Israeli team assesses what went wrong with lunar landing

The team behind the Israeli spacecraft that crashed into the moon has released a preliminary technical assessment of what went wrong. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

As cashless stores grow, so does the backlash

Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Earliest life may have arisen in ponds, not oceans

Primitive ponds may have provided a suitable environment for brewing up Earth's first life forms, more so than oceans, a new MIT study finds. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

German price platform sues Google over search results

A German price-comparison platform says it has filed suit against Alphabet Inc.'s Google search business, saying that Google has abused its dominant position by favoring its own price-comparison service in search results. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

GM to reveal next generate Corvette in July

It's enough to rev up Corvette fans—a new rendition of the classic sports car is coming. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

FCC to hold big 5G auction, spend $20B for rural internet

The U.S. communications regulator will hold a massive auction to bolster 5G service, the next generation of mobile networks, and will spend $20 billion for rural internet. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Hubble peers at cosmic blue bauble

Globular clusters are inherently beautiful objects, but the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, Messier 3, is commonly acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful of them all. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Amazon reveals what typical U.S. worker makes after its minimum-wage bump

The median pay of Amazon employees in the U.S. was just over $35,000 last year, the company disclosed for the first time in its 2019 proxy statement Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Nearly 4,500 Amazon employees challenge company to lead on climate-change policies

In an unprecedented public push to change Amazon policies, nearly 4,500 employees have put their names to a letter asking CEO Jeff Bezos and the commerce giant's board of directors to become global leaders in fighting climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Indian IT giants Infosys, TCS see profits soar

India's biggest software exporters reported a surge in net profits on Friday thanks to strong revenue growth and a slew of big new deals. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Why the Great Plains has such epic weather

From 78 degrees on Tuesday to snow on Wednesday? Swings like this aren't unusual in the central United States, where weather can quickly shift from one extreme to another. That's especially true in the springtime, when conditions turn into a roller coaster, with balmy spring days … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Turtle-friendly plastic? A crafty solution to pollution, poaching and poverty

Every year thousands of turtles come ashore along the beaches of the south Pacific coast of Nicaragua to lay their eggs. The female turtles return to the beaches on which they were born to lay an average of 100 ping-pong ball shaped eggs into nest holes dug out of the sand. The b … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Dell adds to market share in weakening global PC market

As worldwide PC shipments decline, the top three vendors—Lenovo, HP Inc. and Dell Technologies—boosted their share of the global PC market in the first quarter of 2019, according to new industry data. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Largest, fastest array of microscopic 'traffic cops' for optical communications

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have built a new photonic switch that can control the direction of light passing through optical fibers faster and more efficiently than ever. This optical "traffic cop" could one day revolutionize how information travels throug … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Rocket break-up provides rare chance to test debris formation

The discarded 'upper stage' from a rocket launched almost ten years ago has recently crumbled to pieces. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Apple on the environment: Doing right for the planet is good for business

Apple is all in on addressing climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tests for the InSight 'Mole'

A blue box, a cubic metre of Mars-like sand, a rock, a fully-functional model of the Mars 'Mole' and a seismometer – these are the main components with which the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is simulating the current situation on Mars. … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Despite recent spate of knife crime, UK sees decline in serious violence

Despite the recent spate of knife violence and homicide in some UK cities, the number of people injured in serious violence in England and Wales dropped by 1.7 percent between 2017 and 2018, according to a report published by Cardiff University. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Linguists found the weirdest languages – and English is one of them

Is English "weird"? Many of us might feel this is true when we're trying to explain the complex spelling rules of the language, or the meanings of idioms such as "it's raining cats and dogs" to someone who is learning English. Teaching or learning any language is, however, never … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers find a way to synthesize small cyclodextrins

A team of researchers at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan has found a way to synthesize small cyclodextrins (types of cyclic oligosaccharides) for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group outlines their strategy and describe how well it worked. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

How to talk about climate change

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report last fall warning of a catastrophic effect on the world's people, environment and economy if temperatures rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which could happen as soon as 2040. But meaningful acti … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Living with natural disasters – how to change Indonesia's culture of passive resignation

Situated in the "Ring of Fire", one of the most geologically active regions in the world, Indonesia is prone to natural disasters, as the past year has grimly confirmed. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study questions the sustainability of plant ingredients as fishmeal substitutes

Substituting fishmeal in aquaculture feeds with plant ingredients may not be as beneficial for the environment as many predict, according to new research from an international team of experts. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New microscopy technique peers deep into the brain

In order to understand the brain, scientists must be able to see the brain—cell by cell, and moment by moment. However, because brains comprise billions of microscopic moving parts, faithfully recording their activity comes with many challenges. In dense mammalian brains, for exa … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

NRL researcher ventures to the Arctic in search of cosmic dust

After arriving at McMurdo Station on the unforgiving continent of Antarctica, it still took Dr. Rhonda Stroud two days of safety training and a four-hour flight before she was finally where she needed to be: the bottom of the world. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Texts as networks: How many words are sufficient to identify an author?

People are more original than they think—this is suggested by a literary text analysis method of stylometry proposed by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences. The author's individuality can be seen in the connections between no more than a do … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

10 things you should know about planetary defense

1. Why Asteroids Impact Earth | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Driving a wedge into historic gaps of climate science

Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New study of Avebury monument suggests it started out as a single-family home

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers discover an economical way to produce high-performance thin films for electronics

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

$1,000 for a smartphone? How about $100?

The Samsung Galaxy J phone won't win any critics awards. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

American parents (still) prefer boys—and it's hurting their daughters' test scores

The math gender gap may be narrowing, thanks to STEM programs, advocacy and an overdue backlash against inequality. But there's still a lot we don't know about why girls historically haven't achieved better. Norms around women's rights and roles in society play a part, but when g … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Experts find the origins of Europe's climate hidden in shrimp shells

An international team of geographers has found indications that the climate we have in Europe today began 5000 years ago, hidden in the shells of mussel shrimps. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Knowing how cells grow and divide can lead to more robust and productive plants

A large portion of a plant is hidden below the ground. This buried root system is essential for the plant: it provides stability, water, and food. In contrast to mammals, where the body plan is final at birth, the formation of new root branches ensures that the root system keeps … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A faster method for multiplying very big numbers

The multiplication of integers is a problem that has kept mathematicians busy since Antiquity. The "Babylonian" method we learn at school requires us to multiply each digit of the first number by each digit of the second one. But when both numbers have a billion digits each, that … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Chemists develop eco-friendly nanocomposites from fruit and berry peel

A RUDN chemist synthesized nanomaterials for water purification, catalysis of organic reactions and sensors. The substances were developed on the basis of porous carbon with iron oxide and nitrogen particles. The article was published in Applied Surface Science. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Agrochemists find proof of the ferrous wheel hypothesis

A team of agrochemists from Russia, Germany, and Chile confirmed the so-called ferrous wheel hypothesis—the turnover of iron in the soil that enriches it with organic nitrogen. The results of the study were published in the Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta journal. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Food waste costs not appetizing to many

Wasting food has become a way of life for many Londoners who, according to one Western-led study, are tossing an average of $600 into the trash every year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Hey Siri! Why are food retailers so slow to embrace technology?

Your own voice will likely become the most significant focus for food retailers and restaurants over the next little while. Voice searches are increasingly becoming the norm. A recent study suggests that more than 50 per cent of all online searches will be voice-activated by 2020 … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Economic butterfly wings can create a climate action tornado

The answer to the climate crisis could be seizing social and political tipping points where a modest intervention can lead to massive change, suggest leading University of Oxford economists. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

What is explicit instruction and how does it help children learn?

Explicit instruction is a term that summarises a type of teaching in which lessons are designed and delivered to novices to help them develop readily available background knowledge on a particular topic. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Climate change will redistribute tuna

The increase in skipjack and yellowfin tuna in the tropical area, and the movement of the rest of the species (albacore, Atlantic bluefin tuna, bigeye tuna and southern bluefin tuna) towards colder waters are the main conclusions of the research led by AZTI, which has analysed th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Plant immune system detects bacteria through small fatty acid molecules

Like humans and animals, plants defend themselves against pathogens with the help of their immune system. But how do they activate their cellular defenses? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now discovered that receptors in plant cells identify bacteria … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A user's guide to self-driving cars

You may remember the cute Google self-driving car. In 2014, the tech giant announced their brand-new prototype of what the future of transportation might one day look like. If you wish you could drive one today, you are out of luck. The design was unfortunately scrapped in 2017. … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Ancient lakes: Eyes into the past, and the future

Baikal, Biwa and Bosuntwi. Maracaibo, Malawi and Matano. Tule, Tahoe and Titicaca. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Predicting heat waves? Look half a world away

When heavy rain falls over the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is a good indicator that temperatures in central California will reach 100°F in four to 16 days, according to a collaborative research team from the University of California, Davis, a … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Flying cars could cut emissions, replace planes, and free up roads – but not soon enough

When Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was released 50 years ago, flying cars were a flight of fancy. Now, these futuristic vehicles are entering the outer fringes of reality. According to a new study published in Nature, for some journeys flying cars could eventually be greener than even … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Better city bike maps are made by volunteers

Not all bike routes are equal. Some places that are marked as bike routes on a map feel precarious when traversed on two wheels, including shoulders covered in debris and places where you can feel the wind from speeding cars. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago