A new etymological study shows that the terms for scientific disciplines can take shape through naming and classification as much as through theories and institutional usage, as reported by a researcher from Japan. Focusing on Busseiron, a Japanese term for the study of matter, the study traced its use across textbooks, journals, and scientific meetings. Analysis revealed how the term gradually brought together diverse matter-related research and became a durable branch of physics in Japan.

Joint press release from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

In a nutshell:

 Applied to a single rhodolith from the central Red Sea: The method reconstructed 133 days of temperature closely matching on-site measurements.

Preserved in the skeleton: The ratio of chemical elements in the growth layers reveals daily seawater temperatures

New method solves previous analysis problem: Growth measurements, 3D X-ray imaging, and data alignment merge the data from multiple algal branches into a single, continuous timeline. 

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers analyzed tidal data at 362,370 oceanic locations spotted by the Jason-3 satellite, revealing that the distribution of high and low tides directly contradicts the physical existence of two water bulges—a model that has been widely taught in textbooks. This discovery provides evidence for the recently proposed oceanic basin oscillation-driving mechanism of tides.

Solitons are prototypical localized states in nonlinear physics. Their formation usually relies on a balance between wave-packet spreading and nonlinear self-focusing. In conventional Hermitian lattices, the threshold for soliton formation is often governed by dimensionality and boundary geometry. For instance, in two dimensions, corners are more favorable for soliton formation than edges, and edges are more favorable than the bulk. In non-Hermitian systems with the non-Hermitian skin effect, however, linear eigenmodes can become anomalously concentrated near boundaries or other selected regions, reshaping this familiar picture. Then, the open question is: How does skin-mode localization affect soliton formation? What role does band nonreciprocity play? Moreover, do these two non-Hermitian mechanisms act in the same way or in opposite ways? 

A research team has discovered a superconducting dome with a record maximum T_c of approximately 17.8 K in the rhombohedral-I phase of ReO₃ under high pressures of 12 to 39 GPa. This study reveals how a densified oxygen lattice and strong metal-oxygen covalent hybridization synergistically drive the electron-phonon coupling, offering a new pathway for discovering light-element-dominated superconductors in metal oxides.

New observations made using the James Webb Space Telescope reveal that IRS 3, a star located at the centre of the Milky Way, is losing vast quantities of mass. As a result, its surrounding envelope is continuously expanding / Publication in “Astronomy & Astrophysics”