Amazon wants to get Alexa into your car

The floor of the sprawling Los Angeles Auto Show is filled with fancy vehicles showing off their ultra-flashy, state-of-the-art infotainment systems, with giant screens that drivers really shouldn't be looking at while driving. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Robots in the field: farms embracing autonomous technology

Faced with seesawing commodity prices and the pressure to be more efficient and environmentally friendly, farmer Jamie Butler is trying out a new worker on his 450-acre farm in England's Hampshire countryside. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Light triggers gold in unexpected way

Rice University researchers have discovered a fundamentally different form of light-matter interaction in their experiments with gold nanoparticles. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study discovers over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes in the bacteria that inhabit the human gut

A study carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham has used an innovative approach to identify thousands of antibiotic resistance genes found in bacteria that inhabit the human gut. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers discover for the first time how a specific cell gene affects the transformation of others

An international team of seven institutions from Spain and the US including the University of Valencia has discovered for the first time that the biological activity of the c-MYC gene is necessary for cell reprogramming, the process by which a specialised cell such as a neuron is … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Lift off for pioneering nanosats

The first 'Pioneer' mission lifted off early this morning from Sriharikota, India, with the two inventive little nanosatellites now circling the Earth, ready for action. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

ESA's 25 years of telecom: Today's challenges and opportunities

As ESA's umbrella programme for telecom, ARTES, celebrates its 25th year, we will be examining why it was set up, how it and the European satcom environment have evolved, the opportunities and challenges that both face today, and what the future holds. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Students at every grade need to learn climate science, expert says

The National Climate Assessment, released the day after Thanksgiving, offers motivation and opportunity to bring climate topics into the classroom at every grade level. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Fabrication of powerful telescope begins

Fabrication of the Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope-prime (CCAT-p), a powerful telescope capable of mapping the sky at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths, has now begun, marking a major milestone in the project. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Alexa can now connect to Big Mouth Billy Bass, along with twerking Christmas toys

Remember Big Mouth Billy Bass? That strange wall-mounted fish from the '90s that sings "Take Me to the River?" | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Exploring the watery remains of France's sunken Roman port of Olbia

Stretching over four sandy kilometres Almanarre beach in southern France is a mecca for sun lovers and kite surfers. But its greatest treasure—a 2,000-year-old underwater archaeological site—lies just a few feet offshore. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Apple Music comes to Amazon's Alexa devices

Apple Music is coming to Amazon's Alexa-powered speakers, in a rare move by the iPhone maker to broaden its service offerings to users of rival devices. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Searching an artificial bee colony for real-world results

Honeybees are not only vitally important pollinators of food crops, their hunt for rich food sources has also proved to be an excellent model for optimizing numerical problems. Now, researchers from Kanazawa University and the University of Toyama have used the intelligent behavi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

COP24: Tree planting is essential to the UK's commitments on climate change

Humans have cut down half the trees on Earth since the dawn of agriculture – over 3 trillion of them. This huge loss holds the potential for massive reforestation today, which would protect local environments from soil loss, flash flooding and desertification and take up large qu … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Madrid launches drastic traffic limits to ease pollution

Madrid on Friday launched an ambitious traffic restriction scheme in the city centre with which it hopes to reduce gas emissions by 40 percent, drawing mixed reactions. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Marriott says up to 500 million guests affected by hack

As many as 500 million guests Marriott International hotels may have been victims of a hack of the chain's reservation database, the company announced Friday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Historical climate important for soil responses to future climate change

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Amsterdam, examined how 18 years of drought affect the billions of vital bacteria that are hidden in the soil beneath our feet. The results show that this type of extreme weather det … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Table-top experiment flips current understanding of solutal convection

When Yu "Alex" Liang started graduate school at The University of Texas at Austin, he was tasked with running a straight-forward experiment to collect data on a well-understood phenomenon in fluid mechanics: how density differences influence fluid flow in a porous medium. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Trump said to advance seismic tests for oil in Atlantic waters

The Trump administration is taking a major step toward allowing a first-in-a-generation seismic search for oil and gas under Atlantic waters, despite protests that the geological tests involve loud air gun blasts that will harm whales, dolphins and other animals. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Rare woodland wildlife at risk because of 50-year-old tree felling rules

In the UK it is illegal to deliberately kill or injure red squirrels, disturb them while they are using a nest, or destroy their nests. Yet, although the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act provides these protections, there is a legal anomaly in England and Wales – one that can pot … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Why companies should help pay for the biodiversity that's good for their bottom line

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

How mainstream media helps weaponize far-right conspiracy theories

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

New research questions fish stocking obligations

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Google Fi mobile phone service now works with iPhone and more Android devices—with limits

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Using hydrogen ions to manipulate magnetism on the molecular scale

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Study witnesses first moments of star dying in finest detail

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Many African countries are flooding, risking decades of development if they do not adapt

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Indigenous protected areas are the next generation of conservation

The Horn Plateau, with its myriad of lakes, rivers and wetlands, has been a spiritual home for local Dehcho Dene peoples for millennia. In October, the Dehcho First Nations Assembly designated these lands and waters, called Edéhzhíe (eh-day-shae), as an Indigenous protected area … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

A multiscreen experience of motorcycle racing

A new prototype allows motor sport fans to personalise their TV viewing experience with synchronised content on their mobile devices. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers bring Jedi powers to life with Force Push

In the interim, stalwart practitioners of Jedi ways and other Force-sensitive beings can look to the small screen and thank Virginia Tech researchers for a recently developed virtual reality technique called Force Push. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Why battery-powered vehicles stack up better than hydrogen

Low energy efficiency is already a major problem for petrol and diesel vehicles. Typically, only 20% of the overall well-to-wheel energy is actually used to power these vehicles. The other 80% is lost through oil extraction, refinement, transport, evaporation, and engine heat. Th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

First high-resolution look at the quiet Sun with ALMA at 3 mm

Observations of the radio continuum at millimeter (mm) wavelengths provide a unique chromospheric diagnostic. The quiet sun mm-wavelength emission mechanism is free-free and electrons are almost always in local thermodynamic equilibrium (e.g. Shibasaki et al. 2011 and Wedemeyer e … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Apple says iPhone XR is 'best-selling' iPhone, as it promotes RED model to help fight AIDS

The iPhone XR has been the "best-selling iPhone each and every day since it became available for sale" on Oct. 26, Apple vice president of product marketing Greg Joswiak said Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

World's first video game music and sound research journal

The world's first academic journal devoted to the presentation of peer-reviewed, high-quality research into video game music and sound, is to be hosted by the Department of Creative Digital Technologies at the University of Chichester, based at the Tech Park on its Bognor Regis c … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

The German Bundesliga: Are the players worth the money?

Does the talent of footballers dictate their market value? Economists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) investigated this question in a new study. They calculated the relationship between the performance and market value of 493 players in the first and second d … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Coal is still king in global power production

Coal remains the most widely used means of electricity production in the world. It also happens to be the biggest emitter of climate-changing carbon dioxide of any fuel. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

China AIDS group 'really regrets' role in gene-editing

The head of a Chinese AIDS support group expressed deep regret Friday for helping a scientist recruit participants for a controversial experiment claiming to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Paradise regained? Sharks return to Thai bay popularised by 'The Beach'

Thai conservationists have welcomed footage of reef sharks gliding through the azure waters of Maya Bay as a "positive sign" of recovery six months after the closure of a tourist hot-spot made famous by the movie "The Beach". | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

China's coal project in Serbia raises climate change worries

A foul smell permeates the air in this gray mining town. People rarely open their windows as thick smoke billows from the huge chimneys of Serbia's main coal-fired power station. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Yes, Knickers the steer is really, really big. But he's far short of true genetic freak status

The story of Knickers the giant steer has gone viral on social media over the past week. Admittedly, the pictures show him towering over a herd of young Wagyu steers, with Wagyu being one of the smaller cattle breeds, which even enhances his size. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Who owns and farms land can create barriers to conservation

As stewards of vast swaths of land, farmers are important allies in U.S. conservation efforts, but there is evidence to suggest those farming on rented land adopt conservation practices at a lower rate. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Researchers grow functional network of blood vessels at centimeter scale for the first time

When someone has a deadly disease or sustains a life-threatening injury, a transplant or graft of new tissue may be the best—or only—treatment option. Transplanted organs, skin grafts and other parts need blood vessels to bring oxygen-rich blood their way, but for tissue engineer … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Elon Musk's Boring Company nixes one L.A. tunnel, moves onto next project

Elon Musk's Boring Company is dropping one of its Los Angeles underground tunnel plans after some residents' concerns. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Probe killers in deep space

In the cold reaches of deep space, something is making us kill our probes. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 5 years ago

Where the ocean meets the sky, chemists look for clues to our climate

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

High-contrast imaging for cancer therapy with protons

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Interfacial electronic state improving hydrogen storage capacity in Pd-MOF materials

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@phys.org | 5 years ago

Probing quantum physics on a macroscopic scale

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@phys.org | 5 years ago