Small-molecule autocatalysis may have paved the way for the emergence of evolution by natural selection

The discipline of systems chemistry deals with the analysis and synthesis of various autocatalytic systems and is therefore closely related to the study of the origin of life, since it investigates systems that can be considered as a transition between chemical and biological evo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

The link between the impact of radiation on DNA and the time in which the damaged molecule breaks irreversibly revealed

We are exposed to ionizing radiation more often than we think: when we bathe in the sun, which emits UV rays, or when we get X-rayed. Even when we are traveling on an intercontinental flight, which reaches 10,000 meters above sea level. This type of radiation is potentially harmf … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Study clarifies that marine protected areas are managed with climate change in mind

Scientific findings don't always translate neatly into actions, especially in conservation and resource management. The disconnect can leave academics and practitioners disheartened and a bit frustrated. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Inflammation slows malaria parasite growth and reproduction in the body, research finds

Research led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) and the Kirby Institute found that inflammation in the body can slow down the development of malaria parasites in the bloodstream—a discovery that may constitute a potential new strategy fo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Creating pollen-free trees to combat hay fever

Pollinosis, or hay fever, makes people miserable around the world, and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollen is a significant cause of the suffering in the 38.8% of Japanese people who are allergic. Japanese cedar is also the country's most important timber species. A sing … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Study shows host adaptation drives genetic variation in Lyme disease bacteria

A study looks at the mechanisms behind genetic variation in the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Lyme disease is the most common vector-transmitted disease in the United States, with around 476,000 human cases annually. Most Lyme disease is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

After 15 years, pulsar timing yields evidence of cosmic background gravitational waves

The universe is humming with gravitational radiation—a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Unique high-energy electron Xtallography project completes conceptual design review

A world-first instrument, High-energy electron Xtallography Instrument (HeXI), combining the power of electron diffraction with X-ray beamline expertise is being built by a team at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron. On July 20, 2023 they confirmed the successful … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

New research links early Europeans' cultural and genetic development over several thousand years

A new DNA study has nuanced the picture of how different groups intermingled during the European Stone Age, but also how certain groups of people were actually isolated. The study was carried out by researchers at Uppsala University working with an international team of researche … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Biden, in environment push, protects lands near Grand Canyon

Joe Biden used the backdrop of the Grand Canyon Tuesday to champion the climate fight—and distinguish himself from the Republican right—by designating large swathes of surrounding sacred land with protective status. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

El Nino could imperil Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Australia's Great Barrier Reef could deteriorate if warming ocean temperatures spark another mass coral bleaching event later this year, the country's top marine science body said Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

33 dead, 18 still missing after record Beijing rains

Thirty-three people have been confirmed dead and 18 are still missing after Beijing's heaviest rains on record, officials said Wednesday. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Astronauts get first look at the spacecraft that will fly them around the moon

The four astronauts assigned to fly around the moon in another year got their first look at their spacecraft, as NASA warned Tuesday there could be more delays. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Scientists look beyond climate change and El Nino for other factors that heat up Earth

Scientists are wondering if global warming and El Niño have an accomplice in fueling this summer's record-shattering heat. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Over a million acres of tribal land submerged by dams in the US, study shows

Dam constructions have flooded over 1.13 million acres (4,570 km2) of tribal land in the US contributing to the historic and ongoing struggle against land dispossession for Indigenous peoples in the United States. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Chemical contamination on International Space Station is out of this world, study shows

Concentrations of potentially harmful chemical compounds in dust collected from air filtration systems on the International Space Station (ISS) exceed those found in floor dust from many American homes, a new study reveals. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Vaccination campaign protects endangered wild cattle from highly contagious potentially fatal skin disease

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of the Royal Government of Cambodia have documented the first case of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in wildlife in Cambodia. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

New technique measures structured light in a single shot

Structured light waves with spiral phase fronts carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), attributed to the rotational motion of photons. Recently, scientists have been using light waves with OAM, and these special "helical" light beams have become very important in various advanced … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Nitrogen runoff strategies complicated by climate change

As climate change progresses, rising temperatures may impact nitrogen runoff from land to lakes and streams more than projected increases in total and extreme precipitation for most of the continental United States, according to new research from a team of Carnegie climate scient … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

The 'unknome': A database of human genes we know almost nothing about

Researchers from the United Kingdom hope that a new, publicly available database they have created will shrink, not grow, over time. That's because it is a compendium of the thousands of understudied proteins encoded by genes in the human genome, whose existence is known but whos … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Forests are breaking up in the tropics but coming together elsewhere. Here's what it means for wildlife and the climate

In 2015, research on global forest cover revealed a concerning fact: 70% of the world's remaining forest now lies within 1km of the forest's edge. This process, called fragmentation, is causing the deepest and darkest parts of the world's forests to shrink. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

If this heat isn't bad enough, new study says snakebites are another risk

It's hot out there. How hot? Hot enough to scald a lizard. Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Hot enough to make you want to live right. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Portugal, Spain battle wildfires amid heat wave alerts

Hundreds of firefighters were on Tuesday battling a wildfire that has burned for four days in Portugal, which, like neighboring Spain, is sweltering in a heat wave that has triggered widespread weather alerts. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Meet the Persian Gold Tarantula: A new species discovery just in time for tarantula appreciation day 2023

The Persian Gold Tarantula (Chaetopelma persianum) is a newly described species recently discovered in northwestern Iran. In fact, the "woolly, golden hairs" the scientists observed and examined on a single specimen, were one of the features so unique that it was not necessary fo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Collaborative salt marsh research championed by global scientists

Dr. Scott F. Jones, University of North Florida assistant professor of biology, co-led recently published research from an international team of scientists that offers a united, conceptual framework for approaching salt marsh studies. The project aims to encourage cross-disciplin … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

New tool provides greater accuracy for medical biosensors

For more than 20 years, Li-Qun "Andrew" Gu at the University of Missouri has developed a passion for solving life science problems by creating sophisticated diagnostic tools—in nanoscale. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Good smells, bad smells: It's all in the insect brain

Everyone has scents that naturally appeal to them, such as vanilla or coffee, and scents that don't appeal. What makes some smells appealing and others not? | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Heavy rains unleash landslides, flooding in Scandinavia

Heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in Sweden and Norway on Tuesday while strong winds caused a Danish wildfire to spread out of control, authorities said, with more heavy rain forecast. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Computer science can help farmers explore alternative crops and sustainable farming methods

Humans have physically reconfigured half of the world's land to grow just eight staple crops: maize (corn), soy, wheat, rice, cassava, sorghum, sweet potato and potato. They account for the vast majority of calories that people around the world consume. As global population rises … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

A spectacular fireball just streaked across Melbourne, but astronomers didn't see it coming

The first hours after a fireball sighting are like a detective mystery. Last night around midnight, people across Melbourne took to social media to report sightings of a bright light slowly streaking across the sky. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Umlungu: The colorful history of a word used to describe white people in South Africa

In South Africa "umlungu" is a word that's commonly used to refer to white people. It comes from isiXhosa, the language of the country's Xhosa people. It's always been a mystery how the word originated or what it actually means because no human beings were referred to as umlungu … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Successfully managing forests must include stewarding the hidden life belowground

Half of the biodiversity in forests is unseen because it lives belowground. These organisms are miniscule in size, but their importance to the ecosystem is enormous. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Classroom environmental education doesn't change attitudes, according to new research

With increasing urbanization and advances in technology, children's exposure to the natural world has decreased. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Pause in recent coral recovery on much of Great Barrier Reef

In-water monitoring by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) shows hard coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef remains at similar levels to that recorded in 2022, with small decreases in the Northern, Central and Southern regions. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Ivy, dandelions and other common wildflowers are a crucial resource for pollinating insects

Since the end of the second world war, factors such as more intensive farming and urbanization have reduced the abundance of wildflowers in Britain. In fact, the past 90 years have seen the loss of over 97% of the UK's wildflower meadows. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Ancient DNA reveals an early African origin of cattle in the Americas

Cattle may seem like uniquely American animals, steeped in the lore of cowboys, cattle drives and sprawling ranches. But cattle didn't exist on the American continents prior to the arrival of the Spanish, who brought livestock with them from Europe by way of the Canary Islands. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Researchers use SPAD detector to achieve 3D quantum ghost imaging

Researchers have reported the first 3D measurements acquired with quantum ghost imaging. The new technique enables 3D imaging on a single photon level, yielding the lowest photon dose possible for any measurement. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Size matters: Genome size dynamics driven by copy number variation in a green alga

A new study challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding genome stability within closely related organisms and sheds new light on the mechanisms underlying extensive genome size variation. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

'Forever chemicals' could be phased out in Australia under new restrictions. Here's what you need to know

There's growing global concern about potential risks to human health and the environment from a group of industrial chemicals commonly known as PFAS, or "forever chemicals." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Researchers create high-performance aluminum matrix composites with asymmetric cryocooling

Our ongoing endeavor to venture into outer space demands substantial technological advances across various fields, including materials science. Materials used in the aerospace industry must be lightweight yet mechanically resistant, a combination that is difficult to achieve. For … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Gravitational waves may reveal nature of dark matter

Observations of gravitational waves from merging black holes may reveal new insights about dark matter, suggests a new study from a UCL-led international team. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

City-dwelling wildlife demonstrate 'urban trait syndrome'

City life favors species that are adaptable and, among other things, not too fussy about what they eat. A worldwide consortium of scientists calls the resulting collection of characteristics "urban trait syndrome." | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Unconventional luxury brand collaborations are everywhere. What is the appeal?

In 2017, Louis Vuitton caused a stir in the luxury industry by partnering with the New York skateboarding brand Supreme. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Martynoside found to rescue 5-fluorouracil-impaired ribosome biogenesis by stabilizing RPL27A

Myelotoxicity is the primary dose-limiting effect of the commonly used chemotherapeutic agent 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which may endanger the life of the patient. Ribosome biogenesis is a key pathway regulating hematopoietic stem cells, and its disruption is deleterious to hematopo … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Common ancestors of bats were omnivorous, according to resurrection of ancestral sweet receptors

The origins of powered flight and laryngeal echolocation in bats are widely cited as evidence that ancestral bats evolved as insectivores. Moreover, others have hypothesis that suggesting early bats were diurnal herbivores and that insectivory emerged secondarily for protein supp … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

New metalens lights the way for advanced control of quantum emission

Quantum emission is pivotal to realizing photonic quantum technologies. Solid-state single photon emitters (SPEs), such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) defects, operate at room temperature. They are highly desirable due to their robustness and brightness. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

Foreign-born CEOs more likely to be dismissed from firms

Foreign-born CEOs are more likely to be fired than native-born CEOs if the firm they are leading is performing poorly, according to a new study from researchers at Florida Atlantic University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago

How to change an asteroid into a space habitat, in just 12 years

The basic idea of turning an asteroid into a rotating space habitat has existed for a while. Despite that, it's always seemed relatively far off regarding technologies, so the concept hasn't received much attention over the years. But, if you're retired and have an underlying int … | Continue reading


@phys.org | 8 months ago