# phys (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover phys. Page: Feed: --- ## [Defamation Suit Demanding Elsevier Retract Paper Heads Closer To Trial](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/23/0113210/defamation-suit-demanding-elsevier-retract-paper-heads-closer-to-trial?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-23 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ Retraction Watch reports: A trial date has been set in a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier that alleges the company published what plaintiffs say was a manipulated study about an air purifying technology over objections from peer reviewers. The case has already cost Elsevier a $10,000 sanction from a judge. Global Plasma Solutions (GPS), which makes air quality products, sued Elsevier in… ## [How Will AI Change the Field of Mathematics?](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/22/2235244/how-will-ai-change-the-field-of-mathematics?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-22 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ "AI went from being very terrible to seemingly genuinely quite good at a professional level in a very short space of time..." says the Verge's AI reporter. But AI systems "are still truly, truly terrible at some areas of math... even the days of the week." If you look at academic math papers, a lot of the time you won't see numbers... So they're still terrible, but they're now also very good at… ## [Rush Rescue Mission for NASA's $500M Space Telescope Fails](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/22/1844225/rush-rescue-mission-for-nasas-500m-space-telescope-fails?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-22 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ Remember that rush rescue mission for NASA's $500M space telescope? It failed, reports CNN, and the LINK satellite won't be able to boost the telescope's orbit. NASA says its decades-old Swift telescope will now continue losing altitude, until it reaches Earth's atmosphere later this year and burns up. CNN reports: Just weeks after LINK lifted off on July 3, it started to spin out of control.… ## [Low Emission Zone Led To Better Lung Size, Function Among London Children](https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/08/22/0537243/low-emission-zone-led-to-better-lung-size-function-among-london-children?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-22 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shared this report from the Guardian: Children's lungs grew bigger and stronger after the most polluting vehicles were restricted from entering London, a study has found. Examinations of London schoolchildren before and after the introduction of the city's ultra-low emission zone found a restoration of lung capacity that had been stunted by exposure to… ## [Moderna-Merck Vaccine Cuts Recurrence And Spread of Melanoma, Raises New Treatment Hope](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/22/0346210/moderna-merck-vaccine-cuts-recurrence-and-spread-of-melanoma-raises-new-treatment-hope?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-22 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ Reuters reports "a major success in a new field of cancer treatment this week, as Moderna and Merck announced a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine "reduced the risk of recurrence and spread of melanoma in a late-stage trial". The vaccine was tested with Merck's widely used immunotherapy drug Keytruda: Thousands of patients who have undergone surgery to remove high-risk melanoma tumors could benefit… ## [China Is About to Launch Its Most Ambitious Moon Mission Yet](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/21/0121220/china-is-about-to-launch-its-most-ambitious-moon-mission-yet?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-21 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ China's Chang'e 7 mission is set to launch for the moon's south pole, where it will attempt the first-ever landing directly at the pole and search the region's dark craters for water ice. "It's an amazing mission," says Norbert Schorghofer, a Hawaii-based senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. "There has never been a landed mission to find water \[on the moon\]." If successful, China… ## [Does Using AI to Edit an Op-Ed on Students' Math Skills Undermine the Argument?](https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/08/20/1729258/does-using-ai-to-edit-an-op-ed-on-students-math-skills-undermine-the-argument?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-20 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a "severe" math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece. The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math… ## [Rescue Mission Is Called Off For NASA's Aging Swift Space Telescope](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/19/2213259/rescue-mission-is-called-off-for-nasas-aging-swift-space-telescope?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-20 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ NASA has called off a $30 million mission to rescue its aging Swift space telescope after Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft developed persistent control and positioning problems. The Associated Press reports: Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through… ## [Moderna, Merck Say mRNA Vaccine Prevents Melanoma From Returning](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/19/1725205/moderna-merck-say-mrna-vaccine-prevents-melanoma-from-returning?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-19 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ Moderna and Merck say their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine significantly reduced both cancer recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. The treatment could reach patients as soon as next year if regulators approve it. Reuters reports: Moderna developed the vaccine with Merck and tested it together with immunotherapy drug Keytruda, a widely used treatment for melanoma. \[...