UK government says it hasn't decided yet on Huawei 5G role

The British government has not yet decided whether to allow China's Huawei to supply parts for the U.K.'s new 5G wireless network, Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said Thursday, as he condemned leaks from private government discussions on the issue. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study suggests Sino-Tibetan language family originated in present-day northern China

A small team of researchers affiliated with several institutions across China has conducted an in-depth study of the Sino-Tibetan language family and has concluded that it likely originated in present-day northern China. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group d … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Schadenfreude: Your pain is my gain

If someone in the workplace is mistreated, their colleagues may respond with empathy—or with schadenfreude. The latter emotion, according to a new study by the University of Zurich, occurs primarily in highly competitive working environments, when one person's misfortune facilita … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers modify magnetic behavior of exotic materials

People are not the only ones to be occasionally frustrated. Some crystals also show frustrations. They do so whenever their elementary magnets, the magnetic spins, cannot align properly. Cesium copper chloride (Cs2CuCl4) - or CCC for short—is a prime example of frustrated materia … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A new way to 'freeze' cells promises to transform the common cell-freezing practice

A team of Japanese researchers has—for the first time—demonstrated preserving frozen animal cells without a cryoprotectant agent (CPA), a substance that can protect biological material from freezing damage. To keep cells alive, all the conventional freezing methods needed to add … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Peering into plasma mirrors

When light interacts with a mirror which is moving towards it at a speed close to the speed of light, its wavelength is shifted into the extreme ultraviolet region of the spectrum. This effect was first predicted by Albert Einstein. His theory was experimentally confirmed almost … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A new energy-saving LED phosphor

The human eye is particularly sensitive to green, but less sensitive to blue and red. Chemists led by Hubert Huppertz at the University of Innsbruck have now developed a new red phosphor whose light is well perceived by the eye. This increases the light yield of white LEDs by aro … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

The natural comeback of tropical rainforests in the savanna region

Artificial savanna naturally turns into tropical rainforest when annual burning regimes are discontinued. This is the conclusion of a natural experiment carried out by researchers from the RMCA, UGent, the WWF and INERA in the Manzonzi Savanna in the Democratic Republic of Congo. … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New nanomaterial to replace mercury

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Sound of the sea solves decades-old supervolcano mystery

Scientists have used the sound of the sea to discover the route taken by hot fluids that feed a supervolcano in southern Italy. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Moon rocks to be studied at University of Tennessee

A professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville will help analyze moon rocks collected decades ago and never before opened. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Nokia books surprise loss amid tough competition in networks

Telecoms gear maker Nokia has reported a surprise first-quarter loss amid tougher competition for the new, superfast wireless 5G networks that are expected to increase in business this year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Norwegian losses deepen as 737 MAX grounding adds to problems

Troubled low-cost airline Norwegian said Thursday its net losses deepened in the first quarter of the year as the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft could cost it $58 million. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Nintendo says full-year profit up nearly 40% on strong game sales

Nintendo said Thursday its full-year net profit jumped nearly 40 percent, lifted by strong sales of blockbuster game titles for its popular Switch console. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Bosses who put their followers first can boost their business

Companies would do well to tailor training and recruitment measures to encourage managers who have empathy, integrity and are trustworthy—because they can improve productivity, according to new research from the University of Exeter Business School. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Holy Pleistocene Batman, the answer's in the cave

Let's say you wanted to solve a 20,000-year-old mystery, where would you start? Perhaps archaeology and geology come to mind. Or, you could sift through a 3-metre pile of bat faeces. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Working class 'always less likely to get into acting and film making', says research

Working class people have always been much less likely to find jobs in creative industries such as acting and film making, and there was no golden age of classless meritocracy, says a new study. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Households where the woman is the sole earner are significantly poorer, says research

Households in the UK where the woman is the sole earner are significantly poorer than those where the man is the only breadwinner, bucking the trend in western Europe. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Older job applicants up to three times less likely to be selected for interview than younger ones, study finds

Fifty-year-old job seekers are up to three times less likely to be selected for interview than younger applicants with less relevant experience, a major new study shows. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

North America driving global oil and gas pipeline 'boom'

The global pace of new oil and gas pipeline construction has tripled in less than two decades, a multi-billion-dollar boom in infrastructure that experts warned Thursday could torpedo hopes for limiting global warming. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

SK Hynix profits slump 69% in first quarter

South Korea's SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, saw operating profits plunge more than two-thirds in the first quarter in the face of lower prices, it said Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Canada residents split: to move or not after two floods in two years

Michelle Lorrain climbs into a canoe and paddles down a flooded street to check in on her parents desperately trying to save their "dream home" from rising waters in Canada's capital region—the second time in two years. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Reviving Brazil's indigenous languages

Thousands of indigenous languages have disappeared in Brazil since it was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tropical forest the size of England destroyed in 2018: report

Last year humanity destroyed an expanse of tropical forest nearly the size of England, the third largest decline since global satellite data become available in 2001, researchers reported Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Isolation helps Brazil indigenous group defend way of life

As the diesel generator rumbles to life in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, teenagers scramble to charge their phones and watch music videos—an ordinary pastime in an extraordinary setting. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

China's island cities: Treasure or trouble for Asia?

A high-rise city the size of central London rising out of the ocean next to Sri Lanka's capital is laying down another marker for China's global infrastructure ambitions whose epic scope is sounding alarm bells in Asia and beyond. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

At Walmart, using AI to watch the store

Inside one of Walmart's busiest Neighborhood Market grocery stores, high resolution cameras suspended from the ceiling point to a table of bananas. They can tell how ripe the bananas are from their color. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tesla hit with big loss as car deliveries sputter

Electric carmaker Tesla on Wednesday announced a heavy loss in the first quarter as car deliveries sputtered overseas and a US tax credit that made its prices more attractive was reduced. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Possible $5B Facebook fine echoes European tech penalties

The possibility of a $5 billion federal privacy fine for Facebook suggests that U.S. regulators may be taking a cue from the large penalties their European counterparts have been handing out to U.S. technology giants. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Early melting of winter snowfall advances the Arctic springtime

The early arrival of spring in parts of the Arctic is driven by winter snow melting sooner than in previous decades and by rising temperatures, research suggests. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Research sheds light on genomic features that make plants good candidates for domestication

New research published this week identifies the genomic features that might have made domestication possible for corn and soybeans, two of the world's most critical crop species. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

'Catastrophic' breeding failure at one of world's largest emperor penguin colonies

Emperor penguins at the Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea have failed to raise chicks for the last three years, scientists have discovered. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Microsoft surges toward trillion-dollar value as profits rise

Microsoft said profits climbed in the past quarter on its cloud and business services as the US technology giant saw its market value close in on the trillion-dollar mark. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Facebook profit slumps on set-aside for big US fine

Facebook on Wednesday reported quarterly profit sank 51 percent from a year earlier due to setting aside $3 billion for an anticipated fine from US regulators. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Freshwater fish species richness has increased in Ohio River Basin since '60s

The taxonomic and trophic composition of freshwater fishes in the Ohio River Basin has changed significantly in recent decades, possibly due to environmental modifications related to land use and hydrology, according to a study published April 24 in the open-access journal PLOS O … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Twitter adds way to report voter-tricking tweets

Twitter on Wednesday began making it easier to report tweets aimed at interfering with people voting, starting first in Europe and India. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Indian court lifts ban on Chinese social media app TikTok

An Indian court on Wednesday lifted its ban on Chinese social media video-sharing app TikTok on the condition that the platform popular with teenagers would not be used to host obscene videos. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

What the vibrant pigments of bird feathers can teach us about how evolution works

A University of Arizona-led research team has shown that evolution is driven by species interaction within a community. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A breakthrough in the study of laser/plasma interactions

A new 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation tool developed by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and CEA Saclay is enabling cutting-edge simulations of laser/plasma coupling mechanisms that were previously out of reach of standard PIC codes used in plasma rese … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists discover coal-derived 'dots' are effective antioxidant

Graphene quantum dots drawn from common coal may be the basis for an effective antioxidant for people who suffer traumatic brain injuries, strokes or heart attacks. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Eclogitic diamonds formed from oceanic crust, study shows

Eclogitic diamonds formed in Earth's mantle originate from oceanic crust, rather than marine sediments as commonly thought, according to a new study from University of Alberta geologists. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Immense Pacific coral reef survey shows green sea turtle populations increasing

Densities of endangered green turtles are increasing in Pacific coral reefs, according to the first comprehensive in-water survey of turtle populations in the Pacific. The study, by Sarah Becker of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and colleagues, publishes April 24 in the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Veritable powerhouses—even without DNA

Whether human beings or animals, plants or algae: the cells of most life forms contain special structures that are responsible for energy production. Referred to as mitochondria, they normally have their own genetic material, in addition to that found in the nucleus. Uwe John and … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Modern analysis of ancient hearths reveals Neanderthal settlement patterns

Ancient fire remains provide evidence of Neanderthal group mobility and settlement patterns and indicate specific occupation episodes, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE on April 24, 2019 by Lucia Leierer and colleagues from Universidad de La Laguna, Spain. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Human settlements in Amazonia much older than previously thought

Humans settled in southwestern Amazonia and even experimented with agriculture much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of researchers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Minerals in mountain rivers tell the story of landslide activity upstream

Researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Tübingen have come up with a new way of analysing sand in mountain rivers to determine the activity of landslides upstream, which has important implications for understanding natural hazards in mountainous regions. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tomato, tomat-oh!—understanding evolution to reduce pesticide use

Although pesticides are a standard part of crop production, Michigan State University researchers believe pesticide use could be reduced by taking cues from wild plants. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Meet Callichimaera perplexa, the platypus of crabs

The crab family just got a bunch of new cousins—including a 95-million-year-old chimera species that will force scientists to rethink the definition of a crab. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago