Phys.org

A Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of Martian soils, creating a new framework that could help scientists compare landscapes across the Red Planet and identify promising locations for future exploration, habitation and food production.

Researchers already know that humans have a tendency to use egocentric anchoring—a cognitive bias in which people use their own preferences, beliefs and perspectives as a mental starting point (or anchor) to understand or predict what another person thinks, feels or prefers. This is not necessarily a sign of selfishness or self-importance, but a way for us to better understand others.

A German cockroach races across a kitchen floor. Someone grabs a bottle of essential oil spray, soaks the insect and watches it die. The product worked, but a new University of Kentucky study suggests the larger infestation probably did not notice.

A new University of Melbourne-led study has identified insights and evidence that could help mitigate the fast-rising climate impact of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).

With the 2026 midterm elections around the corner, voters may be feeling everything from excitement to fear. But how might anger motivate political activism and, ultimately, influence who turns out to vote?

A Université de Montréal–led research team has analyzed the genetic origins of human remains found in Old Montreal—and uncovered unexpected results.

A plant's roots do much of their work out of sight, pulling in water and nutrients and holding the plant in place. That makes it hard to see how plants respond when conditions underground change, and how a warming climate affects them. New Dartmouth-led studies look at the strategies plants use below the surface to adapt and survive.

Most natural gas leakage in Indianapolis likely originates from homes and other buildings, not exterior pipelines and large-scale distribution infrastructure that deliver the fossil fuel, according to Penn State researchers who assessed nearly a decade of data.

Structural metals used in engineering projects are expected to have both high strength and high ductility: the ability to withstand heavy loads and deform before failure. Achieving both of these properties at the same time, however, is challenging.

Sustainable packaging is only the beginning. What a medicine is made from—and how its ingredients are produced—matters just as much. Yet the synthesis of compounds for pharmaceutical research can still depend on fossil feedstocks, high temperatures, strong oxidants and metals that raise costs and complicate purification. Two recently published studies from Colmenares' group at IPC PAS demonstrate that cleaner chemistry can begin at the level of a single chemical bond. The studies are published in the journal Ultrasonics Sonochemistry and Chemistry—A European Journal.

Researchers used the European XFEL to create X-ray flashes that were not only extremely short but also reached record intensity for this type of pulse. The researchers focused the X-rays to an area roughly 100,000 times smaller than the cross section of a typical human hair. This concentrated the X-ray light into a tiny but extremely powerful spot. The method could enable detailed studies of how electrons behave in atoms and molecules and, in the long term, could even allow researchers to control electrons during chemical reactions. The team has now published the results of the experiment, carried out in April 2026, in the journal Optica.

An artificial intelligence (AI) model can score English essays with improved accuracy across different writing topics, according to work published in the International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning. The tool could help schools assess student work more efficiently while reducing inconsistencies in grading.

Cortisol is a hormone that helps humans and many other animals regulate their energy use and respond to changing conditions. For a long time, sharks and rays were believed to rely on a different steroid hormone for these functions, without producing cortisol themselves. Now, a new study of North Pacific spiny dogfish, a species of small shark, challenges this view.

Since its introduction more than 150 years ago, the thought-provoking idea of Maxwell's demon has profoundly shaped our understanding of the relationship between information and energy. Maxwell's demon is an imagined microscopic gatekeeper that exploits information at the microscopic scale to produce macroscopic work.

With up to 75% of the world's soils degraded, restoration projects try to reestablish functional and biodiverse environments to secure adequate food production, biodiversity, climate regulation and human well-being.

From the hairs on our arms to the microscopic sensory structures of the inner ear, many tissues in the body are built with a clear sense of direction. To build these structures throughout development, individual cells must establish which way they are facing—and coordinate that orientation with cells around them. If they get this wrong, tissues may fail to form, form improperly or fail to function.

A new study has found that adaptive molecular convergence—the process by which distantly related or unrelated species evolve the same genomic changes—is not as rare as previously thought.

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University have developed room-temperature liquids containing chemical elements that produce distinctive patterns of light. They say the materials could provide a flexible new approach to optical tagging and anti-counterfeiting, while being compatible with existing processing and printing technologies.

Why do some cities embrace new technologies and business models while others are slower to take them up? Economic conditions, infrastructure and access to technology clearly matter. But a new study from the University of Amsterdam and the University of St Gallen suggests there is another factor that has received much less attention: the psychological openness of the local population. Regions where people are more open to new experiences and unfamiliar ideas are more likely to be early adopters of radical innovations, the study says.

Most studies of how clouds are responding to climate change focus on clouds over the oceans, rather than over mountains. Those that do focus on mountain clouds tend to explore cloud microphysics rather than long-term trends in cloud phase. But understanding cloud behavior over regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, which supplies water to hundreds of millions of people, is critical—especially as diminishing snowpack and altered precipitation patterns threaten this critical water source.