SENSEX
NIFTY
GOLD
USD/INR

Weather

image 27    C

Phys.org

Science & Environment / Phys.org

Eruption of Sinabung volcano on Indonesia

Mount Sinabung on Indonesia erupted Monday, spewing a column of black ash and smoke 3,500 meters (11,482 feet) from the top of the mountain into the sky over Sumatra island.

1 Sep 2026 2:10 pm
National survey measures full financial burden of community sport in Australia

The cost of playing community sports in Australia is far higher than previously understood, with a new national study led by Federation University finding families spend an average of $4,567 per child each year to keep their children playing sports.

1 Sep 2026 7:50 am
Important role of plastid ion channels in plant stress response identified

When plants are attacked by herbivores or pathogens, they must respond rapidly while also preparing for potential future attacks. Calcium, a cellular second messenger, and the plant hormone jasmonic acid play important roles in this response. Within seconds of an injury, the plant generates calcium waves that relay information about the attack. At the same time, the synthesis of jasmonic acid is initiated in the chloroplast, triggering, through several intermediate steps, the expression of defen

1 Sep 2026 5:10 am
Even small amounts of ocean plastic can affect petrel chicks

Ocean plastic pollution is accidentally on the menu for southern giant petrel chicks. Even small nibbles of it may affect their physiology during development, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and Argentina

1 Sep 2026 4:50 am
Even ancient bacteria possessed intercellular communication structures like humans today, study finds

Communication between cells in plants, animals and humans takes place via specialized connecting structures. An international team led by biologists from Heinrich Heine University D

1 Sep 2026 4:30 am
AI chatbot use for emotional support tied to loneliness in students

Young people leaning on AI chatbots for emotional support or personal advice are significantly more likely to struggle with serious emotional problems, feel isolated and doubt that they truly matter to others, a new uOttawa study warns.

1 Sep 2026 4:20 am
Role of ethics education in accounting fraud prevention

Two SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) College of Business faculty members are exploring how integrating ethics and values throughout accounting and business education can better prepare students to recognize and prevent fraud in the workplace.

1 Sep 2026 4:10 am
1 Sep 2026 3:50 am
A single fix reverses the case for rolling back vehicle emissions standards

Two administrations, the Biden administration and the second Trump administration, reached opposite conclusions about whether vehicle emissions standards should be rolled back. These conclusions came from different assumptions, including whether avoiding air pollution has value to society and the degree to which car buyers value future fuel savings from getting a more efficient vehicle. Both assumptions matter, and disagreement over either accounts for hundreds of billions of dollars in the gove

1 Sep 2026 3:40 am
Femtosecond nano-imaging reveals ultrafast optical control of phonon polaritons

A collaborative research team has successfully visualized in real space the ultrafast optical modulation of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in a van der Waals heterostructure composed of hBN and WS2. The research is published in the journal Nano Letters, and was led by Kazuki Kamada of the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) and Osaka Metropolitan University, along with Dr. Jun Nishida, assistant professor at IMS, and Takashi Kumagai, associate professor at IMS.

1 Sep 2026 3:30 am
Managing chronic conditions together may be key to longer lifespan, canine study finds

As dogs age, many develop more than one chronic health condition. New research from Texas A

1 Sep 2026 3:20 am
Organic crystal reveals how Joule heating stabilizes resistive switching

Metal-insulator transitions (MITs), in which a material changes from a metallic state with low resistivity to an insulating state because of a change in an external parameter, such as temperature, pressure or an electric field, are a central topic in fundamental physics research.

1 Sep 2026 3:10 am
Antarctica is home to microbes found nowhere else on Earth

Scientists have often wondered about species that are unique to Antarctica. But the focus has mainly been on animals, like feathery penguins. CIRES researchers wanted to dig deeper

1 Sep 2026 3:00 am
Industrial-scale microbial foods

The question is no longer whether microbial foods can be made. The question now is who can be first to turn them into an industry. KAIST researchers have analyzed the conditions required for the microbial food industry to succeed across manufacturing, markets and regulation, and have proposed growth strategies for the next-generation protein industry.

1 Sep 2026 2:30 am
A Permian fossil may reveal the oldest known flowering-plant structure

Despite the importance and dominance of angiosperms (

1 Sep 2026 2:30 am
Farm-based nanopore sequencing study reports reliable genetic testing results

Fast, on-farm genetic testing for cattle is practical and achievable for northern producers, according to University of Queensland research. In partnership with Meat

1 Sep 2026 2:10 am
New method swaps single atom in a molecule to speed drug discovery

Swapping out one letter in a word can entirely change its meaning. Similarly, swapping one atom in a molecule can completely change its identity. A group of chemists at the University of Chicago has demonstrated a new way to make a single-atom edit to a molecule without changing any of its other components. The innovative method can be used to make a family of molecules known as pyrroles, including many widely used medicines, and is significantly simpler, faster and more cost-effective than prev

1 Sep 2026 2:10 am
How much air conditioning usage actually prevents heat deaths?

How protective is air conditioning in preventing deaths amid soaring temperatures and record heat levels? Yale researchers found that AC use cut the number of annual heat-related deaths by half in the U.S., saving more than 5,000 lives a year. However, while AC is a highly effective heat adaptation tool, its protective effects level off once use passes a certain point. On days of extreme heat, risk levels tick up even with use.

1 Sep 2026 2:00 am
No smartphone, no problem: Plants have their own built-in

You may check your phone before deciding what to wear tomorrow. Plants do something similar: they carry an internal gadget called a

1 Sep 2026 1:50 am
How to get people on board with green neighborhoods

As Europe burns, many cities are trying to cut emissions, upgrade buildings and rethink how energy is produced and used. However, there is a recurring challenge: getting people to participate in and accept the solutions needed to bring about the transformation. From this perspective, community engagement is often described as the weakest link in sustainable urban development.

1 Sep 2026 1:50 am
Precise giants: New research reveals how blue whales find food in a vast ocean

Despite protections, blue whales remain endangered, primarily because of the risk of collisions with ships. MBARI

1 Sep 2026 1:30 am
Small-plane fuel raises lead levels up to sevenfold near Oregon airports, study suggests

Emissions from aircraft that use leaded aviation gasoline are a significant source of environmental pollution in neighborhoods near regional airports, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and Portland State University. The findings were published in Communications Sustainability.

1 Sep 2026 1:10 am
Why atmospheric nanoparticles grow at similar rates everywhere

Aerosols have a profound influence on air quality, human health, clouds and climate, but new particle formation in the atmosphere has remained a scientific conundrum. Large fractions of airborne fine particulate matter consist of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) formed by gas-to-particle conversion of organic precursor molecules in the atmosphere. The growth rates of these atmospheric nanoparticles, however, have remained enigmatic: They are often smaller and less dependent on condensable vapor

1 Sep 2026 1:00 am
Why some AI ads fail while others succeed

Artificial intelligence can create realistic depictions of just about anything, but that does not mean advertisers should lean on the technology, according to a study led by University of Mississippi professors.

1 Sep 2026 12:50 am
Peptides can form well-defined structures in harsh, Venus-like conditions

When exploring solar system bodies for signs of past or present life, scientists have mainly focused on planets that have (or had) a liquid surface similar to Earth

1 Sep 2026 12:30 am
1 Sep 2026 12:30 am
Beyond flood maps: Puerto Rico residents seek climate tools built around local needs

Resources such as sea level rise viewers, heat maps and flood prediction services are crucial tools in a changing climate. NASA Earth Observations (NASA EO) datasets provide important information on these and other natural hazards, but many communities that may benefit from these tools face barriers to accessing them.

1 Sep 2026 12:10 am
New research: 41% of surveyed Australian teens now get their news from AI

The way Australians consume news has been changing for the past 30 years, ever since internet use became widespread.

31 Aug 2026 11:50 pm
31 Aug 2026 11:50 pm
Wildfire losses have lasting economic consequences for homeowners

A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from the University of California San Diego shows that wildfire damage can have long-term economic consequences for households, resulting in income losses, resident relocation and slow rebuilding for several years after a fire.

31 Aug 2026 11:50 pm
Deadly virus stalks South Africa

The tide came in last week carrying thousands of dead sardines onto South Africa

31 Aug 2026 11:40 pm
Smoky off-flavors in cocoa aren

Fermented cocoa occasionally exhibits off-flavors that can compromise the quality of chocolate and other cocoa products. But what causes these undesirable flavors? Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich have now shown that overfermentation of cocoa beans can cause smoky, leathery and cheesy off-flavors. Smoky flavors, therefore, are not necessarily attributable to smoke contamination.

31 Aug 2026 11:30 pm
Plant hormones may offer a way to balance crop yield and disease resistance

Growth or immune response? Higher organisms must constantly balance these two priorities. As in humans, hormones regulate this balance in plants. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered a mechanism by which plant steroid hormones can inhibit immune responses and thereby make resources available for growth.

31 Aug 2026 11:10 pm
Communicating uncertainty in research is hard, so we worked on how best to do it

Earlier this summer, the four of us spent three days in a room with a dozen others whose jobs sound nothing like ours, or like each other

31 Aug 2026 11:10 pm
New storms threaten Grand Canyon flood search, 2 bodies recovered

Forecast storms in the Grand Canyon on Monday threatened efforts to find more than a dozen people missing after flash floods over the weekend, the National Park Service (NPS) said, with two bodies already recovered.

31 Aug 2026 11:10 pm
An anomalous return of the Odden ice tongue suggests unusual Arctic conditions

Data from many sources, including NASA, have shown a significant decrease in Arctic sea ice since 1979. However, the processes driving the melting and freezing of sea ice are complex, and fluctuations occur throughout the year. Short-term variations in temperature, winds, ocean convection and water salinity within a certain region can also affect how much ice can reform or melt.

31 Aug 2026 11:00 pm
Dispelling six myths about back

August always feels like one long Sunday to me. It is also a time of year when parents across Canada begin the ritual of preparing their children for September.

31 Aug 2026 10:50 pm
31 Aug 2026 10:50 pm
When a mountain falls: How ice and rock triggered Nepal

The catastrophic flood that killed hundreds of people in Nepal on Aug. 26, 2026, and left many more missing likely began with falling ice and rock crashing into the river below, but that wasn

31 Aug 2026 10:30 pm
Solar orbiter detects ion sorting at the solar wind

A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) study of data from the European Space Agency

31 Aug 2026 10:10 pm
Tiny mirror that controls light in 3D could make microscopes smaller and faster

Researchers use tightly focused laser beams to image biological samples, shape materials with microscopic precision and generate displays. But using those beams in three dimensions requires more than sweeping light from side to side, as the light must also rapidly refocus at different depths.

31 Aug 2026 9:50 pm
Critics claim trans people

Public debate surrounding transgender and gender-diverse (trans) people often centers on one fundamental question: What makes someone trans?

31 Aug 2026 9:30 pm
Low-power lasers create durable nano-patterns into sulfur-derived polymers

A new way to imprint complex surfaces on low-cost, sustainable polymers could be used in a wide range of industries, including water-repellent coatings, optical devices and data storage disks. The complex nano- and microscale patterns on sulfur-derived polymers, unveiled this week in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal, build on a wide range of green chemistry solutions led by Flinders University.

31 Aug 2026 9:30 pm
Extraordinary immune gene diversity in Atlantic herring exceeds that of other vertebrates, including humans

Atlantic herring travel in massive schools that can contain hundreds of millions

31 Aug 2026 9:10 pm
A snake-headed vessel hints at a mysterious Roman cult

The ancient Romans were a deeply religious and superstitious people, worshiping dozens of cults

31 Aug 2026 8:50 pm
Caught right-handed: Mystery of coiling snake embryos explained

An international team led by Canadian researchers has found evidence explaining why snake embryos form a curious spiral. This ability to coil as embryos enables snakes to hatch with the longest bodies of all vertebrates.

31 Aug 2026 8:30 pm
How the Tasmanian tiger outfoxed its prey

The Tasmanian tiger hunted more like a fox than its fearsome namesake, according to a new UniSC biomechanics study of predatory animals across the globe. The University of the Sunshine Coast-led research, published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, featured the thylacine in a comparison of 48 living and extinct predatory mammal species, from domestic dogs to African wildcats.

31 Aug 2026 8:30 pm