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Extra carbon in the atmosphere may disrupt radio communications

photo of satellite above Earth showing a visualization of radio waves in the ionosphere

Heat engine captures energy as Earth cools at night

System can generate electricity when solar cells cannot

Photograph of Jeremy Munday and the Stirling engine

Reversible degradation phenomenon in PEMWE cells

Join the audience for a live webinar on 4 February 2026 sponsored by Scribner Associates, Gamry Instruments and Hiden Analytical, in partnership with The Electrochemical Society

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Research headlines

Scientists obtain detailed maps of earthquake-triggering high-pressure subsurface fluids

Advanced seismic imaging techniques could improve earthquake early warning models and aid the development of next-generation geothermal power

A diagram of the Earth's crust in cross-section, showing supercritical fluids and gases (denoted by red and blue arrows) breaking through a blue line representing the seal layer along a thick black line representing a fault. The result is seismic vibrations, shown here as a cluster of stars at the point where the breakthrough occurs. A scale on the side shows that this process occurs at the boundary between brittle and ductile layers of rock, at a depth of around 2.5 km below the Earth's surface.

Researchers map the unrest in the Vulcano volcano

Combining nodal seismic networks with AI creates a high-resolution 3D model of the internal structure of an active volcano

Desert dust helps freeze clouds in the northern hemisphere

Finding could improve climate models and advance prospects for geoengineering climate via cloud seeding

Photo of a thin layer of puffy ice clouds seen from just above, as from an aeroplane

Nano-engineered flyers could soon explore Earth’s mesosphere

Devices are levitated by sunlight alone

Artist’s impression of the photophoretic flyers in the mesosphere

Android phone network makes an effective early warning system for earthquakes

Smartphone-based approach could supplement existing seismic detector networks

A map of the globe showing the distribution of earthquakes detected and alerted during the study. Most of South America is covered by the network, as are the US, Australia, and a broad swathe running from southern Europe and northern Africa through the Middle East and into India and south-east Asia. Yellow and occasionally red blobs appear in earthquake-prone areas within this band. There are also grey blobs, indicating detections with no alert, in Mexico, eastern China, Japan and parts of Indonesia.

Jet stream study set to improve future climate predictions

New findings help meteorologists better understand the physical mechanisms driving climate change, particularly the role of atmospheric circulation

Factors influencing the jet stream in the southern hemisphere

Podcasts about environmental physics

From rabbits and foxes to the human gut microbiome, physics is helping us understand the natural world

Photos of Ada Altieri and Silvia De Monte

Molecular engineering and battery recycling: developing new technologies in quantum, medicine and energy

Threads of fire: uncovering volcanic secrets with Pele’s hair and tears

Curled lock of the volcanic material Pele's hair

Explore Research Highlights

Looking for a faster way to stay on top of cutting-edge science? Research Highlights are designed for discovery. Quick, accessible summaries of in-depth research from leading journals such as Reports on Progress in Physics and Progress in Energy. Explore the series now.

Opinion and reviews

Inge Lehmann: the ground-breaking seismologist who faced a rocky road to success

Photo of six people and a dog outside a low wooden building in a snowy landscape

Environmental physics should be on a par with quantum physics or optics

Peter Hughes argues that environmental physics should be taught to every physics undergraduate

Wide shot of the downtown Los Angeles skyline bathed in smog. View from Griffith Park

No laughing matter: a comic book about the climate crisis

Mike Follows reviews World Without End: an Illustrated Guide to the Climate Crisis by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain

Explore more in environment and energy

The power of physics: what can a physicist do in the nuclear energy industry?

Six physicists in the nuclear energy industry talk about their career paths, and how a background in physics can be used across the sector

Rapid calendar life screening of electrolytes for silicon anodes using voltage holds

Join the audience for a live webinar at 5 p.m. GMT/1 p.m EST on 29 October.

To learn about calendar aging challenges in next generation Si based Li-ion batteries and how to measure and improve it

Global ocean simulations examine tritium release from Fukushima

Model reveals that tritium in treated water discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor has negligible impact on tritium concentration in the ocean

Modelled tritium concentration in seawater

Scientists decry ‘scientific injustice’ over lack of climate data in developing regions

Group says lives are being threatened by a shortage of information

Earth-shaking waves from Greenland mega-tsunamis imaged for the first time

New analysis of satellite altimetry data reveals that trapped waves called seiches were responsible for anomalous seismic signals in 2023

Satellite image of a narrow, winding passage of deep green sea (labelled "Dickson Fjord") surrounded by land that is a mixture of bare brown rock and white snow. A blue arrow indicates the location of the landslide

Construction begins on new £93m European weather-forecasting headquarters

New facility at the University of Reading will carry out meteorological research and forecasting

Officials at the ECMWF groudbreaking ceremony

Mysterious seismic wave speed-up deep within Earth’s mantle explained at last

A phase change in post-perovskite materials at the so-called D” discontinuity is also evidence for long-predicted slow, convective flows in the mantle itself

Two diagrams, one showing a "pie slice" cross-section of the Earth with the core on the inside and the lower mantle, upper mantle and thin crust above it, and the other showing a zoomed-in image of an area just above the lower mantle-core boundary. The zoomed-in image contains two scenarios. The first scenario shows the post-perovskite randomly oriented and labelled "no mantle flow" and "no discontinuity". The second shows the post-perovskite aligned and is labelled "mantle flow" and "D" discontinuity".

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