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Science News

Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.

Land plants' closest algal relatives evolved multicellular growth repeatedly, genetic analysis suggests
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Land plants' closest algal relatives evolved multicellular growth repeatedly, genetic analysis suggests

What did the algae that gave rise to the first land plants look like? A research team led by the University of Göttingen and including the universities of Maastricht and Innsbruck and Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales has now taken a detailed look at one of the most important groups for answering this question: the Zygnematophyceae, the closest living algal relatives of land plants. These include familiar-looking filamentous algae such as Spirogyra, as well as many that just consist of single cells. Despite their relatively simple appearance, they are particularly important for understanding plant evolution due to their close relationship with land plants.

📅 2026-11-05 23:50:01    •    Phys.org
Paired DNA strands recognize shape, not just sequence, in new small-molecule sensing method
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Paired DNA strands recognize shape, not just sequence, in new small-molecule sensing method

You have probably performed a sandwich assay before, even if you didn't know it. Sandwich assays are the molecular sensing technology behind lateral flow tests like the at-home COVID test. After a sample is dripped onto the test strip, it combines with detector antibodies attached to tiny gold particles, which bind to any viral proteins present. When the sample reaches the test line, a second antibody anchored to the strip binds to a different site on the viral protein, creating a molecular "sandwich." As the gold particles accumulate, the test line turns dark red, becoming visible to the naked eye.

📅 2026-11-05 23:40:04    •    Phys.org
New placenta-on-a-chip model allows engineers to study effects of environmental toxins
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New placenta-on-a-chip model allows engineers to study effects of environmental toxins

Exposure to toxic metals like cadmium has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage, preterm birth and low birth weight. Because these effects are difficult and ethically challenging to study directly in pregnant women, how such exposures affect pregnancy has remained poorly understood.

📅 2026-11-05 23:30:01    •    Phys.org
France's shorter workweek hit lower-skilled workers harder
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France's shorter workweek hit lower-skilled workers harder

Doing more with less has become standard operating procedure for many in the current economic climate. And for some in the wake of France's 1998 workweek reduction, it was in response to a reform that's still being debated today.

📅 2026-11-05 23:20:04    •    Phys.org
Antibiotic pollution may be key factor in honeybee colony collapses
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Antibiotic pollution may be key factor in honeybee colony collapses

High losses of honeybee colonies, which play a crucial role in global food production, have caused concern around the world. Many potential factors for the population declines have been cited, but a potentially significant threat to pollinator health—environmental antibiotic pollution from agricultural sources—has been largely overlooked, according to a new article published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

📅 2026-11-05 23:20:01    •    Phys.org
Pinning down the structure of quark-gluon plasma, the universe's first fluid
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Pinning down the structure of quark-gluon plasma, the universe's first fluid

In the first fraction of a second following the Big Bang, matter existed as a trillion-degree plasma of quarks and gluons—subatomic particles that zinged around at close to the speed of light. This roiling soup lasted for just a few microseconds before the particles coalesced into more stable protons and neutrons.

📅 2026-11-05 23:10:01    •    Phys.org
What AI can lose when it makes Holocaust writings easier to read
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What AI can lose when it makes Holocaust writings easier to read

In an Amsterdam prison during the Nazi occupation, Sal Bramson drew his cell on pieces of cotton cloth. He added handwritten explanations and sent these messages to his mother, concealed inside a shirt collar among the prison laundry. The cloth could travel because it passed as something ordinary. Its material was part of what made communication possible.

📅 2026-11-05 23:00:05    •    Phys.org
Leaf nutrient balance helps explain earlier fall color in US forests
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Leaf nutrient balance helps explain earlier fall color in US forests

For devout leaf peepers, timing is everything. A new study led by researchers from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment shows that leaf nutrient levels affect the onset of fall color. The findings, published in Nature Communications, could improve leaf drop forecasts and carbon cycle tracking.

