Check out this video from Veritasium: "What happens to these balloons when you open the valve?" Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VKlulHwMxgU

Australia and other nations should amend laws and practices to address the needs of millions of people expected to move because of climate-related hazards, according to a new report by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-climate-laws-policies-future-statelessness.html

Every fall in the United States, millions of young people move to college campuses, away from home for the first time. During this transition, they typically develop new social networks and routines as they learn to live on their own. One of the most important routines college students can intentionally develop is regular physical activity, according to Melissa Bopp, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-qa-colleges-student-physical.html

Across every cell in the body, molecules are constantly pulling, gripping and releasing under mechanical strain. That force often decides whether a drug sticks to its target, whether a cell holds its shape or whether a disease takes hold. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-microscopic-dna-molecules.html

Why are individual investors, commonly known as "retail investors," prone to losing money in the stock market? A Lingnan University joint study of more than 4,600 Chinese and U.S. stocks finds that investors are less likely to buy stocks blindly when they understand the difference between a company's "reported earnings" and its "actual cash flows." Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cash-lessons-individual-investors.html

Scientists using the STAR detector to study particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have found an intriguing dip in their data in a relatively unexplored region of the nuclear phase diagram—a map of how nuclear matter behaves under various conditions of temperature and density. The dip appears in data tracking collision-by-collision variations in the momenta of particles emerging from collisions between gold nuclei at RHIC, near RHIC's lowest collision energies. These collisions create the highest-density nuclear matter and may indicate that something interesting is happening in that dense region of the phase diagram. The findings are described in a paper just published in Physical Review Letters. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rhic-reveal-intriguing-dip-momentum.html

The Manning River helmeted turtle (Myuchelys purvisi) might just be Australia's most beautiful freshwater turtle. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-native-turtles-vying-survive-coastal.html

The origins of the earliest life on Earth, prior to the rise of oxygen and photosynthesis, remain a mystery. Graveyards in brine pools at the bottom of the Red Sea may hold some answers. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-briny-death-pools-clues-early.html

The World Health Organization (WHO) regards antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, as one of the world's major health challenges. A new fundamental understanding of antibiotic resistance could therefore potentially have a far-reaching impact on global public health, animal health and the environment. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-antibiotic-resistance-bacteria-environments.html

Ph.D. candidate Natalia Seliutina has followed gemstones from the -30° temperatures of Siberia to the carving studios of Ōtepoti and the particle accelerators of Taiwan in her quest to discover why pounamu is one of the toughest natural materials on Earth. Fresh from the publication of Natalia's paper in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Kathryn van Beek catches up with her to find out how understanding the properties of pounamu might one day help us explore space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-mystical-gemstones-future-space-exploration.html

Segregation is a multidimensional phenomenon deeply intertwined with historical, social and ecological contexts. Yet this more integrated perspective has received limited attention in the Global South. A recent study focusing on the city of Valdivia offers an exception, examining three key historical moments: colonization, the devastating 1960 earthquake and current struggles to protect urban wetlands. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-urban-segregation-history-ecology-inequality.html

Who cuts emissions fastest, and who supports others in doing so, are central questions in global climate action. New IIASA-led research shows that building fairness into climate models from the start can inform deliberations without changing the overall climate goal. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-fairness-based-pathways-shift-emissions.html

Check out this video from Veritasium: "The Most Important Decryption Machine Ever Built" Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsBZOcqZerk

Across Appalachia and the Rust Belt region, including throughout the city of Pittsburgh, former industrial sites are being transformed into new neighborhoods, research centers and technology hubs. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-steel-site-pittsburgh-bacteria-evolved.html

The malaria parasite is able to detect changes in its host's environment and respond by increasing the production of sexual forms capable of being transmitted to mosquitoes. A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) identifies the molecular mechanism underlying this process. The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, answer what has been one of the major unanswered questions in malaria research for decades. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-malaria-parasite-boosts-transmission-potential.html

Across South Africa, natural springs are more than sources of freshwater. Some are places of healing, spiritual cleansing and rituals, where communities collect water and maintain longstanding cultural connections with the environment. For example, during cleansing rituals, people bathe in or collect spring water as a way of seeking spiritual renewal, healing and protection. These are known as sacred springs. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-sacred-south-africa-pure-polluted.html

Research scientist Ashish Rajurkar kneels in the dirt, lifting a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant. He knocks away pieces of earth from the plant's roots, which slope straight down instead of out to the side like typical soybean plants. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-deeper-rooted-soybeans-climate.html

Sexual harassment between peers begins as early as Grade 4 and continues throughout lower secondary school. Most of those who sexually harass others have also experienced harassment themselves. These are among the findings of a doctoral thesis in psychology by Aziz-Kaan Dönmez from the University of Gothenburg, who studied peer sexual harassment among Swedish children and adolescents in Grades 4–9. Dönmez will defend his thesis on October 2. Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-peer-sexual-emerges-early-highlighting.html

Before murdering Molly Ticehurst in April 2024, court documents show Daniel Billings had threatened to exploit the limits of policing in her country town: "I will come in the middle of the night … The police won't stop me. I will get to you quicker than they will." Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rural-policing-gaps-domestic-violence.html

Check out this video from Veritasium: "Heating A Ball Just By Squeezing It" Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hPoJWjJ9Ao8