Category Archives: Phys.org

Striped bass are a popular and often human-consumed commercial and recreational game fish. Trace elements or metals essential for life are in these fish and other eatable fish, as well as nonessential and toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. A study led by researchers in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University used fish scales from striped bass to assess the accumulation of toxic metals in these fish. They found that the concentrations of most toxic metals generally reduced over time, yet, with exceptions.

Astronomers may have found an explanation for one of the biggest mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): why so many galaxies in the early universe appear unexpectedly bright in ultraviolet light. The new study, posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 11, suggests that galaxies more than 13 billion years ago were filled with an unusual kind of dust produced directly by supernova explosions, which could help explain why galaxies appeared so bright.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this panorama of an area nicknamed “Arbot” on April 5, 2026, the 1,882nd Martian day (sol) of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater.

When it comes to space debris, what goes up is coming down more often—and not safely.

Astronomers have tracked a dramatic “changing-look” active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose central supermassive black hole appeared to switch off and then rapidly reignite. The galaxy, HE 1237−2252, dimmed in X-rays by a factor of 17 within just 18 months before recovering again. The paper outlining its analysis was uploaded to the arXiv preprint server on May 8.

Our solar system is currently passing through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars. On its path, Earth continuously accumulates iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope of iron produced in stellar explosions. This has now been confirmed by an international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) through the analysis of Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old. From the steady but time-varying influx, the researchers conclude that the radioactive isotope has been stored within the cloud since a long-past stellar explosion. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Hundreds of companies raised a combined $70 billion by selling shares to the public in the United States last year.

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft is set to blast off Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the sun slam into Earth’s magnetic shield.

A new nanoscopy technique developed at The Australian National University (ANU) has uncovered hidden networks used for communication between cells, opening new ways to understand human diseases. Described in an article published in Nature Communications, the method allows researchers to observe how living cells interact with their environment over several days, revealing three-dimensional behaviors that were previously invisible to conventional microscopes.

Despite being so elusive, neutrinos are produced in abundance in some of the most violent events in the universe. One of their strangest properties is that they can spontaneously switch between three types, or “flavors”: a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation that remains poorly understood in extreme astrophysical environments.

A comprehensive scoping review reveals that participatory practices are central to the success of multi-actor collaboration in landscape planning and governance. This scoping review shows that a wide range of different participatory tools exists to support collaboration. However, the objectives, application and effectiveness of participatory tools and practices vary considerably across different contexts and phases of collaborative processes.

A recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, led by Dr. Elena Fiorin and her colleagues investigated the potential use of mercury-based treatments for leprosy during the late medieval period. Typically, such examinations are conducted on bone; this study is the first to analyze mercury concentrations in dental calculus and finds that individuals buried in leprosaria cemeteries had elevated mercury levels, likely from medical treatment.

When NASA scientists first observed a particular radio burst from the sun in August 2025, there was nothing unusual about it. But then the radio burst kept going. Typically, solar radio bursts like these last a few hours to days. But this one was different. By the time it was over, the radio burst had lasted 19 days—far exceeding scientists’ expectations and the previous record, which lasted just five days.

On Thursday, NASA issued a Request for Proposal (RFP), seeking industry collaboration for the Mars Telecommunications Network.

Researchers have developed a mathematical method that enables more precise calculations of the most economical travel routes between the orbits of celestial bodies. To demonstrate this method, they calculated a more efficient path between Earth’s and the moon’s orbits than any previously described in the scientific literature. The study is published in the journal Astrodynamics.

We may be more in the dark about dark matter than previously thought, according to a new analysis of distant galaxy clusters. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, a leading theorist on the nature of black holes and dark matter, says new observational data conflicts with certain assumptions about cold dark matter (CDM)—unseen, slow-moving particles that are inferred by their effect on gravity—and may prompt a fundamental rethinking of dark matter by scientists.

An international team of researchers has developed new stellar and supernova models to explain the mysterious elemental abundance patterns left by billions of supernova explosions around the Perseus constellation, which have been difficult to explain with conventional theoretical models, reports three recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe’s first stars and is one of the most chemically primitive galaxies observed to date.

A NASA spacecraft chasing a rare metal asteroid swings past Mars this week for a gravity boost, snapping thousands of pictures as practice for the main encounter in 2029.

As climate change and human activities continually ramp up, fish are forced to find ways to adapt. As fish move around to find more suitable habitats as ocean conditions shift, regional fish distributions change—which can have huge downstream effects on local ecosystems.