Bank of England to mull access for likes of Facebook's Libra

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is open to the idea of letting new payment services such as Facebook's upcoming Libra hold funds with the central bank—something previously limited to commercial banks. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Slack Technologies rises in Wall Street debut

Software company Slack Technologies climbed on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday after entering in a direct listing in the latest sign of Wall Street's appetite for new technology entrants. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Mother sperm whale and baby dead in fishing net off Italy

A mother sperm whale and its baby have died after becoming tangled in a fishing net in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy's western coast, an Italian environmental group reported Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Heat kills invasive jumping worm cocoons, could help limit spread

New research out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum shows that temperatures of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit kill the cocoons of invasive jumping worms. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Spiders risk everything for love

University of Cincinnati biologist George Uetz long suspected the extravagant courtship dance of wolf spiders made them an easy mark for birds and other predators. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Landmark study signals shift in thinking about stem cell differentiation

A pioneering new study led by Florida State University biologists could fundamentally change our understanding of how embryonic stem cells differentiate into specific cell types. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Just add humidity: How this air-to-water machine can quench your thirst

It's a devil's pact: The gleaming rays of sunshine this time of year come hand-in-hand with body-drenching humidity. But what if that humidity could serve as a commodity for our current and future water needs in South Florida and beyond? What if clean water could be created ... r … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Google workers, labor advocates confront parent Alphabet over practices

Google workers, labor advocates, and local community members rallied outside parent company Alphabet Inc.'s annual meeting of company shareholders here on Wednesday, calling on the technology company to change its labor practices. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Research details response of sagebrush to 2017 solar eclipse

The total solar eclipse's swath across Wyoming and the United States in August 2017 provided an opportunity for scientists to study a variety of celestial and earthly phenomena, from learning more about the sun's corona to the behavior of animals and plants. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Russia to release 100 illegally captured whales

Russian officials have launched an operation to release nearly 100 illegally captured whales whose confinement in Russia's far east has become a rallying cry for environmentalists. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Merkel boosts EU push for 2050 net zero emissions target

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday endorsed for the first time a European Union target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, putting pressure on reluctant coal-dependent eastern European countries. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Under pressure, plane industry vows cleaner flight—someday

Battery-powered planes, solar planes, hydrogen planes—jet makers are working on myriad ways to make flying less damaging to the planet. Yet clean flying on a mass scale remains decades away. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Video: Why does the moon smell like gunpowder?

After walking on the moon, astronauts hopped back into their lunar lander, bringing the heavenly body's dust along with them on their spacesuits. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Endangered rhinos ready to be sent from Europe to Rwanda

Officials say five critically endangered eastern black rhinos from wildlife parks in three European countries are ready for a transport back to their natural habitat in Rwanda, where the entire rhino population was wiped out during the genocide in the 1990s. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Russians capture hungry polar bear roaming Arctic city

Russian officials said Thursday that scientists have captured a hungry polar bear found roaming the streets of an Arctic city, hundreds of kilometres from its natural habitat, and would take it to a zoo to recover. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Team proposes stochastic model to explain microbiome composition

All living things—from the simplest animal and plant organisms to the human body—live closely together with an enormous abundance of microbial symbionts, which colonise the insides and outsides of their tissues. The functional collaboration of host and microorganisms, which scien … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Researchers study super-repellent surfaces for safer fruits, vegetables

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, TEES, were recently awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study and develop super-repellent and anti-fouling surfaces for foods. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

A study describes the reaction mechanism of DNAzymes

A study from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has published a study in the journal Nature Catalysis that describes the reaction mechanism used by the DNAzyme 9DB1, the first structurally available catalyser formed by DNA. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Why climate change means a rethink of coffee and cocoa production systems

Global demand for coffee and cocoa is on the rise. Yet across the equatorial belt where these two crops are produced, the future is not looking bright. Climate change in the tropics is pushing coffee and cocoa closer to the limits of physiological tolerance and constraining the p … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Biomedical bleeding may impact horseshoe crabs' spawning behavior and movement

Horseshoe crabs that have undergone biomedical bleeding tend to reside in deeper water and approach mating beaches less often, according to a new study published in The Biological Bulletin. In "Effects of the Biomedical Bleeding Process on the Behavior of the American Horseshoe C … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Vanilla makes milk beverages seem sweeter

Adding vanilla to sweetened milk makes consumers think the beverage is sweeter, allowing the amount of added sugar to be reduced, according to Penn State researchers, who will use the concept to develop a reduced-sugar chocolate milk for the National School Lunch Program. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Dynamic collaboration behind new research into best way of using biologging tags

Methods used to design F1 cars and spacecraft have played a crucial role in new research into the tags used to track animal movements. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Researchers confirm that narwhals and belugas can interbreed

A team of University of Copenhagen researchers has compiled the first and only evidence that narwhals and beluga whales can breed successfully. DNA and stable isotope analysis of an anomalous skull from the Natural History Museum of Denmark has allowed researchers to confirm the … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Bats' brains sync when they socialize

The phrase "we're on the same wavelength" may be more than just a friendly saying: A new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers shows that bats' brain activity is literally in sync when bats engage in social behaviors like grooming, fighting or sniffing each oth … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

'DNA microscopy' offers entirely new way to image cells

Microscopy just got reinvented—again. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Frustrated fish give up thanks to glia, not just neurons

Secured in place in a virtual-reality-equipped chamber, frustrated zebrafish just didn't want to swim anymore. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Scientists reveal the inter-cluster and intra-cluster dynamics of thiolate-protected gold-silver alloys

From effective medicines to molecular sensors to fuel cells, metal clusters are becoming fundamentally useful in the health, environment, and energy sectors. This diverse functionality of clusters arises from the variability in size and type. Now, scientists led by Professor Yuic … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Global data resource shows genetic diversity of chickens

A total of 174 chicken breeds are described in a publicly accessible database which scientists from the University of Göttingen and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in Neustadt-Mariensee have built up in recent years with numerous international partners. This database, the Synbre … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Robot traps ball without coding

Dr. Kee-hoon Kim's team at the Center for Intelligent & Interactive Robotics of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) developed a way of teaching "impedance-controlled robots" through human demonstrations using surface electromyograms (sEMG) of muscles, and succeed … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Following the ocean's flow

The dramatic sight of Atlantic waves crashing onto UK shores from the vast, surging ocean illustrates perfectly the joke behind its nickname of 'The Pond'. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Disrupting one gene could be first step toward treating honey bee parasite nosema ceranae

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have taken the first step towards a weapon against the major honey bee parasite Nosema ceranae. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Connecting the dots: nitrogen dioxide over Siberian pipelines

New maps that use information from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite reveal emissions of nitrogen dioxide along a Siberian natural gas pipeline that connects the Urengoy gas field—the second-largest gas field in the world—with Europe. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

German cabin crew union threatens Lufthansa strikes in July

German cabin crew union UFO called Thursday for a strike against airline giant Lufthansa in July, threatening travel chaos during the busy summer holiday season over a wage dispute. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Record efficiency for a gas engine

At the end of May, the final meeting of the "Horizon 2020" project "GasOn" with the EU Commission took place in Brussels. The aim of this EU project was the further development of gas engines for cars and vans. Around 20 partners participated, including ETH Zurich and Empa as wel … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Laser method promising for detecting trace chemicals in air

Researchers have developed a new laser-based method that can detect electric charges and chemicals of interest with unprecedented sensitivity. The new approach could one day offer a way to scan large areas for radioactive material or hazardous chemicals for safety and security ap … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Is burning trash a good way to handle it? Waste incineration in 5 charts

Burning trash has a long history in the United States, and municipal solid waste incinerators have sparked resistance in many places. As an environmental justice scholar who works directly with low-income and communities of color, I see incineration as a poor waste management op … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Using graphene and tiny droplets to detect stomach-cancer causing bacteria

Biosensors are currently used in healthcare to monitor blood glucose; however, they also have the potential to detect bacteria. Researchers at Osaka University have invented a new biosensor using graphene—a material consisting of a one-atom-thick layer of carbon—to detect bacteri … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Cancer test, plastic recycling win Europe inventor awards

A diagnostic tool to assess the risk of a cancer relapse, machines for plastic recycling, an alternative to toxic ship paint— all were among the inventions honoured at the European Inventor Awards on Thursday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Swiss watchdog 'in contact' with Facebook cryptocurrency backers

Switzerland's market watchdog confirmed Thursday that it is contact with the "initiators" of Facebook's new cryptocurrency, as questions mount over how the money will be regulated. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Libra: four reasons to be extremely cautious about Facebook's new currency

Facebook has unveiled libra, a cryptocurrency that will enable users to make international payments over Messenger and other group platforms like WhatsApp—perhaps from as soon as 2020. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

EU under pressure over 2050 net zero emissions target

European Union leaders will push Thursday "to advance work" towards setting a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a draft resolution. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Slack is latest tech company to go public, with a twist

Shares of work messaging platform Slack are expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "WORK." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

How climate change impacts the economy

The Fourth National Climate Assessment, published in 2018, warned that if we do not curb greenhouse gas emissions and start to adapt, climate change could seriously disrupt the U.S. economy. Warmer temperatures, sea level rise and extreme weather will damage property and critical … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Persuasive politics: why emotional beats rational for connecting with voters

Politics is mired in a communications crisis. Across the world voters are disillusioned, while in the UK the stock of politicians has never been lower. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Scientists map toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's

A team of researchers from McMaster University has mapped at atomic resolution a toxic protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, allowing them to better understand what is happening deep within the brain during the earliest stages of the disease. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Display of commitment by the police is important for dealing with difficult groups of young people

Groups of young people who cause a nuisance and/or participate in criminal activities are a recurring and persistent problem for the police. Displaying commitment is an important part of the approach to the problem, but proves to be complicated in practice. Public administration … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

A miniature camera for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will help test the observatory and take first images

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are building the world's largest digital camera for astronomy and astrophysics—a minivan-sized 3,200-megapixel "eye" of the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) that will enable unprecedented v … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago

Estimating the time of death under water

Why barnacles prefer elegant shoes and other mysteries perplexing forensic scientists. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 4 years ago