Strong Indian monsoons steer Atlantic hurricanes towards land, study finds

Strong monsoons in the Indian Ocean can induce easterly winds that push Atlantic Ocean hurricanes westward, increasing the likelihood they'll make landfall in the Americas, according to new research. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Yahoo to pay $50M, other costs for massive security breach

Yahoo has agreed to pay $50 million in damages and provide two years of free credit-monitoring services to about 200 million people in the U.S. and Israel whose email addresses and other personal information were stolen as part of the biggest security breach in history. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

ALMA maps Europa's temperature

Jupiter's icy moon Europa has a chaotic surface terrain that is fractured and cracked, suggesting a long-standing history of geologic activity. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Sockeye carcasses tossed on shore over two decades spur tree growth

Hansen Creek, a small stream in southwest Alaska, is hard to pick out on a map. It's just over a mile long and about 4 inches deep. Crossing from one bank to the other takes about five big steps. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

NASA eyes powerful Hurricane Willa affecting western Mexico

NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared view of Hurricane Willa as it continued moving toward landfall in western Mexico on Oct. 23. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible look at the extent and structure of the storm. Willa is expected to bring life-threatening st … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Canada to impose carbon tax on provinces bucking climate action

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday his government will impose a federal carbon tax on four out of 10 Canadian provinces that have failed to plan to curb climate pollution. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Walmart makes improvements to third-party marketplace

Walmart says it will work with third-party sellers to make millions of items available for free two-day shipping on orders over $35. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Motley crews of bacteria cleanse water at huge oceanic Georgia Aquarium exhibit

Sea creatures need to go to the bathroom, too, and in aquariums, that creates the task of cleaning the water of waste like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Good bacteria break down nitrogen compounds at Georgia Aquarium, and in a new study, some bacterial communities there emulate … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite catches Typhoon Yutu strengthening, Guam on alert

Tropical Storm Yutu continued strengthening as NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead. On Oct. 23, Yutu was a strengthening typhoon east of Guam. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

New study scrutinizes time and effort it takes to vote in each state

Wide variations among the 50 states when it comes to the ease of casting a ballot are impacting the quality of democracy in the United States, a new study shows. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Predicting how native plants return to abandoned farm fields

Movement is one of the most common processes in all biology—mice forage for food and geese migrate with the seasons. While plants may be rooted in one spot for most of their lives, movement also plays a key role in their ecology—especially when it comes to seeds. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Climate change, rising sea levels a threat to farmers in Bangladesh

Rising sea levels driven by climate change make for salty soil, and that is likely to force about 200,000 coastal farmers in Bangladesh inland as glaciers melt into the world's oceans, according to estimates from a new study. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Bringing Americans together on the issue of affordable housing

A lack of affordable housing is linked with many health problems, including asthma, stress and alcoholism. Penn State researchers found that while some Americans may be less aware of this link, there may be ways to communicate this connection in a way that resonates with those gr … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Honey, I shrunk the cell culture

From "Fantastic Voyage" to "Despicable Me," shrink rays have been a science-fiction staple on screen. Now chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a real shrink ray that can change the size and shape of a block of gel-like material while human or bacterial cel … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Invasive species in an ecosystem harm native organisms but aid other invasive species

The presence of an invasive species in an ecosystem makes native organisms more susceptible to pollutants and may encourage the spread of additional invasive species, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University at New York. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

'Mushrooms' and 'brushes' help cancer-fighting nanoparticles survive in the body

For a number of innovative and life-saving medical treatments, from organ replacements and skin grafts to cancer therapy and surgery, success often depends on slipping past or fending off the body's immune system. In a recent development, aimed at aiding cancer detection and trea … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Where deep learning meets metamaterials

Breakthroughs in the field of nanophotonics—how light behaves on the nanometer scale—have paved the way for the invention of "metamaterials," man-made materials that have enormous applications, from remote nanoscale sensing to energy harvesting and medical diagnostics. But their … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Researchers connect the current mix of soil bacteria to climate conditions from 50 years ago

Scientists expect climate change influences the geographical distribution of microbes in the soil, but few studies have dug deeply into that relationship. A study published this week in mSystems suggests the connection can drag across decades. After sequencing soil samples from N … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Hey Portal, Facebook might want to cut the losses now on the video device

Imagine the politician who gets caught in a scandal, breaching the public's trust, whether that be of a sexual nature, misspending taxpayer money or just doing something dumb. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Macron urges Apple chief to boost investment in France

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Apple's chief executive Tim Cook to invest more in his country, even as Paris pursues a new EU tax on the revenues of technology giants. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

MoviePass to be jettisoned by parent company

MoviePass, the struggling discount movie ticket subscription service, is being spun off by the company that owns it. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Wildlife on the highway to hell: Roadkill in the largest wetland, Pantanal region, Brazil

Having systematically monitored wild animals killed on the Brazilian federal highway BR-262, which passes through the Pantanal region, a research team from the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, published their data concerning birds and reptiles in the open access … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Politics interferes with the ability to assess expertise

Learning about someone's political beliefs interferes with a person's ability to assess expertise, as people judge like-minded peers as being more expert in fields completely unrelated to politics, finds a new UCL-led study. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Professional, not personal, familiarity works for virtual teams

Knowing that your colleague on a project once owned a business, earned a specialized degree, or is a technology genius can foster improved working partnerships. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Adaptive behavior, markets, and what it means for curing cancer

MIT Sloan finance professor Andrew Lo is working to solve global issues through his studies of financial markets. He's also applying his research on risk to a problem that's not quite as conventional for a financial scholar: curing cancer. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

E-cigarettes and a new threat—how to dispose of them

The two largest global brands of capsule coffee, Nespresso and Keurig, are regarded by many as environmental nightmares. Billions of the throwaway nonrecyclable plastic products currently clutter waste dumps, waterways and city streets. Both inventor of the "K-cups" John Sylvan … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

More in depth data is required to reveal the true global footprint of fishing

There has been a lot of debate recently on the extent of the global fishing footprint. A recent paper claimed that fishing affects 55% of the world's oceans. Given that many people in the developing world rely on fish as their main source of protein, and the increasing preference … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Electric cars are a hazard for blind people

Electric cars are good for the environment – but not for people who cannot see. They have problems detecting the silent vehicles. However, Norwegian research scientists are working on a solution. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Non-native plants in homeowners' yards endanger wildlife, researchers report

Human-dominated landscapes are one of the most rapidly expanding and least-understood ecosystems on Earth. Historically, in urban areas, landowners convert native plant communities into habitats dominated by non-native species. While less susceptible to pest damage and demanding … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Wine's origin might affect acceptable price more than taste study shows

Taste might have less to do with what consumers are willing to pay for wine than you think. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

These kids and young adults want their day in court on climate change

Humanity must rapidly decrease greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming, climate scientists have warned for decades. But America's president has both feet on the fossil fuel accelerator. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Do mussels reveal the fate of the oceans?

More than 10 million tons of plastic debris enter the oceans every year and are found in nearly every oceanic layer. They start out as large floating items and eventually break down into much smaller pieces called microplastics. These particles are pervasive and have been found i … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Smartphone app brings atoms and molecules to life like never before

A new smartphone app that enables people to see how atoms and molecules move in the world around them in unprecedented detail has been developed by scientists at the University of Sheffield. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Ultra-close stars discovered inside a planetary nebula

An international team of astronomers have discovered two stars in a binary pair that complete an orbit around each other in a little over three hours, residing in the planetary nebula M3-1. Remarkably, the stars could drive a nova explosion, an entirely unexpected event based on … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Seagrass meadows—an underwater time capsule for archaeology

The most beautiful meadows are to be found along the world's sandy coasts: Seagrass. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Quiescent British Columbia fault capable of producing large earthquakes

A Canadian fault scientists thought was inactive may actually be capable of producing large-magnitude earthquakes, a new study finds. The results suggest residents of British Columbia on Canada's west coast have a higher risk of experiencing a damaging earthquake than previously … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Edible crabs won't cope with the effects of climate change on seawater – new study

We are only just beginning to learn how aquatic organisms will respond to climate change, and the effect that this will have on their communities and ecosystems. One way to find out more is to look at whether species will be able to compensate for changes in their environment. Pa … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Scientists warn of insect pest outbreaks and reduced wheat yields

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Green spaces help combat loneliness – but they demand investment

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

More antimicrobial resistance in pigs than in broilers in Europe

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Genomic analysis helps in discovery of unusual new bird species from Indonesia

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Artificial intelligence will make you smarter

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Study shows equality frees women to follow traditional gender choices – or does it?

If you want gender equality, get rich. Research shows that men and women tend to be more equal in more developed countries. You might expect that the more equal opportunities in these countries might reduce other differences between the genders, such as what kind of jobs people a … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Europa plume sites lack expected heat signatures

The study of two potential plume sites on Jupiter's moon Europa has shown a lack of expected hotspot signatures, unlike Enceladus where plumes have a very clear and obvious temperature signature, research by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Julie Rathbun shows.  | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Insights into the behaviour of structural materials in a molten salt environment

An international team of researchers led by ANSTO has found that cold-rolling increases the susceptibility of materials to molten salt corrosion by an increase in grain boundary length, and other microstructural defects, which typically contribute to material strengthening. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

New definition returns meaning to information

A fish on the Great Barrier Reef continually acquires new information from its environment—the location of food, the murkiness of the water, and the sounds of distant ships, to name a few examples. But only some of that information is meaningful, in that it actually helps the fis … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Financial and non-financial firms need the same strong regulations to protect economies

Researchers at IIASA and the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, have discovered that non-financial firms, such as vehicle manufacturers and energy companies, contribute to systemic risk in financial systems in the same way as financial institutions like banks, and as such, should be … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Rapid effects of climate change on plants and their ecosystems

An international team of researchers led by two Villanova University biologists has found that climate change is dramatically altering terrestrial plant communities and their ecosystems at such a rapid pace that having a stable baseline from which to conduct experiments is becomi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago