Researchers discovered that liquids can suddenly snap like solids when stretched hard enough. This unexpected behavior challenges basic physics and could lead to new technological applications.
Category: physics
Scientists crack a 20-year nuclear mystery behind the creation of gold
Gold cannot form until certain unstable atomic nuclei break apart. Exactly how those nuclear transformations unfold has long been difficult to determine. Now, nuclear physicists at the University of Tennessee (UT) report three discoveries in a single study that clarify important parts of this process. Their findings could help researchers build improved models of the stellar events that create heavy elements and better predict the behavior of exotic atomic nuclei.
Heavy elements such as gold and platinum are forged under extraordinary conditions, including when stars collapse, explode, or collide. These events trigger the rapid neutron capture process (or r-process for short). During this process, an atomic nucleus absorbs neutrons in rapid succession. As the nucleus grows heavier and more unstable, it eventually breaks down into lighter and more stable forms.
Along this pathway across the nuclide chart, a common sequence involves beta decay of the parent nucleus followed by the release of two neutrons. The atomic nuclei involved in these reactions are extremely rare and unstable, making them difficult or even impossible to study directly in experiments. Because of this, scientists rely heavily on theoretical models, which must be tested and refined using laboratory data.
Ending the Sun’s Monopoly: The Future of Stellarator Fusion — Brian Berzin, CEO, Thea Energy
“with Brian Berzin — Co-Founder & CEO of Thea Energy.
What if we could build a fusion reactor that runs continuously—without the instability issues that have plagued the field for years?
Brian Berzin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thea Energy (https://thea.energy/), a next-generation fusion company focused on advancing stellarator technology—one of the most promising but historically underexplored approaches to magnetic confinement fusion.
Brian brings a unique combination of deep technical and financial expertise, with a background spanning electrical engineering, venture capital, private equity, and investment banking.
Prior to founding Thea Energy, Brian served as Vice President of Strategy at General Fusion, where he helped shape commercialization strategy and led engagement with global capital markets during a pivotal period for privately funded fusion.
Stretching metals can tune catalysis: A new method predicts energy shifts
Heterogeneous catalysis—in which catalysts and reactants are of different phases, e.g., solid and gas—is important to many industrial processes and often involves solid metal as the catalyst. Ammonia synthesis, catalytic converters for automobile exhaust, methanol synthesis, carbon dioxide reduction, and hydrogen production are examples of such metal-catalyzed heterogeneous catalysis.
The electronic structure of metal surfaces governs the adsorption of reactants and intermediates, and thus the catalytic activity. For this reason, strain engineering —which tunes the electronic structure of a metal catalyst by stretching or compressing its crystal lattice—has emerged as an important strategy for enhancing catalytic performance. Unfortunately, scientists have not been able to quantify how metal strain influences adsorption energies and reaction barriers across different metal catalysts, thereby limiting the rational design of catalysts with desired properties.
To address this challenge, a research team from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a method to predict how strain modifies adsorption energies and reaction barriers across diverse metal systems. The study is published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
New model predicts the melting of free-floating ice in calm water
A pair of US researchers have developed a new model to tackle a deceptively simple problem: how a small block of ice melts while floating in calm water. Using an advanced experimental setup, Daisuke Noto and Hugo Ulloa at the University of Pennsylvania have captured the intricate dynamics that underlie this everyday process—work that could ultimately pave the way for more accurate predictions of melting sea ice. The study has been published in Science Advances.
If you place a block of ice in a glass of water, it will float at the surface and gradually melt. While this scenario seems simple at first glance, the dynamics involved are surprisingly complex: even if the surrounding water is completely still, the flow of heat from the warmer liquid into the colder ice generates motion that disrupts the system.
As the ice melts, it can begin drifting, spinning, or even flipping over. In turn, these motions alter the surrounding flow of water and heat, affecting the overall melting rate and making it remarkably difficult for physicists to predict how long the ice will last.
Swift spacecraft reorientation buys time for reboost mission
WASHINGTON — NASA modified operations of an astrophysics spacecraft in a decaying orbit to buy more time for a mission later this year that will attempt to raise its orbit.
NASA announced in September it selected Katalyst Space to develop a spacecraft that will rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and raise its orbit. Swift, launched in 2004, is in a decaying orbit, and the $30 million reboost mission would keep the spacecraft from reentering.
At an astronomy conference in early January, Jamie Kennea, a research professor at Penn State University who is head of Swift’s science operations team, said models projected that Swift’s orbit would decay below 300 kilometers, the minimum altitude for the reboost mission, sometime between mid-October 2026 and January 2027. That provided several months of margin for Katalyst’s Link spacecraft, scheduled to launch as soon as June 1 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL.
The Real Shape of Alien Life May Shock You | Space Documentary
Do you believe alien life could be completely unlike anything we’ve ever imagined? In this Science Documentary, we explore forms of life that may not need light, oxygen, or even a recognizable body—glowing through chemistry, drifting like gel in endless darkness, or existing as silent, stone-like structures. This Science Documentary follows the latest discoveries as telescopes probe distant worlds for signs of life. And closer to home, beneath thick ice, hidden oceans may already hold the first alien organisms humanity could reach. Join this Science Documentary as we challenge everything we think life should be.
1:04 The Nearest Life – Europa
4:30 Ocean Worlds – Life Without Light
8:30 Tidally Locked Worlds
12:41 Life in the Atmosphere – Creatures That Never Touch the Ground
15:23 Extreme Gravity – When the Shape of Life Is Rewritten by an Invisible Force
19:11 Non-Carbon Life – When Biology Moves Beyond Our Definition
23:04 The Fermi Paradox – If They Are Everywhere… Why Do We See No One?
26:37 Conclusion.
Welcome to WUFO, your space documentary channel dedicated to both education and entertainment.
WUFO explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth.
Each video space documentary is crafted to inspire curiosity, bring scientific knowledge to life, and make learning about space exciting and enjoyable.
Whether you’re passionate about astronomy, planetary science, or simply love exploring the cosmos, WUFO channel offers engaging journeys that expand your mind and spark your imagination.
Watch more science videos here: • Space Documentary
Moon Documentary: • Moon Documentary — WUFO
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Gravitational waves suggest a ‘forbidden zone’ for stellar-origin black holes
An international team led by Monash University has uncovered evidence of a rare form of exploding star, helping to shed light on one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe. At the end of their lives, most massive stars collapse into black holes—objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape.
Some very massive stars, however, are expected to become so hot that they are blown apart in a pair-instability supernova—an explosion so intense that the star is completely disrupted, leaving behind no black hole.
First predicted in the 1960s, pair-instability supernovae are challenging to distinguish from more common stellar explosions that leave behind black holes.
Shaping Dance with Physics
A physics grad student waltzed away with the top prize in the 2026 Dance Your PhD contest.
Dance is the art of human movement. It combines motion and spin, energy and balance, synchronization and cadence. Many of these concepts are familiar to physicists—even those who might panic at the mere thought of being on a dance floor. Sofia Papa can give a lesson or two on the connections between physics and dance. A physics graduate student and professional dancer, Papa won the top prize this month in the annual Dance Your PhD contest, run by the journal Science. In the winning video, she and six other dancers mimic the internal workings of a piezoelectric, a type of material that turns atomic movement into electricity.
Papa has always loved dancing. “It was my first way to express myself,” she says. For several years now, she has complemented her physics education with dance training. While the dancing has served as a break from the rigors of studying, she has also used it as a way to work through difficult physical concepts. “I’ve always needed something creative to help understand complex ideas,” she says.