📅 2026-11-05 22:40:05    •    Phys.org
New research explores what our appetite for a digital detox can tell us
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New research explores what our appetite for a digital detox can tell us

How we feel about taking a break from our screens could tell us something important about the way we behave online, according to new research from the University of Bath and Goethe University Frankfurt. Researchers have developed the first validated scale specifically designed to measure people's attitudes toward temporarily reducing their digital consumption, finding considerable differences in how positively people view the prospect of switching off.

📅 2026-11-05 22:40:01    •    Phys.org
Plastic bags and bottles become industrial-strength adhesives through new upcycling method
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Plastic bags and bottles become industrial-strength adhesives through new upcycling method

Around 450 million metric tons of plastics are produced worldwide each year. The major share of this sheer volume is used only once and then winds up in an incinerator or in landfills. This also applies to so-called polyolefins, which include polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). As packaging materials and films, they account for approximately half of our plastic consumption.

📅 2026-11-05 22:20:05    •    Phys.org
New tests expand empathy measurement to joyful stories and embarrassing mishaps
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New tests expand empathy measurement to joyful stories and embarrassing mishaps

Listening to someone recount their visit to an amusement park can feel like being on an emotional roller coaster yourself. Even if the listeners have never set foot in the park, they can still empathize with the other person's feelings: the deep disappointment when it turns out that their favorite ride is closed. The joy—at having the best ice cream of their life. And the embarrassment—after that ice cream abruptly left their stomach on the Freefall Tower. Put simply: whatever the other person is feeling, we feel it with them.

📅 2026-11-05 22:20:01    •    Phys.org
Black characters receive similar precision ratings whether they look 'nerdy' or 'chill'
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Black characters receive similar precision ratings whether they look 'nerdy' or 'chill'

People are often asked simple questions, such as the price of the cheapest flight to a particular destination. But the answers—and how they are perceived—can reveal far more than the cost of that trip itself. For example, whether a person believes that the response "It's $200" means $200 or assumes that the figure has been rounded up or down depends on their perception of the person giving the answer.

📅 2026-11-05 22:00:13    •    Phys.org
Connecting artificial intelligence with the tools of astrophysical research
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Connecting artificial intelligence with the tools of astrophysical research

Investigating a scientific question is often a complex process. As an astrophysicist studying some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, I know that finding answers requires much more than reading scientific papers or understanding existing theories. Astrophysical research involves collecting observations, analyzing data, building physical models and comparing their predictions with observations. These tasks require different scientific tools, databases and modeling software and can take considerable time even for experienced researchers.

📅 2026-11-05 22:00:07    •    Phys.org
Electrical control of an unconventional quantum transport state demonstrated in a magnet for the first time
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Electrical control of an unconventional quantum transport state demonstrated in a magnet for the first time

Researchers at Tohoku University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have successfully controlled a unique quantum phenomenon—the quantum-geometric nonlinear Hall (QgNLH) state—using electric current for the first time. The breakthrough was achieved by revealing and exploiting the coupling between the spin structure and the QgNLH state in an electrically switchable chiral antiferromagnet.

📅 2026-11-05 21:40:09    •    Phys.org
Physicist develops detector capable of counting photons for quantum computing
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Physicist develops detector capable of counting photons for quantum computing

Detecting a single photon is a challenge in itself. But what if you also want to know exactly how many photons arrive at a particular point at the same time? Physicist Erik Baalbergen is working on light detectors that can do just that. They form a key building block for the optical quantum computer of the future.

📅 2026-11-05 21:20:09    •    Phys.org
Citizen science program helps find exotic ticks
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Citizen science program helps find exotic ticks

Climate change is affecting not only our weather but also the distribution of parasites and the diseases they can carry. One example is the growing presence of Hyalomma ticks in parts of Europe where they were previously uncommon. These ticks are of particular interest because they can transmit Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a pathogen that can cause serious, sometimes life-threatening illness in humans. Hyalomma ticks are typically found in warm and dry regions of Africa, Asia and southern Europe. However, they have increasingly been reported farther north, including in Central Europe.

📅 2026-11-05 21:20:06    •    Phys.org