Linkage is a drag: First wheat gene to rapidly convert defective traits for new

When it comes to breeding better wheat varieties, often, though we seek to introduce desirable genes that increase yield, for example; these can come along with less wanted genes than reduce some other vital plant function. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

'Lovely' and 'scientific'—Medical student evaluations differ by gender and minority status

In the largest analysis to date of narrative medical school evaluations, researchers at UC San Francisco and Brown University have found significant differences in how female and underrepresented minority medical students are described. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Climate change threatens endangered sparrows

A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications finds that some sparrow species will go extinct within the century due to climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New report examines the safety of using dispersants in oil spill clean ups

A multi-disciplinary team of scientists has issued a series of findings and recommendations on the safety of using dispersal agents in oil spill clean-up efforts in a report published this month by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Honey, I ate the kids: The sweet side of filial cannibalism

As you bite into a chocolate bunny or egg this weekend, consider this: rabbits often eat their own young, and hens their own eggs. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Airborne plastic particles blanket remote mountains: study

A secluded mountain region thought to be free of plastic pollution is in fact blanketed by airborne microplastics on a scale comparable to a major city such as Paris, alarmed researchers reported Monday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Vermont's largest utility wants 100% renewable power by 2030

Vermont's largest electric utility is upping the ante and setting a goal of getting all of its power from renewable sources in just over a decade. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Microsoft overhauls how it investigates office misbehavior

Microsoft is revamping its practices for investigating workplace allegations after a group of women shared stories of discrimination and sexual harassment. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Lead kills 1st Yellowstone golden eagle fitted with tracker

Officials say the first golden eagle in Yellowstone National Park to be fitted with a tracking device has died of lead poisoning. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Google searches reveal popular bird species

Cross-referencing a decade of Google searches and citizen science observations, researchers have determined which of 621 North American bird species are currently the most popular and which characteristics of species drive human interest. Study findings have just been published i … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Commuter spouses have a lot to teach us about the 'stickiness' of traditional marriage

For her new book, sociologist Danielle J. Lindemann, interviewed nearly one hundred commuter spouses—couples who live apart in service to their dual careers—to find out what this unique group might reveal about broader trends in marriage. In Commuter Spouses: New Families in a Ch … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

North Atlantic warming hole impacts jet stream

The North Atlantic warming hole (NAWH), a region of reduced warming located in the North Atlantic Ocean, significantly affects the North Atlantic jet stream in climate simulations of the future, according to a team of researchers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Predictability limit: Scientists find bounds of weather forecasting

In the future, weather forecasts that provide storm warnings and help us plan our daily lives could come up to five days sooner before reaching the limits of numerical weather prediction, scientists said. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Leveraging scientists' perceptions for successful interactions with policy makers

Creating new policies that deal with important issues like climate change requires input from geoscientists. Policy makers, media outlets, and the general public are interested in hearing from experts, and scientists are put under increasing amounts of pressure to effectively eng … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Time is money, especially when it comes to giving

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Physicists improve understanding of heat and particle flow in the edge of a fusion device

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Climate change could undermine children's education and development in the tropics

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers conduct first global assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from plastics

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Pollen genes mutate naturally in only some strains of corn

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Gene-based factor VIIa prevents bleeding episodes in animals with hemophilia

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

New study finds simple way to inoculate teens against junk food marketing

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Low-calorie sweetener derived from lactose gets manufacturing boost from yeast

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Solving the mystery of fertilizer loss from Midwest cropland

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Best in snow: New scientific device creates electricity from snowfall

UCLA researchers and colleagues have designed a new device that creates electricity from falling snow. The first of its kind, this device is inexpensive, small, thin and flexible like a sheet of plastic. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Historic logging site shows first human-caused bedrock erosion along an entire river

Geologic time is supposed to be slow, and the most solid object should be bedrock. But new University of Washington research upends both concepts: Effects of logging show that human activity can significantly erode bedrock, causing geology to fast forward. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Megalith tombs were family graves in European Stone Age

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international research team led from Uppsala University discovered kin relationships among Stone Age individuals buried in megalithic tombs in Ireland and Sweden. The kin relations can be traced f … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Research explores ways to bridge gaps in science communication

"Give me a break!" "Fake News!" "Blah Blah Blah..." These retorts are symptoms of a fundamental problem in science communication—new research from the Tepper School of Business shows that when we hear something that doesn't make sense to us, it's much easier to respond with deris … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Computer games for fish uncover why some prey lead and others follow

