Astrophysicist contributed into international-team efforts on study Comet 29P

Evgenij Zubko of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), in collaboration with international team members, has developed a comprehensive model to explain the results of the recent photometric study of the comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 (29P). The surprising findings revealed that th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Valuable insights into the modeling, application, and production of bioactive materials

Anatomy, Modeling and Biomaterial Fabrication for Dental and Maxillofacial Applications provides readers with information about dental implants and biomaterial fabrication for maxillofacial procedures and dental bone / tissue repair. It will also provide valuable insights into th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Study provides insight into how nanoparticles interact with biological systems

Personal electronic devices—smartphones, computers, TVs, tablets, screens of all kinds—are a significant and growing source of the world's electronic waste. Many of these products use nanomaterials, but little is known about how these modern materials and their tiny particles int … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

150-million-year old, piranha-like specimen is earliest known flesh-eating fish

Researchers reporting in Current Biology on October 18 have described a remarkable new species of fish that lived in the sea about 150 million years ago in the time of the dinosaurs. The new species of bony fish had teeth like a piranha, which the researchers suggest they used as … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Expanding the optogenetics toolkit

Controlling individual brain cells using light-sensitive proteins has proven to be a powerful tool for probing the brain's complexities. As this branch of neuroscience has expanded, so has the demand for a diverse palette of protein tools. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Research gives new insight into the evolution of the nervous system

Pioneering research has given a fascinating fresh insight into how animal nervous systems evolved from simple structures to become the complex network transmitting signals between different parts of the body. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Bioceramics power the mantis shrimp's famous punch

Researchers in Singapore can now explain what gives the mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean that hunts by battering its prey with its club-like appendages, the most powerful punch in the animal kingdom. In a paper publishing October 19 in the journal iScience, they show that a sad … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Plastic piling up in Japan after China waste ban: Survey

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Nanocages in the lab and in the computer: how DNA-based dendrimers transport nanoparticles

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Spider swarm cloaks Greek lake in 1,000-metre web

Lake Vistonida in northern Greece has become an arachnophobe's worst nightmare after it was cloaked recently by massive webs spun by hundreds of thousands of small spiders. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Facebook's election 'war room' takes aim at fake information

In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook's expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads "War Room." Behind the door lies a nerve center the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Graphene's effects on the lungs

Graphene has been hailed as the material of the future. As yet, however, little is known about whether and how graphene affects our health if it gets into the body. A team of researchers from Empa and the Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) in Fribourg have now conducted the first stu … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Imec's elPrep software significantly speeds up genome sequencing analysis

This week at ITF Health 2018, imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, showcases elPrep 4.0, a powerful software tool to speed up human DNA sequencing analysis. elPrep accelerates whole genome and exome processing pipelines … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Did eating starchy foods give humans an evolutionary advantage?

Gene AMY1, which kickstarts digestion of starch in the mouth, is associated with blood glucose levels and digestion of carbohydrates, with implications for understanding human evolutionary biology and the gut microbiome. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Research project aims to keep nuclear waste isolated 10,000 years into the future

The Leaning Tower of Pisa owes its perilous angle to the weak subsoil its foundations were built upon, back in the 12th century. Its tilt, which worsened gradually until modern engineers arrested it in the late 1990s, is a good example of how incremental changes in geomechanics c … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Method predicts reliable patterns in violent events occurring within wars and terrorism

A new paper written by academics at Royal Holloway and George Washington University, predicts reliable patterns in violent events occurring within wars and terrorism, regardless of geography, ethnicity and religion. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Trying not to fluff it: Dealing with plastic microfibres

I bought some new socks this week. So what, you might ask. My new socks are lovely and warm and very fluffy – just right for autumn. But, when I wore them, they moulted their fluff all over my feet, and if I'm not careful they will also lose fluff into my washing machine. Again, … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

A clearer path to clean air in China

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Wicked problems and how to solve them

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

How huge floods and complex infrastructure could have triggered ancient Angkor's demise

A series of floods that hit the ancient city of Angkor would have overwhelmed and destroyed its vast water network, according to a new study that provides an explanation for the downfall of the world's biggest pre-industrial city. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Oceanic dead zones thrived during last Ice Age, new evidence shows

Scientists recreated deep sea conditions from the last ice age and found that the tropical Pacific contained more carbon and less oxygen during that period than previously thought. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Would a Space Force mean the end of NASA?

Space, that final frontier, is something that catches the attention of a country naturally inclined to believe in ideas like "Manifest Destiny" and American exceptionalism. But how well does a Space Force fit that bill? And would a Space Force reignite a military space race and f … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

15% of students admit to buying essays. What can universities do about it?

