Why quantum mechanics defies physics

The full, weird story of the quantum world is much too large for a single article, but the period from 1905, when Einstein first published his solution to the photoelectric puzzle, to the 1960's, when a complete, well-tested, rigorous, and insanely complicated quantum theory of t … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Meet the infrared telescopes that paved the way for NASA's Webb

The Webb telescope has opened a new window onto the universe, but it builds on missions going back 40 years, including Spitzer and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Scientists study ecological response of phytoplankton to nutrient deposition of Saharan dust

A new study, published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Marine Science, reports unprecedented evidence of ecological responses by calcifying phytoplankton to the deposition of nutrients provided by the Saharan dust. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Safety of aquatic animals as human protein sources amid SARS-CoV-2 concerns

Aquatic animals have historically constituted a vital and nutritious dietary component for humans, contributing to nearly 20% of animal protein intake for approximately 3.3 billion people. Unlike terrestrial animals, there has been no evidence indicating that aquatic animals serv … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Piezoelectric-enhanced p-n junctions in photoelectrochemical systems

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a potentially feasible strategy for converting solar energy to green hydrogen. However, current PEC systems suffer from relatively low charge separation efficiency and sluggish water oxidation reaction, which prevent them from meeting … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

First release of the largest extragalactic HI catalog

The FAST All Sky HI survey (FASHI) was designed to cover the entire sky observable by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), spanning approximately 22,000 square degrees of declination between -14 deg and +66 deg, and in the frequency range of 1050–1450 … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Korean artificial sun, KSTAR, completes divertor upgrades for long pulse operations

The Korean artificial sun, KSTAR, has completed divertor upgrades, allowing it to operate for extended periods sustaining high-temperature plasma over 100 million degrees. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

In coastal communities, sea level rise may leave some isolated

Amid the threat of dramatic sea level rise, coastal communities face unprecedented dangers, but a new study reveals that as flooding intensifies, disadvantaged populations will be the ones to experience some of the most severe burdens of climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

A dense quark liquid is distinct from a dense nucleon liquid

Atomic nuclei are made of nucleons (like protons and neutrons), which themselves are made of quarks. When crushed at high densities, nuclei dissolve into a liquid of nucleons and, at even higher densities, the nucleons themselves dissolve into a quark liquid. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Breakthrough in nitrile activation is promising pathway for anticancer precursor synthesis

A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a novel method to produce a selective anticancer precursor substance that targets and eliminates cancer cells. This groundbreaking method, previously existing only in theory, has now been experimentally proven for the first time … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Scientists discover new method for generating metal nanoparticles to use as catalysts

A team of researchers from the ITACA Institute of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Research Institute of Chemical Technology, a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the UPV, has discovered a new method for the manufacture of metal … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Permian marine mass extinction linked to volcanism-induced anoxia

Mass extinctions are rapid global decreases in Earth's biodiversity, with five key events identified over the planet's history, arguably the most famous of which occurred ~66 million years ago during the Cretaceous, which brought the rein of dinosaurs to an end. However, the larg … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Researchers find large diversity of protists in the Parabasalia phylum in both mice and humans

A team of pathologists, geneticists, immunologists and engineers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has found a previously unrecognized diversity of protists in the Parabasalia phylum in both mice and humans. In their paper published on the open-access site of the jou … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Zwicky Transient Facility detects four ultracompact binaries

By investigating dwarf novae identified by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), astronomers have discovered four binary systems. The objects turned out to be eclipsing accreting ultracompact white dwarf binaries. The finding was reported in a paper published December 15 on the pr … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Lula vetos part of Brazil's controversial pesticide bill

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday vetoed key parts of a controversial law that is set to loosen the rules around the use of pesticides in the country. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Venezuela oil giant says 80 percent of oil spill cleaned up

Venezuela's state oil company said Thursday that an oil spill at a refinery on the country's western coastline was no longer "active" and that more than 80 percent of the affected area had been cleaned up. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Bangladesh's 'tiny houses' tackle giant flood challenge

An award-winning architect in Bangladesh, one of the nations most at risk from flooding driven by climate change, has developed an ingenious two-floor housing solution to help people survive what scientists warn is a growing threat. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

NREL research quantifies losses from cardboard, paper waste

Piles of cardboard and paper littering America's landfills represent $4 billion in lost economic value, according to a new analysis by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, study finds

Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers' best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, rather than the presence, of a chemical feature in their atmospheres. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

New research suggests 'religiosity' can help Black teenagers avoid delinquent behavior

Black teenagers in urban environments who were more involved in religious activities were less likely to engage in alcohol and substance use and other delinquent behavior, according to two recent studies by social sciences researchers at Case Western Reserve University. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Researchers shed new light on how fog forms in mountainous areas

Of the world's various weather phenomena, fog is perhaps the most mysterious, forming and dissipating near the ground with fluctuations in air temperature and humidity interacting with the terrain itself. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

SpaceX launches secretive US military spacecraft on research mission

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket blasted back into space on Thursday night to ferry the US military's secretive X-37B drone to a research mission. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Court orders New Caledonia to stop culling sharks

A court in New Caledonia on Thursday ordered the authorities to stop hunting sharks, saying multiple culls were a "disproportionate" response to any danger to swimmers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

As tree species face decline, 'assisted migration' gains popularity in Pacific Northwest

As native trees in the Pacific Northwest die off due to climate changes, the U.S. Forest Service, Portland, Oregon and citizen groups around Puget Sound are turning to a deceptively simple climate adaptation strategy called "assisted migration." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Beyond boundaries: Exploring exotic nuclear landscapes and their cosmic implications

Researchers at Peking University in China have successfully observed the elusive 02+ state of 8He, revealing a novel cluster structure with two strongly correlated neutron pairs. This finding provides insights into exotic nuclear structures and their potential implications for un … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

'What's on today's menu?': Why it's important to study the trophic behavior of local predators

Trophic ecology is the study of the food chain. On Tenerife in the Canary Islands, feral cats feast chiefly on rabbits, mice, rats, and native birds and reptiles. But new research shows that since 1986, the island's wild cats have experienced a significant shift in their dietary … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

What's the truth behind the 'shoplifting epidemic'? Six key questions answered

According to media reports, in 2023 the UK experienced an unprecedented wave of shoplifting. The theory goes that the cost of living crisis and poor police responses are driving a crime wave. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

New reptile on the block: A new iguana species discovered in China

A new iguana joins Asia's rich reptile fauna, officially described as new to science in the open-access journal ZooKeys. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Indian astronomers explore open cluster NGC 6940 with AstroSat

Using the AstroSat spacecraft, astronomers from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, have investigated a nearby open cluster NGC 6940. Results of the observational campaign, published December 21 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the pro … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Vietnam's Ha Long Bay losing its hue

Vietnam's Ha Long Bay is losing its famous turquoise hue as pollution and over-development threaten its wildlife and picture-perfect image. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Newborn southern resident orca spotted in Puget Sound

The J pod of endangered southern resident orcas has a new baby. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Oral peptides: A new era in drug development

For decades, a substantial number of proteins, vital for treating various diseases, have remained elusive to oral drug therapy. Traditional small molecules often struggle to bind to proteins with flat surfaces or require specificity for particular protein homologs. Typically, lar … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Enantiomeric lead-free double perovskites rationally designed by achiral-chiral cation intercalation

Chiral optical materials have attracted great attention in multiple disciplines due to their wide application value in fields such as remote sensing, three-dimensional display, information communication, and optical information storage. With the strong demand for stable and envir … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

BarbNet: Awn phenotyping with advanced deep learning, potential applications in the automation of barley awns sorting

Awns, bristle-like extensions on grass crops like wheat and barley, are vital for protection and seed dispersal, with barbs on their surface playing a crucial role. While the genetic basis of barb formation has been explored through genome-wide association and genetic mapping, th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Developing nanocatalysts to overcome limitations of water electrolysis technology

Green hydrogen can be produced through water electrolysis technology, which uses renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen without emitting carbon dioxide. However, the production cost of green hydrogen is currently around $5 per kilogram, which is two to three tim … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Novel strategy stabilizes zinc-ion batteries

According to a study published in Advanced Functional Materials, a research team led by Prof. Hu Linhua from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that adding disodium maleate (DMA) to the electrolyte of aqueous zinc-ion batteries would … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Further evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars

Neutron-star cores contain matter at the highest densities reached in our present-day universe, with as much as two solar masses of matter compressed inside a sphere of 25 km in diameter. These astrophysical objects can indeed be thought of as giant atomic nuclei, with gravity co … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Oil spill blackens part of Venezuela's western coast

An oil spill is sloshing tarry ooze onto beaches in the state of Carabobo along Venezuela's western coastline, several environmental groups said on Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

In Colombia, illegally felled timber repurposed to help bees

In northeast Colombia, police guard warehouses stacked high with confiscated timber with a noble new destiny: transformation into homes for bees beleaguered by pesticides and climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Studying combustion and fire safety

Research on the International Space Station is helping scientists to understand how fire spreads and behaves in different environments and learn how to prevent and extinguish fires in space. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Japan sets third launch attempt of next-gen rocket for February

Japan's space agency announced Thursday it will launch its next-generation H3 rocket in February after two failed attempts early this year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Russia, NASA agree to continue joint ISS flights until 2025

Russian and US space agencies have agreed to keep working together to deliver crews to the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2025, Russian corporation Roscosmos said Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Juvenile sperm whale euthanized after stranding on North Carolina beach

A juvenile sperm whale that appeared to be in poor health was euthanized Wednesday after stranding on a North Carolina beach. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Older workers still struggle with work-life balance—and there's no one-size-fits-all remedy

The idea that we can comfortably manage all the different facets of life—work, family, other responsibilities—is certainly appealing. But in reality, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to work-life balance—especially for older workers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

20 people, 2.4 quintillion possibilities: The baffling statistics of Secret Santa

Christmas, we're told, is the most wonderful time of the year. For many of us, however, it is preceded by one of the least wonderful times: the awkward social spectacle of the office Secret Santa or Kris Kringle, where employees agree to purchase a gift for a randomly allocated c … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

'Rights of nature' are being recognized overseas. In Australia, local leadership gives cause for optimism

As each day passes, the need to protect Australia's environment grows more urgent. As noted in the most recent State of Environment Report in 2021, we are increasingly turning to "measures of last resort" to prevent species extinctions and the collapse of ecosystems. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

California seal pups were turning up headless. Experts finally confirmed the culprit

Finding dead seals along California's coast is not novel in and of itself. The marine mammals get sick, are stillborn or even wash ashore after being fatally struck by a boat. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago

Using smart materials to deploy a Dark Age explorer

One of the most significant constraints on the size of objects placed into orbit is the size of the fairing used to put them there. Large telescopes must be stuffed into a relatively small fairing housing and deployed to their full size, sometimes using complicated processes. But … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 1 year ago