For the first time, researchers have shed new light on the evolution of different social roles within animal groups by exploring how fish predators target and attack groups of virtual prey. The study, led by the universities of Bristol and Oxford and published today [Monday 15 Ap … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Israeli nonprofit vows new moon mission after 1st crashes

The Israeli start-up behind last week's failed lunar landing has vowed to create a second mission to steer a privately funded spacecraft onto the moon. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

France sees blockchain as anti-monopoly weapon in digital world

France is pushing blockchain technology as a means of preventing finance giants enjoying a monopoly on transactions, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Astronomers take first, high-resolution look at huge star-forming region of Milky Way

Astronomers from the United States and South Korea have made the first high-resolution, radio telescope observations of the molecular clouds within a massive star-forming region of the outer Milky Way. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Successful research papers cite young references

When it comes to publishing the most impactful scientific research and identifying the best up-and-coming research paths, it takes one to know one. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New evidence suggests volcanoes caused biggest mass extinction ever

Researchers say mercury buried in ancient rock provides the strongest evidence yet that volcanoes caused the biggest mass extinction in the history of the Earth. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study: Phenols in purple corn fight diabetes, obesity, inflammation in mouse cells

Scientists at the University of Illinois have developed new hybrids of purple corn containing different combinations of phytochemicals that may fight obesity, inflammation and diabetes, a new study in mice indicates. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Neurobiologists annotate critical neuronal proteins in lamprey genome

The lamprey, an eel-like primitive vertebrate, is a popular organism for neurobiology studies because it has a relatively simple nervous system. It is of particular interest to those studying spinal cord injury (SCI) because, unlike humans, the lamprey can regenerate nerve connec … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

TESS finds its first Earth-sized planet

A nearby system hosts the first Earth-sized planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite, as well as a warm sub-Neptune-sized world, according to a new paper from a team of astronomers that includes Carnegie's Johanna Teske, Paul Butler, Steve Shectman, Jeff … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Meteoroid strikes eject precious water from moon

Researchers from NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, report that streams of meteoroids striking the Moon infuse the thin lunar atmosphere with a short-lived water vapor. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Could climate change cause infertility?

The scientific community has long held an understanding about the effect of temperature on sperm production in mammals, but this new study sheds light on how spermatogenesis in insects is hampered at extreme temperatures. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Entomologists uncover Florida fire ant matriarchy

In most colonies, ants work in service of a single reproductive queen, but that's not always the way ant societies function. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists use eBird data to propose optimal bird conservation plan

A new paper published today in the journal Nature Communications shows a blueprint for conserving enough habitat to protect the populations of almost one-third of the warblers, orioles, tanagers, and other birds that migrate among the Americas throughout the year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

How does dark play impact the effectiveness of serious video games?

A new study has shown that allowing "dark play" in a serious video game intended to practice skills transferable to a real-life setting does not impact the game's effectiveness. Dark play, in which players choose inappropriate or unethical actions, is an option in nearly all vide … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Lyft pulls electric bikes off the road after brake problems

Lyft has pulled 3,000 electric bikes from the streets of New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., after customers complained the bikes were braking too hard. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study: Aegean farmers replaced hunters of ancient Britain

A wave of migrants from what is now Greece and Turkey arrived in Britain some 6,000 years ago and virtually replaced the existing hunter-gatherer population, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

What makes a jellyfish?

Translucent jellyfish, colorful corals and waving sea anemones have very different bodies but all fall on the same big branch in the animal family tree. Jellyfish actually start out anchored to the sea floor, just like corals and anemones. Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

SLAC's high-speed 'electron camera' films molecular movie in HD

With an extremely fast "electron camera" at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, researchers have made the first high-definition "movie" of ring-shaped molecules breaking open in response to light. The results could further our understanding of similar … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Engineering 'hairpins' increases CRISPR accuracy

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a method for improving the accuracy of the CRISPR genome editing technology by an average of 50-fold. They believe it can be easily translated to any of the editing technology's continually expanding formats. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tiny fragment of a comet found inside a meteorite

A tiny piece of the building blocks from which comets formed has been discovered inside a primitive meteorite. The discovery by a Carnegie Institution of Science-led team, including a researcher now at Arizona State University, was published April 15 in Nature Astronomy. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

To protect stem cells, plants have diverse genetic backup plans

Despite evolution driving a wide variety of differences, many plants function the same way. Now a new study has revealed the different genetic strategies various flowering plant species use to achieve the same status quo. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago