Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

Revisiting a Young Isaac Newton
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Revisiting a Young Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton is typically portrayed as a solitary scientist with intense focus who was obsessed with power and deeply egotistical. But a new book by Caltech historians Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold takes a deeper look at Newton's life in the two decades leading up to the 1687 publication of his groundbreaking text, Principia Mathematica, when he was 44. Using newly digitized scans of Newton's early writings, Buchwald and Feingold uncover a portrait of the young polymath as a curious and social scholar whose interests were often fleeting.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 23:00:01    β€’    Phys.org
Why monkeys handle conflicts better than we do
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Why monkeys handle conflicts better than we do

Conflicts with our colleagues, loved ones or team members can quickly stifle communication, heighten tensions and undermine relationships. However, a decision or compromise is not always enough to restore cooperationβ€”for a solution to last, we must also repair the bond that will allow people to continue moving forward together.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:40:04    β€’    Phys.org
Rethinking liquid hydrogen storage with metal-organic frameworks
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Rethinking liquid hydrogen storage with metal-organic frameworks

Liquid hydrogen (LHβ‚‚) is attractive for long-distance energy transport because of its high volumetric energy density. But even well-insulated tanks cannot completely prevent heat from entering. As the liquid warms, hydrogen evaporates and pressure builds, leading to boil-off losses during storage and transport.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:40:01    β€’    Phys.org
How a new textile fabric could triple production in strawberry plants
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How a new textile fabric could triple production in strawberry plants

A new textile used to cover strawberry plants more than tripled fruit yields in tunnel field tests without harming plant health. The technology could also significantly reduce water and pesticide use in strawberry fields.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:20:06    β€’    Phys.org
Wild tomatoes still hold the flavor we bred away: New map shows breeders where to look
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Wild tomatoes still hold the flavor we bred away: New map shows breeders where to look

Modern tomatoes are a breeding success story. Generations of selection have made them bigger, firmer, more productive and easier to ship. But that progress came at a cost. Domestication and breeding reduced much of the crop's genetic diversity, and flavor has proven stubbornly hard to breed back in.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:20:02    β€’    Phys.org
Light-driven nickel catalyst forms chemical bonds using less metal
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Light-driven nickel catalyst forms chemical bonds using less metal

Pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals are produced industrially using a wide range of chemical reactions. These processes need to become more efficient, less expensive, and more sustainable.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:00:07    β€’    Phys.org
Christian amulets preserved Roman traditions of protection
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Christian amulets preserved Roman traditions of protection

For centuries, the Romans turned to amulets to protect themselves or their surroundings. Research by Ph.D. candidate Patricia Kret shows that this tradition continued into the early days of Christianity.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 22:00:04    β€’    Phys.org
Dyed liquid crystals enable light-only control of optical components
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Dyed liquid crystals enable light-only control of optical components

A new technique for controlling optical components with light could help usher in a generation of high-efficiency signal-processing technology that could drive futuristic applications such as holographic video.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 21:20:16    β€’    Phys.org
Physics-grounded AI framework aims to make predictions about new materials more testable
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Physics-grounded AI framework aims to make predictions about new materials more testable

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to discover new materials, but conventional data-driven approaches can struggle to explain their predictions, work reliably beyond their training data and remain consistent with physical laws. A new perspective proposes a framework called Physics-Grounded Materials AI (PhysMat AI), which integrates fundamental physical knowledge into the materials discovery process. The research is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 21:20:12    β€’    Phys.org
New index links changing ocean food webs to Bermuda's spiny lobster fishery
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New index links changing ocean food webs to Bermuda's spiny lobster fishery

Spiny lobster larvae spend six to nine months drifting in the open ocean, feeding within the plankton community, before eventually settling into shallow-water habitats such as mangroves, seagrass beds or coral reefs. This means the number of young lobsters reaching Bermuda is strongly influenced by ocean conditions across the wider North Atlantic and Caribbean region.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 21:10:02    β€’    Phys.org
LISA to the rescue: Using light to fix cell division
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LISA to the rescue: Using light to fix cell division

Cell division is a complex process. At the heart of this complexity is a membraneless organelle called the centrosome, which is made up of more than 200 components. It is responsible for clustering mitotic spindles, threadlike structures needed to separate genetic material. It has long remained unclear which parts of the centrosome are necessary and sufficient for spindle assembly.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 21:00:12    β€’    Phys.org
Protein signaling cascade helps explain how plants respond to touch
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Protein signaling cascade helps explain how plants respond to touch

Plants cannot run away when the wind picks up, rain lashes down or a hungry herbivore begins chewing on their leaves. Instead, they must sense their surroundings and adapt. Now, researchers have uncovered an important piece of the puzzle of what happens inside plants when they are exposed to touch, injury or other physical stimuli.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 20:50:01    β€’    Phys.org
Canada's 2023 wildfires broke longstanding media caution around climate reporting
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Canada's 2023 wildfires broke longstanding media caution around climate reporting

Fueled by record-breaking drought and unusually high temperatures, Canada's 2023 wildfire season was the worst in the country's history, with more than 15 million hectares (37 million acres) charred. Smoke blanketed the eastern seaboard, with health alerts keeping people indoors as skies turned an eerie orange.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 20:40:01    β€’    Phys.org
AI structure prediction speeds discovery of 'molecular glues' to treat disease
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AI structure prediction speeds discovery of 'molecular glues' to treat disease

A Baylor College of Medicine-led team has developed a strategy that combines the analysis of thousands of proteins with artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of small molecules called molecular glues to treat disease. Their approach, published in Nature Communications, has uncovered a new class of molecular glues that could neutralize harmful proteins linked to blood cancers and autoimmune diseases. The work also shows how AI-based structural modeling can help chemists optimize compounds well before experiments reveal how they work.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 20:30:01    β€’    Phys.org
New feathered, winged dinosaur from China challenges our theories on bird and dinosaur evolution
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New feathered, winged dinosaur from China challenges our theories on bird and dinosaur evolution

A newly described feathered dinosaur found in northeastern China adds evidence supporting the theory that flight-related features evolved differently in various bird-like dinosaur groups. The findings, reported in Nature Communications, are based on an analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved fossil of a microraptorine (a small dinosaur with feathers and wings) found in a geological formation estimated to be between 145 and 100 million years old.

πŸ“… 2026-09-29 20:20:09    β€’    Phys.org