Seafloor shapes on the flanks of mid-ocean ridges linked to magma supply

At nearly 65,000 kilometers long, the mid-ocean ridge system is the longest mountain range in the world. Running beneath the ocean's surface, mid-ocean ridges are formed at divergent plate boundaries, where tectonic plates stretch apart and magma rises to create new crust on the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Study identifies organic alternative for fighting cattle-pestering flies

When cattle are fighting flies in the summer, they gather in tight bunches, leading them to eat less while experiencing more stress and discomfort. Beef producers have limited options for controlling the flies that pester their cattle. Moreover, existing insecticides are losing t … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Engineering customizable bio-adhesives for personalized medical repair

Traditional medical adhesives used in surgical applications often have limited bio-absorbability, high toxicity and a lack of customizability, leading to suboptimal surgical outcomes. Recent advances in synthetic biology offer a promising alternative—tailored biocompatible and bi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Novel probiotic application method shows promise as a growth promoter for chickens

Chicken and eggs are among the most popular sources of high-quality protein in the world. With a growing population, making the production of this key food source sustainable is vital. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Toxic comments associated with reduced activity of volunteer editors on Wikipedia

A study links hostility on Wikipedia to lost productivity on the site. Wikipedia, the largest reference work ever created, is written and edited by tens of thousands of volunteers, known as Wikipedians. Despite the fact that anyone can edit any page, studies show that Wikipedia i … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

NASA's Psyche delivers first images and other data

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on Oct. 13, the orbiter has performed one successful operation after another, powering on scientific instruments, streaming data toward home, and setting a deep-space record with its electric thrusters. … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

How IRON MAN (IMA) is involved in copper homeostasis in plants

Copper (Cu) availability is critical for plant growth and development and for food yield and quality. It is essential for plants to maintain Cu homeostasis. To maintain Cu homeostasis in different tissues and organs, the uptake and transport of Cu must be precisely controlled. IR … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Deep within an inhospitable desert, a window to first life on Earth

CU Boulder geologist Brian Hynek has helped to document what may be a unique kind of ecosystem on Earth—and a possible window into the earliest stages of life on this planet 3.5 billion years ago, and even life on ancient Mars. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Real connections trump virtual gatherings: The magic of in-person events

From virtual dance parties and raves to virtual happy hours and potlucks—online gatherings reached new heights during COVID-19, helping individuals stay connected during lockdowns. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

New approach to drug discovery: Developing pain medication with fewer side effects

People with chronic pain are often dependent on drugs from the class of opioids with sometimes considerable side effects. Accordingly, in recent years the search for safer alternatives has been the focus of new drug discovery. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

NASA finds likely cause of OSIRIS-REx parachute deployment sequence

NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule landed under parachute in the Utah desert on Sept. 24, 2023, and safely delivered a cannister of rocks and dust collected from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Although the delivery was successful, the landing sequence did not go entirely accordi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Researcher turns switchgrass into bioplastics

Plastic, made in the traditional petroleum-based method, has served its purpose. The near-perfect packaging material has been instrumental in transforming the world's food supply and can be found in nearly every sector of daily life. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

How a citizen science initiative recruited a diverse group to identify lead pipes in homes

Recruiting participants for a citizen science project produced a more diverse group when people were signed up through partner organizations, such as schools and faith-based organizations, than when they joined on their own. We used this approach to recruit volunteers for Crowd t … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Researchers: The climate change we caused is here for at least 50,000 years—and probably far longer

In February 2000, Paul Crutzen rose to speak at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Mexico. And when he spoke, people took notice. He was then one of the world's most cited scientists, a Nobel laureate working on huge-scale problems—the ozone hole, the effects of a … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

'Just the rich can do it': Research shows how immigration income requirements devastate families

The government has announced a host of new restrictions aimed at cutting net migration to the UK. Headline announcements include increasing the salary requirements for skilled foreign workers from £26,200 to £38,700, and banning health and care workers from bringing family depend … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Warfare ruins the environment—and not just on the front lines

On the morning of December 6, 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbor of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields of the first world wa … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Opinion: Education should look to the way artists are embracing AI, instead of turning its back on the technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to make a major impact on many sectors of society over the coming decades. Some of these effects may be positive, others less so. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Study reveals genes that set humans apart from other primates in cognitive ability

An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered over 100 genes that are common to primate brains but have undergone evolutionary divergence only in humans—and which could be a source of our unique cognitive ability. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Luttinger's theorem at the core of topological matter

In 1960, Joaquin Luttinger introduced a universal statement that relates the total number of particles that a system can accommodate to its behavior under low-energy excitations. While Luttinger's theorem is readily verified in systems of independent particles, it also holds true … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Researchers create first supermirrors in mid-infrared range

An international team of researchers from Austria, the United States and Switzerland have created the first supermirrors in the mid-infrared range. These mirrors are a key technology for many applications, such as optical spectroscopy of greenhouse gases or industrial lasers for … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Study shows precise control of colloids through magnetism is possible

Bayreuth researchers have found ways to control tiny particles in liquids using magnetic patterns. The research results have now been published in Nature Communications under the title "Simultaneous and independent topological control of identical microparticles in non-periodic e … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

New technique enhances imaging of fluid-filled rocks, finds connection to microearthquakes

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Xin Liu, Assistant Professor of the Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), along with seismologists from the U.S. and China, has recently introduced a new method called ambient noise differential adjoint tom … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Study reveals changes in glaciers, snow cover and permafrost in Chinese Altai mountains since 2000

The Altai Mountains are located in the eastern hinterland of Central Asia, bordering Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Chinese Altai Mountains, located in the north of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, belongs to the southern slope of the middle section of Altai Mountains. … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Study shows exoskeletons of insects become stronger when raised under higher mechanical load

Scientists from the Hochschule Bremen (HSB)—City University of Applied Sciences used a centrifuge to show that the exoskeletons of insects become stronger when they are raised under higher mechanical load. This fundamental knowledge is important to better understand the evolution … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Viewpoint: Fact-bombing by experts doesn't change hearts and minds, but good science communication can

A stir went through the Australian science communication community last week, caused by an article with the headline Science communicators need to stop telling everybody the universe is a meaningless void. In meetings and online back channels we cried "not ALL science communicato … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

A novel microscope operates on the quantum state of single electrons

Physicists at the University of Regensburg have found a way to manipulate the quantum state of individual electrons using a microscope with atomic resolution. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Nature. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Researchers discover plant diversity stabilizes soil temperature

A new study has revealed a natural solution to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events. Researchers from Leipzig University, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv) an … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Making the case for the location of the Bolaven extraterrestrial impact crater

A multi-institutional team of geoscientists, geologists and mineralogists has found what they believe to be the site of the crater formed from the Bolaven extraterrestrial impact. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Black holes are missing in the early universe, and computers are after them

As far as the eye can see, galaxies fill the images of the deep universe. What processes determined their shapes, colors and populations of stars? Astronomers think that primordial black holes were the engines of galaxies' growth and transformation, and can explain the cosmic lan … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

New fungus is the oldest disease-causing species found to date

The earliest disease-causing fungus has been discovered within the Natural History Museum's fossil collections. The new fungal plant pathogen, Potteromyces asteroxylicola, which is 407-million-years-old, has been named in honor of celebrated Tales of Peter Rabbit author, and fung … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Grinding coffee with a splash of water reduces static electricity and makes more consistent and intense espresso: Study

The fracturing and friction of coffee beans during grinding generates electricity that causes coffee particles to clump together and stick to the grinder. Researchers report Dec. 6 in the journal Matter that coffee beans with higher internal moisture produce less static electrici … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Bowtie resonators that build themselves bridge the gap between nanoscopic and macroscopic

A central goal in quantum optics and photonics is to increase the strength of the interaction between light and matter to produce, for example, better photodetectors or quantum light sources. The best way to do that is to use optical resonators that store light for a long time, m … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

The ocean may be storing more carbon than estimated in earlier studies

The ocean's capacity to store atmospheric carbon dioxide is some 20% greater than the estimates contained in the latest IPCC report. These are the findings of a study published in the journal Nature led by an international team including a biologist from the CNRS. The scientists … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Astronomers discover galaxies have bipolar gas outflows reaching far into intergalactic space

Astronomers have observed, for the first time in three dimensions, that gas from spiral galaxies is blown upward and downward at high velocity, far out of the galaxy. The observations confirm the prevailing theory of galaxy evolution that says that star-forming galaxies drive int … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Companies are missing their climate goals with misaligned behavior, says study

The emissions pathways of most companies in high-emitting sectors are not aligned with the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. To better contribute to national and global sustainability efforts, corporate behavior must change. This is the main message of a new study by Imperi … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

New modular flow platform for improved SuFEx click chemistry

Researchers at the Flow Chemistry group of the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences have developed a modular flow chemistry platform for a safe and efficient execution of SuFEx (Sulfur(VI) Fluoride Exchange) click chemistry. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Review examines machine learning concepts for microbiologists

In a review in Nature Reviews Microbiology, Professor Levi Waldron and colleagues highlight the increasing importance of machine learning in microbiology, where it is used for tasks such as predicting antibiotic resistance and associating human microbiome features with complex ho … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Forecasts may help protect marine life a year in advance

Marine management tools could be used to help avoid whale entanglements or sea turtle bycatch up to a year in advance, suggests a Nature Communications paper. The findings demonstrate that these tools (which already exist) could be used to forewarn of ecosystem conditions during … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Environmental monitoring of bacteria can strengthen community preparedness against diseases

A variety of potentially disease-causing bacteria exist in the Baltic Sea and in Swedish lakes. Karolina Eriksson, a doctoral student at the Industrial Doctoral School at Umeå University, reveals future health risks for humans in the light of climate change in her thesis. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

New research reveals a fishing threshold for reef resilience

Coral reefs are the most biodiverse systems in the sea and central to the life of many coastal human communities. Half a billion people rely on coral reefs for protection from storms, provision of seafood as well as promotion of tourism and recreation. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Melting fire-ice: Study finds climate change can cause methane to be released from the deep ocean

New research has shown that fire-ice—frozen methane which is trapped as a solid under our oceans—is vulnerable to melting due to climate change and could be released into the sea. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Scientists discover plant hormone that boosts growth by 30%

Scientists from NUS and the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) have uncovered one of nature's most potent tools in an arsenal to combat today's agricultural challenges: agro-microbials—or agro-chemicals of natural origin—that can enhance the syn … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

A possible way for early life on Earth to survive cosmic radiation

A team of biophysicists affiliated with several institutions in China has uncovered via experimentation the means by which early life might have been able to survive cosmic radiation. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Communications, the group conducted experiments w … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Fruit fly study finds blue light exposure may affect processes related to aging

In a study on fruit flies, daily low-intensity blue light exposure (BLE), similar to that experienced daily by billions of humans in the form of LED lighting and device screens, changed flies at the sub-cellular level, affecting processes related to aging and circadian rhythms. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Report: Pivotal moment for humanity as tipping point threats and opportunities accelerate

The world has reached a pivotal moment as threats from Earth system tipping points—and progress towards positive tipping points—accelerate, a new report shows. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Novel stem cell culture system could lead to future therapies for a variety of disorders

A new study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center molecular biologists presents a novel culture system to grow both embryonic and extraembryonic stem cells, potentially providing important insights into the genesis of congenital malformations and early developmental disorders. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Astronomers investigate the Southern Beehive cluster

An international team of astronomers has performed the first asteroseismic study of the young open cluster NGC 2516, better known as the Southern Beehive. Results of the study, published Nov. 28 on the pre-print server arXiv, unveil crucial information regarding the properties an … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago

Parasitic creature with unique teeth found in forests of Asia: It's a new species

In a forest in southern China, a parasitic creature flew through the air. Suddenly, a net enveloped the animal. Scientists looked at their successful catch—and discovered a new species. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 11 months ago