Scientists map out how to protect third of the world's oceans by 2030

Scientists at the University of York have mapped out how to protect over a third of the world's oceans by 2030, in order to safeguard wildlife and mitigate the impacts of climate change. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Report: Crew of doomed Ethiopia jet followed procedures

The crew of the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed shortly after takeoff last month performed all of the procedures recommended by Boeing when the plane started to nose dive but could not save it, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by Ethiopia's government. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Amplifier for terahertz lattice vibrations in a semiconductor crystal

In analogy to the amplification of light in a laser, vibrations of a semiconductor crystal, so-called phonons, were enhanced by interaction with an electron current. Excitation of a metal-semiconductor nanostructure by intense terahertz (THz) pulses results in a 10-fold amplifica … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Bayer confirms cyber attack but says no data stolen

German chemicals giant Bayer confirmed Thursday reports it had suffered a hacking attack, but insisted that so far no data appeared to have been stolen. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

That's 'sew' smart! Scientists invent threads to detect gases when woven into clothing

Tufts University engineers have developed a novel fabrication method to create dyed threads that change color when they detect a variety of gases. The researchers demonstrated that the threads can be read visually, or even more precisely by use of a smartphone camera, to detect c … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Making a dent: Japan probe prepares to blast asteroid

A Japanese probe began descending towards an asteroid on Thursday on a mission to blast a crater into its surface and collect material that could shed light on the solar system's evolution. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists discover hydration is key to improving catalyst performance for industrial use

Scientists have used neutron scattering to identify the secret to a metal-organic framework's (MOF) ability to efficiently convert chemicals, through a process called catalysis, into new substances. By probing a material known as MOF-808-SO4, the team discovered molecular behavio … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists pioneer new low-temperature chemical conversion process

Chemists spend a great deal of time and energy trying to get chemical reactions to begin or to speed up—but sometimes it can be just as important to stop them before they go too far. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers have invented a quieter airplane toilet

Airplane toilets are loud. For some, they are downright terrifying. But chin up, frequent flyers, because a group of Brigham Young University physicists have figured out how to make them quieter. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

US court to hear contempt case against Tesla's Musk

Elon Musk's messy Twitter habit will get a once-over on Thursday when a federal court weighs whether the controversial Tesla chief executive should be held in contempt of court. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Bayer victim of a cyber-attack: German media

German chemicals giant Bayer was the victim of a cyber-attack for more than a year but there has been no evidence of data leaks so far, German media reported Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

SKorean carriers switch on 5G networks ahead of schedule

South Korea's telecommunications carriers turned on super-fast 5G mobile internet networks abruptly ahead of schedule in an attempt to ensure the country becomes the first in the world to launch the services. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Australia could jail social media execs for showing violence

Australia's Parliament passed legislation on Thursday that could imprison social media executives if their platforms stream real violence such as the New Zealand mosque shootings. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Ethiopian Airlines 737 crash report expected Thursday: sources

Ethiopian officials on Thursday are expected to release preliminary conclusions in the probe of last month's crash of a Boeing 737 that killed 157 people, two sources told AFP on Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Massive 12-foot alligator trapped in Florida weighs nearly 750 pounds

Alligators are a common sight in Florida. Those that are 12-feet long, nearly 750 pounds and walking through a commerce park aren't. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New scam aims to trick you into giving up your cell phone account information

If someone calls you pretending to be from your cell phone carrier and asks for a verification code, don't give it to them. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Bill introduced to help publishers bargain with tech giants

News publishers would gain greater power to negotiate terms with Facebook and Google under terms of a bill filed Wednesday in the House of Representatives. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Insect-deterring sorghum compounds may be eco-friendly pesticide

Compounds produced by sorghum plants to defend against insect feeding could be isolated, synthesized and used as a targeted, nontoxic insect deterrent, according to researchers who studied plant-insect interactions that included field, greenhouse and laboratory components. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Epic Games breaks venture capital records in a banner year for North Carolina companies

When Epic Games, the maker of the popular "Fortnite" video game, raised $1.25 billion from investors last year, it made the Cary, N.C.-based company one of the most valuable private companies in the United States. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Magnitude 3.6 quake shakes part of Southern California

A small earthquake gave some Southern California residents a predawn wakeup call. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Face recognition researcher fights Amazon over biased AI

Facial recognition technology was already seeping into everyday life—from your photos on Facebook to police scans of mugshots—when Joy Buolamwini noticed a serious glitch: Some of the software couldn't detect dark-skinned faces like hers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Bid to beat rabies could benefit from oral dog vaccine, study finds

Vaccines hidden in dog food could help curb the spread of rabies in countries with large populations of stray dogs, research suggests. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Tesla to show self-driving car progress to investors

Tesla announced on Wednesday that it will give investors an up-close look at its self-driving car in a bid to bolster confidence in the progress of the nascent technology. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New family of glass good for lenses

A new composition of germanosilicate glass created by adding zinc oxide has properties good for lens applications, according to Penn State researchers. This marks the discovery of a novel glass family. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New research suggests living near protected areas can have positive impacts on human well-being

Living near a protected area can improve aspects of human well-being across the developing world, new research published today in Science Advances suggests. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study finds that money, revenge, morals motivate whistleblowers to expose tax fraud

Revenge-seeking ex-lovers, jilted business partners and vindictive former employees are among the nearly 12,000 whistleblowers who reported tax fraud to the IRS in 2017. An estimated $3 trillion dollars is lost worldwide in tax evasion every year. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New Metascape platform enables biologists to unlock big-data insights

For the modern biologist, large-scale OMICs studies—which map all of the genes, proteins, RNA and more that underlie a biological system—are standard tools of the trade. But interpreting these big-data outputs to generate meaningful information is far from routine: Analyzing the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Human history through tree rings: Trees in Amazonia reveal pre-colonial human disturbance

In a new paper published in PLOS ONE, an international team of scientists reports the combined use of dendrochronology and historical survey to investigate the effects of societal and demographic changes on forest disturbances and growth dynamics in a neotropical tree species, th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Think the tick threat grows with the grass? Not necessarily

When Susannah Lerman talked with fellow researchers and friends about her study of the effects of less frequent lawn mowing to improve habitat for native bees, the response she heard most had nothing to do with bees. "The first thing people said was that letting the grass get lon … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Crowdsourcing speeds up earthquake monitoring

Data produced by internet users can help to speed up the detection of earthquakes. Fast and accurate information is essential in the case of earthquakes: Epicentre location, depth and magnitude are minimum requirements to reliably estimate their possibly catastrophic consequences … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Spider monkeys lower their 'whinnies' when making long-distance calls

Isolated spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) likely lower the pitch of their calls to improve the chances of re-establishing contact with their group, according to a study published April 3, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by José D. Ordóñez-Gómez from the German Primate C … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Amazon slashes prices at Whole Foods Market, offers $10 off

Amazon is lowering prices at Whole Foods Market and will offer even more savings for Prime members. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Walmart, Google make grocery shopping easier with new voice ordering, which launches today

Ordering groceries from Walmart is about to get easier. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Scientists discover first organism with chlorophyll genes that doesn't photosynthesize

For the first time scientists have found an organism that can produce chlorophyll but does not engage in photosynthesis. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

UCI scientists are first to observe, image all-important molecular vibrations

By focusing light down to the size of an atom, scientists at the University of California, Irvine have produced the first images of a molecule's normal modes of vibration—the internal motions that drive the chemistry of all things, including the function of living cells. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Newly discovered mechanism of plant hormone auxin acts contrarily

Increased levels of the hormone auxin usually promote cell growth in plant tissues. Chinese scientists, together with researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), have now shown that in special areas of the seedling, increased auxin levels trigg … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Global warming disrupts recovery of coral reefs

The damage caused to the Great Barrier Reef by global warming has compromised the capacity of its corals to recover, according to new research published today in Nature. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

It's a one-way street for sound waves in this new technology

Imagine being able to hear people whispering in the next room, while the raucous party in your own room is inaudible to the whisperers. Yale researchers have found a way to do just that—make sound flow in one direction—within a fundamental technology found in everything from cell … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Structure of the molecular machine that links carbohydrate and lipid metabolism

A research team led by Dr. Kenneth Verstraete in the Unit for Structural Biology at the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research has unraveled the three-dimensional structure and molecular mechanism of ATP citrate lyase (ACLY). This is a central metabolic enzyme, a protein that … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Gorillas gather around and groom their dead

It is now known that many animals exhibit unique behaviors around same-species corpses, ranging from removal of the bodies and burial among social insects to quiet attendance and caregiving among elephants and primates. Researchers in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo have … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Verizon's new 'Just Kids' plan aims to become your child's first smartphone plan

A child's first cell phone is increasingly becoming an earlier, and pricier, decision for parents. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Amazon awards 100 computer science scholarships

Amazon will provide $4 million in scholarships for 100 high school students as part of its new program to support computer science education. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Egypt Red Sea province to ban single-use plastic

Egypt's Red Sea Governorate is to introduce a ban on single-use plastics that are destroying marine life, the province's top official said Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

German state to accept environmentalists' bee-saving plan

The German state of Bavaria is set to accept in large part a plan by environmentalists to save bees and protect biodiversity, averting a referendum on the issue. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

New study questions effects of reintroducing top predators

For years, scientists have assumed that when top predators are reintroduced to an ecosystem, the effects are predictable: The ecosystem will return to how it was before the predators were wiped out. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers' breakthrough in tackling challenge of antifungal resistance

Ground-breaking work by university experts in Tennessee, Texas and Swansea is helping develop a better understanding of the growing threat posed by antifungal drug resistance. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Otherworldly mirror pools and mesmerizing landscapes discovered on ocean floor

While exploring hydrothermal vent and cold seep environments, Dr. Mandy Joye (University of Georgia), and her interdisciplinary research team discovered large venting mineral towers that reach up to 23 meters in height and 10 meters across. These towers featured numerous volcanic … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Optical tweezers achieve new feats of capturing atoms

Trapping single atoms is a bit like herding cats, which makes researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder expert feline wranglers. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago