their widespread use has thus far been limited by the complicated process required to produce them.

📅 2026-09-17 19:50:02    •    Phys.org
Using sound waves to turn iron and water into magnetic nanoparticles
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Using sound waves to turn iron and water into magnetic nanoparticles

Iron rusts on its own, slowly, over months or years. Now, researchers at Tohoku University have found a way to compress the process of metal reacting with water to form oxide, taking mere hours and using nothing more than ultrasound. Details were published in the journal Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.

📅 2026-09-17 19:40:06    •    Phys.org
New study explores US consumers' willingness to pay for fresh-market grape attributes
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New study explores US consumers' willingness to pay for fresh-market grape attributes

A recent study examined U.S. consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for different attributes of fresh-market grapes, providing insights for growers, retailers and the fresh produce industry. The research evaluated how factors such as grape size, sweetness, seedlessness, color and production methods influence purchasing decisions. Findings reveal that certain attributes significantly affect consumer buying behavior, offering guidance on which traits could be emphasized to meet market demand and potentially increase sales.

📅 2026-09-17 19:40:01    •    Phys.org
Two spike 'keys' work together to let SARS-CoV-2 enter cells, study reveals
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Two spike 'keys' work together to let SARS-CoV-2 enter cells, study reveals

To enter cells, the COVID-19 virus fuses its surrounding membrane with the membrane of the target cell. This is where the fusion peptides of the spike protein come into play. These regions function as molecular keys that allow the virus to open the door to the target cell and initiate fusion between the two membranes.

📅 2026-09-17 19:20:13    •    Phys.org
Activated learning-and-memory protein forms growing molecular chains, imaging reveals
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Activated learning-and-memory protein forms growing molecular chains, imaging reveals

Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) at Kanazawa University, Kyoto University, SOKENDAI and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences have revealed how CaMKIIα—a key brain protein involved in learning and memory—organizes itself into chain-like structures.

📅 2026-09-17 19:10:05    •    Phys.org
What kills Schrödinger's cat? Underground experiment rules out gravity model for quantum decoherence
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What kills Schrödinger's cat? Underground experiment rules out gravity model for quantum decoherence

Somewhere between the microscopic realm of elementary particles and the macroscopic world of human beings, something strange happens: The rules of quantum physics, which work so exquisitely for tiny atoms, seem to lose their grip as objects grow larger. Pondering where and how this shift from small-scale quantum fuzziness to everyday sharp certainty happens gives rise to thought-experiment oddities like Schrödinger's famous dead-and-alive cat. The process by which quantum phenomena like superposition—the paradoxical affliction of Schrödinger's cat—fade into the classical reality we experience is known as decoherence.

📅 2026-09-17 19:00:11    •    Phys.org
What Wendell Berry meant to Christian farmers going green
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What Wendell Berry meant to Christian farmers going green

In the late evening of Aug. 31, 2026, I missed a call from Jennifer, a seventh-generation cattle rancher in Georgia. She was one of more than 70 family farmers and ranchers across the rural U.S. South and Midwest whom I'd gotten to know through my research over the past five years. We still kept up from time to time, but a late-night call had me worried that something had gone awry on her farm.

📅 2026-09-17 19:00:01    •    Phys.org