\] This is the first… ## [Babies Born Under Sugar Rationing Grew Into Adults With Lower Cancer Risk](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/19/0534224/babies-born-under-sugar-rationing-grew-into-adults-with-lower-cancer-risk?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-19 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ A study of more than 64,000 people born around the end of Britain's postwar sugar rationing found that those exposed to less sugar during their first 1,000 days had lower rates of five cancers decades later, including roughly 69% lower liver cancer risk and 36% lower breast cancer risk. They also "showed signs of slower biological aging" and "continued to consume less sugar and had healthier diets… ## [From any door to your door (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/9fMzAIukrlBl) _2026-08-19 · **Sponsored**_ Book rides, errands, deliveries, groceries and home help in one app ## [China's Moon-landing Plans And Why the US Is So Worried](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/16/231206/chinas-moon-landing-plans-and-why-the-us-is-so-worried?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-16 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ "We are in a 21st century space race," U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has said. And this week CNN noted a competition that for decades loomed in the background of geopolitics "is now roaring to the forefront," with China "demonstrating rapid advances in space technology" while the U.S. is "ratcheting up rhetoric about a looming battle for control of the cosmos." It's the fact that China plans to build a… ## [SpaceX Launches Two Falcon 9 Rockets just 38 Minutes Apart](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/16/0647207/spacex-launches-two-falcon-9-rockets-just-38-minutes-apart?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-16 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ An anonymous reader shares this report from Space.com: On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark - set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions - by 27 minutes. The first liftoff, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, occurred Saturday at 9:12… ## [Copper's Surprising Melting Behavior Provides Insights for Future Fusion Power Plant Design](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/16/0227237/coppers-surprising-melting-behavior-provides-insights-for-future-fusion-power-plant-design?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-16 · EditorDavid · Slashdot: Science_ Phys.org reports: Future fusion power plants aim to recreate the heart of a star here on Earth to power our future energy needs. While the core fusion plasma will burn at hundreds of millions of degrees, the surrounding structural components must handle sudden, punishing heat loads that rival the extreme temperatures faced by spacecraft upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Copper and its alloys… ## [Astronomers Discover a New Kind of Cosmic Object: a Black Hole 'Star'](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/2224234/astronomers-discover-a-new-kind-of-cosmic-object-a-black-hole-star?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-15 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope say they may have found a new class of object: a "black hole star," in which a black hole is wrapped in dense gas and radiates in ways that resemble an enormous star. The Guardian reports: The international team made the breakthrough after focusing their attention on a mysterious red spot in images of the early universe captured by Nasa's James Webb… ## [Three Supermassive Black Holes Discovered In a Single Galaxy For the First Time](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/0931237/three-supermassive-black-holes-discovered-in-a-single-galaxy-for-the-first-time?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-14 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ Astronomers using JWST have found three actively feeding supermassive black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214, seen as it existed about 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. Two sit just 620 light-years apart near the galaxy's center and are expected to merge within a few hundred million years. Phys.org reports: Theories of galaxy evolution -- based on observations -- suggest that, early in… ## [Scientists Turn Starlink Into a Giant Scanner For Earth's Upper Atmosphere](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/14/0230250/scientists-turn-starlink-into-a-giant-scanner-for-earths-upper-atmosphere?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-14 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ alternative\_right shares a report from ScienceDaily: Researchers have found a clever new way to map a part of Earth's upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. Using orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites, they reconstructed changes in atmospheric density about 500 kilometers above Earth. \[...\] The resulting density patterns also showed strong consistency with… ## [UK Scientists To Grow Miniature Human Organs For Drug Testing](https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/13/2120250/uk-scientists-to-grow-miniature-human-organs-for-drug-testing?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed) _2026-08-14 · BeauHD · Slashdot: Science_ An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Miniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients' cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development. Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which treatments are best for different people based on…