Those fragrances you enjoy? Dinosaurs liked them first

The compounds behind the perfumes and colognes you enjoy have been eliciting olfactory excitement since dinosaurs walked the Earth amid the first appearance of flowering plants, new research reveals. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Machine learning technique reconstructs images passing through a multimode fiber

Through innovative use of a neural network that mimics image processing by the human brain, a research team reports accurate reconstruction of images transmitted over optical fibers for distances of up to a kilometer. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Space probe to plunge into fiery corona of the sun

On August 11, NASA plans to launch Earth's first spacecraft to venture inside the orbits of Venus and Mercury to touch the very edge of the sun's fiery corona. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Mapping the inner workings of a living cell

Imaging tools like X-rays and MRI have revolutionized medicine by giving doctors a close up view of the brain and other vital organs in living, breathing people. Now, Columbia University researchers report a new way to zoom in at the tiniest scales to track changes within individ … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Invisible dark matter

Deep beneath a mountain in the Apennine range in Italy, an intricate apparatus searches for the dark matter of the universe. University of Massachusetts physics students played a crucial part of the DarkSide-50 detector's latest discoveries—and, in fact, have been part of this pr … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Trees can be genetically engineered not to spread

The largest field-based study of genetically modified forest trees ever conducted has demonstrated that genetic engineering can prevent new seedlings from establishing. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Top math laureate gets new medal after prize stolen

A Kurdish refugee whose top mathematics prize was stolen minutes after he received the honor this week in Rio de Janeiro will get a replacement medal Saturday, organizers said. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Complexity test offers new perspective on small quantum computers

State-of-the-art quantum devices are not yet large enough to be called full-scale computers. The biggest comprise just a few dozen qubits—a meager count compared to the billions of bits in an ordinary computer's memory. But steady progress means that these machines now routinely … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling

For months, a major recycling facility for the greater Baltimore-Washington area has been facing a big problem: it has to pay to get rid of huge amounts of paper and plastic it would normally sell to China. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Checking phones in lectures can cost students half a grade in exams

Students perform less well in end-of-term exams if they are allowed access to an electronic device, such as a phone or tablet, for non-academic purposes in lectures, a new study in Educational Psychology finds. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

A material found to carry current in a way never before observed

Scientists at the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have discovered a behavior in materials called cuprates that suggests they carry current in a way entirely different from conventional metals such as copper. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Particle physicists team up with AI to solve toughest science problems

Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator at the European particle physics lab CERN, produce about a million gigabytes of data every second. Even after reduction and compression, the data amassed in just one hour is similar to the da … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

An artificial material that has negative refraction and no reflection

A team of researchers with members from Wuhan University and the University of Texas has created an artificial material that offers both negative refraction and no reflection. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their material, how it was made, and … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Study reveals the Great Pyramid of Giza can focus electromagnetic energy

An international research group has applied methods of theoretical physics to investigate the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid to radio waves. Scientists predicted that under resonance conditions, the pyramid can concentrate electromagnetic energy in its internal cha … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Physicists extend quantum machine learning to infinite dimensions

Physicists have developed a quantum machine learning algorithm that can handle infinite dimensions—that is, it works with continuous variables (which have an infinite number of possible values on a closed interval) instead of the typically used discrete variables (which have only … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Greenhouse gases surge to new highs worldwide in 2017: US report

Planet-warming greenhouse gases surged to new highs as abnormally hot temperatures swept the globe and ice melted at record levels in the Arctic last year due to climate change, a major US report said Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Astronomers assemble 'light-fingerprints' to unveil mysteries of the cosmos

Earthbound detectives rely on fingerprints to solve their cases; now astronomers can do the same, using "light-fingerprints" instead of skin grooves to uncover the mysteries of exoplanets. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Using nanowires to build all-optical logic gates

A team of researchers at Aalto University in Finland has found a way to use nanowires to build all-optical logic gates—a major step toward building a light-based computer. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their new approach, how well i … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Plate tectonics not needed to sustain life

There may be more habitable planets in the universe than we previously thought, according to Penn State geoscientists, who suggest that plate tectonics—long assumed to be a requirement for suitable conditions for life—are in fact not necessary. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

LHC accelerates its first 'atoms'

Protons might be the Large Hadron Collider's bread and butter, but that doesn't mean it can't crave more exotic tastes from time to time. On Wednesday, 25 July, for the very first time, operators injected not just atomic nuclei but lead "atoms" containing a single electron into t … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

X-ray technology reveals never-before-seen matter around black hole

In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy this month, may help scientists further understand th … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

The structure of the Milky Way

For thousands of years, people have been puzzling over the milky strip that extends across the entire firmament. In the modern era, Galileo Galilei discovered that this Milky Way consists of countless stars. However, it was not until the 20th century that astronomers succeeded in … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Plants have reserve defense system against different kinds of attacks

A plant's defense systems are cooperative—when one system fails, another one can take over, at least in part. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology 's (NTNU) Department of Biology have been collaborating with colleagues from Imperial College London and … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Holographic image of a black hole proposed in a graphene flake

Physicists have theoretically shown that, by applying a magnetic field to a small, irregularly shaped graphene flake, the flake becomes a quantum hologram of a black hole. This means that the graphene flake recreates the spatial structure and characteristic properties of a black … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

The Centauro: A new disaster response robot to assist rescue workers

Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia developed, assembled and tested a new disaster response robot called the Centauro, a Centaur-like robot consisting of a four-legged base and an anthropomorphic upper body. The robot is capable of robust locomotion, high strength … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Young galaxy's halo offers clues to its growth and evolution

A team of astronomers has discovered a new way to unlock the mysteries of how the first galaxies formed and evolved. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Where Martian dust comes from

The dust that coats much of the surface of Mars originates largely from a single thousand-kilometer-long geological formation near the Red Planet's equator, scientists have found. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

A new 'periodic table' for nanomaterials

A new approach could help materials scientists identify the appropriate molecules to use in order to synthesize target nanomaterials. The method was developed by Daniel Packwood of Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Taro Hitosugi of the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Researcher sees possibility of Moon life

While the Moon is uninhabitable today, there could have been life on its surface in the distant past. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Researcher sees possibility of Moon life

While the Moon is uninhabitable today, there could have been life on its surface in the distant past. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Uncovering the interplay between two famous quantum effects

The Casimir force and superconductivity are two well-known quantum effects. These phenomena have been thoroughly studied separately, but what happens when these effects are combined in a single experiment? Now, Delft University of Technology have created a microchip on which two … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Nanoparticles from tattoos circulate inside the body, study finds

The elements that make up the ink in tattoos travel inside the body in micro and nanoparticle forms and reach the lymph nodes, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on 12 September by scientists from Germany and the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble (France) … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Big tech firms agree on 'data portability' plan

Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter unveiled plans Friday to make it easier for users to take their personal data and leave one online service for another. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

World's fastest man-made spinning object could help study quantum mechanics

Researchers have created the fastest man-made rotor in the world, which they believe will help them study quantum mechanics. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Unusual sound waves discovered in quantum liquids

Ordinary sound waves—small oscillations of density—can propagate through all fluids, causing the molecules in the fluid to compress at regular intervals. Now physicists have theoretically shown that in one-dimensional quantum fluids not one, but two types of sound waves can propa … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Targeting headaches and tumors with nano-submarines

Scientists at the Mainz University Medical Center and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) have developed a new method to enable miniature drug-filled nanocarriers to dock on to immune cells, which in turn attack tumors. In the future, this may lead to targeted t … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Future electronic components to be printed like newspapers

A new manufacturing technique uses a process similar to newspaper printing to form smoother and more flexible metals for making ultrafast electronic devices. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Traveling to the Sun: Why Won't Parker Solar Probe Melt?

This summer, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will launch to travel closer to the Sun, deeper into the solar atmosphere, than any mission before it. If Earth was at one end of a yard-stick and the Sun on the other, Parker Solar Probe will make it to within four inches of the solar surfa … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

X-ray data may be first evidence of a star devouring a planet

For nearly a century, astronomers have puzzled over the curious variability of young stars residing in the Taurus-Auriga constellation some 450 light years from Earth. One star in particular has drawn astronomers' attention. Every few decades, the star's light has faded briefly b … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Scientists uncover mechanism that stabilizes fusion plasmas

Sawtooth swings—up-and-down ripples found in everything from stock prices on Wall Street to ocean waves—occur periodically in the temperature and density of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions in doughnut-shaped facilities called tokamaks. These swings can sometimes combine wi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Supersharp images from new VLT adaptive optics

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has achieved first light with a new adaptive optics mode called laser tomography—and has captured remarkably sharp test images of the planet Neptune and other objects. The MUSE instrument working with the GALACSI adaptive optics module, can now us … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Researchers show how to directly observe quantum spin effects

With companies like Google, Microsoft and IBM all racing to create the world's first practical quantum computer, scientists worldwide are exploring the potential materials that could be used to build them. Now, Associate Professor Yang Hyunsoo and his team from the Department of … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Genetically engineered eggplant improving lives in Bangladesh

Ansar Ali earned just 11,000 taka – about $130 U.S. dollars – from eggplant he grew last year in Bangladesh. This year, after planting Bt eggplant, he brought home more than double that amount, 27,000 taka. It's a life-changing improvement for a subsistence farmer like Ali. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Jupiter's moon count reaches 79

Twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter have been found—11 "normal" outer moons, and one that they're calling an "oddball." This brings Jupiter's total number of known moons to a whopping 79—the most of any planet in our Solar System. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Researchers couple artificial atom to acoustic resonator

Researchers from Russia and Britain have demonstrated an artificial quantum system in which a quantum bit interacts with an acoustic resonator in the quantum regime. This allows quantum optics principles to be applied in the study of acoustic waves and enables an alternative appr … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Microscopic trampoline may help create networks of quantum computers

Take a bounce: A microscopic trampoline could help engineers to overcome a major hurdle for quantum computers, researchers from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report in a new study. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Hybrid device harvests both mechanical and magnetic energy

A new hybrid energy-harvesting device may one day replace the need for batteries in certain low-power electronics devices. The new device collects ambient wasted energy from both mechanical vibrations and magnetic fields to generate sustainable electricity, which could potentiall … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago

Scientists solve fish evolution mystery

A University of Wyoming researcher is part of an international team that has discovered how more than 700 species of fish have evolved in East Africa's Lake Victoria region over the past 150,000 years. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 6 years ago