New research on plagiarism at university has revealed students are surprisingly unconcerned about a practice known as "contract cheating". | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Staying a step ahead of the game

Trypanosoma brucei, which causes sleeping sickness, evades the immune system by repeatedly altering the structure of its surface coat. Sequencing of its genome and studies of its 3-D genome architecture have now revealed crucial molecular aspects of this strategy. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Cryocooler cools an accelerator cavity

Particle accelerators are made of structures called cavities, which impart energy to the particle beam, kicking it forward. One type of cavity is the superconducting radio-frequency, or SRF, cavity. Usually made of niobium, SRF cavities require extreme cold to operate. A Fermilab … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Shining light on the separation of rare earth metals

Inside smartphones and computer displays are metals known as the rare earths. Mining and purifying these metals involves waste- and energy-intense processes. Better processes are needed. Previous work has shown that specific rare earth elements absorb light energy that can change … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

BepiColombo: Two orbiters head to mercury

Known since antiquity, Mercury has not yet delivered all its secrets. The international mission BepiColombo, scheduled to launch in the coming days, will study the planet's surface and compare its magnetic field with that of the Earth. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Slavery was never abolished – it affects millions, and you may be funding it

When we think of slavery, many of us think of historical or so-called "traditional forms" of slavery – and of the 12m people ripped from their West African homes and shipped across the Atlantic for a lifetime in the plantations of the Americas. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Plants emit greenhouse gas nitrous oxide at substantial amounts

Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is a greenhouse gas that affects the ozone layer and the earth's climate. Until now, experts believed that microbes in the soil were largely responsible for its formation. Now an interdisciplinary research team from the University of Applied Sciences Bingen … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

People don't automatically follow political party cues on every issue, study finds

It's easy to find videos on YouTube exposing people's seemingly unwavering support for the actions of their political party. A 2016 video on Jimmy Kimmel's show includes Hillary Clinton supporters agreeing with her purported quotes about policies, though the actual quotes were ta … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Why a wetland might not be wet

Lake Eyre is one of Australia's most iconic wetlands, home to thousands of waterbirds that migrate from all over Australia and the world. But it is often dry for decades between floods. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Blazar's brightness cycle confirmed by NASA's Fermi mission

A two-year cycle in the gamma-ray brightness of a blazar, a galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole, has been confirmed by 10 years of observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The findings were announced today at the Eighth International Fermi Symposium meeti … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Placing atoms for optimum catalysts

Fuels, plastics, and other products are made using catalysts, materials that drive chemical reactions. To design a better catalyst, scientists must get the right atoms in the right spot. Positioning the atoms can be difficult, but new research makes it easier. Researchers determi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

How a group of school students discovered the sounds of solar storms

,We are now truly living in the era of big data. And it's not just companies like Facebook and YouTube that are reaping the benefits, big data is transforming science too. In the space sciences, we have an unprecedented number of satellites and ground-based instruments that monit … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Distribution of bumblebees across Europe

Scientists have mapped the distribution of bumblebees in Europe and created a predictive map that can be used to monitor and mitigate bumblebee decline. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

How rare minerals form when meteorites slam into Earth

The discovery of a rare mineral (reidite) at the Woodleigh meteorite impact structure in Western Australia was published this week by Curtin University honours student Morgan Cox and colleagues. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

A chemical criterion for rating movies

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Heart pump from a 3-D printer

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

University choice and achievement partly down to DNA

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@phys.org | 6 years ago

Most hand car wash workers are subject to some form of labour exploitation, says new report

Workers in most hand car washes in the UK are subject to some form of labour exploitation—such as excessively long hours or exceptionally low pay, according to a new report out today on Anti-Slavery Day (18 October). | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

VIDEO: 5,000 robots merge to map the universe in 3-D

How do you create the largest 3-D map of the universe? It's as easy as teaching 5,000 robots how to "dance." DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, is an experiment that will target millions of distant galaxies by automatically swiveling fiber-optic positioners (the robo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

A Bose-Einstein condensate has been produced in space for the first time

An international team of researchers has successfully produced a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in space for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes creating a small experimental device that was carried on a rocket into space and the ex … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Uncovering secret structure to safer explosives

A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has shown that the structure of microscopic pores in high explosive materials can significantly impact performance and safety. These findings —  published recently as the cover article in the journal Propellant … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Elucidating cuttlefish camouflage

The unique ability of cuttlefish, squid and octopuses to hide by imitating the colors and texture of their environment has fascinated natural scientists since the time of Aristotle. Uniquely among all animals, these mollusks control their appearance by the direct action of neuron … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Mission control ready for Mercury

Teams responsible for flying the bold BepiColombo mission to Mercury today completed the last major step in preparation for Saturday's liftoff—the final pre-launch 'dress rehearsal' at ESA's ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Biodiversity can also destabilize ecosystems

Ecosystems have a variety of benefits to humans, including food, water and other resources, as well as recreational space. It is therefore important that these systems remain functional and stable—especially in view of climate change and environmental pollution. Ecologists at the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Bursting the clouds for better communication

We live in an age of long-range information transmitted either by underground optical fibre or by radio satellites. But the throughput today is so great that radio frequency is no longer enough in itself. Research is turning toward the use of lasers which, although technically co … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Plant hormone makes space farming a possibility

With scarce nutrients and weak gravity, growing potatoes on the moon or on other planets seems unimaginable. But the plant hormone strigolactone could make it possible, plant biologists from the University of Zurich have shown. The hormone supports the symbiosis between fungi and … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago