Articles by Krystal Kasal
Phys.org / Ancient stalagmites reveal exceptions to Asia–South America monsoon seesaw over the past 450,000 years
In places like South Asia, Africa and parts of the Americas, monsoon rains supply water for drinking, crops and hydropower for billions of people. Understanding the patterns that monsoons tend to follow can help people plan ...
Phys.org / Mosquito bites are more complicated than they appear—getting a closer look might lead to better disease prevention
Female mosquitoes need blood to produce eggs. While much research has focused on how these hungry mosquitoes find their targets, less is known about what happens after they land on skin. Yet, a better understanding may allow ...
Phys.org / Mirror-image molecules are difficult to separate from their counterparts, but a new catalytic method might be the answer
Just like gloves, molecules can have left- and right-handed—or mirror-image—forms. Because the left- and right-handed molecules are still very similar, scientists have had trouble separating them from each other. But a team ...
Phys.org / Individual atomic collisions can now be detected in the lab, potentially opening up pathways to new physics
Tiny atoms and molecules are constantly bombarding each other all around us. While we regularly measure the large-scale effects of these interactions, measuring the effect of each individual collision is far more difficult. ...
Tech Xplore / A little heat releases two fuels from a single crystalline compound
A team of researchers in India has developed a new compound capable of releasing both hydrogen and methane when heated at low temperatures. In their new study, published in Science Advances, the researchers show how this ...
Phys.org / Judging strangers' preferences may actually be easier when they're less like our own
Researchers already know that humans have a tendency to use egocentric anchoring—a cognitive bias in which people use their own preferences, beliefs and perspectives as a mental starting point (or anchor) to understand or ...
Phys.org / India's cobras share genetic ties across the mainland, while Sri Lankan cobras form a distinct genetic lineage
The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is one of India's "big four" snakes responsible for most serious snakebite cases. It is currently considered one species, which lives across much of South Asia, with regional differences in ...
Phys.org / Rocks from hydrothermal vents can spontaneously combust, posing potential risks for deep-sea mining operations
Projects involving the mining of seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits around hydrothermal vents already face criticism over their destructive nature, and now these projects may face a new concern: spontaneous combustion. ...
Phys.org / Newly discovered 3D 'chair' shape can fill all space without repeating patterns
Software developer Ioannis Tsiokos has reported the discovery of a three-dimensional shape, which roughly resembles a chair, that can fill space infinitely without repeating a pattern. The shape follows certain mathematical ...
Phys.org / Fijian bee genomics suggest 99% effective population decline since European colonization
The decline of pollinator species due to habitat loss and pesticide use over recent decades has been a global concern. Pollinators like bees and butterflies support both wild plants and agricultural food production, but many ...
Phys.org / Kīlauea's swelling summit helps scientists forecast lava fountain eruptions
Episodic lava fountaining is a rare volcanic behavior in which repeated, hours-long bursts of molten lava and gas are spewed from volcanic vents, with quiet pauses lasting days to weeks between episodes. These lava fountains ...
Phys.org / Light beam 'swims' upstream through a quantum fluid by violating Newton's third law
Just as a leaf drifts along with a stream, objects in other moving fluids normally drift along with the flow. That is, unless they exert energy to move against it. Although it may be less intuitive, light waves or photons ...
Phys.org / Elusive builders of nearly perfect hexagonal tunnel fossils were probably small crustaceans—not worms
For more than 170 years, paleontologists have been trying to solve the mystery of what created the strangely uniform hexagonal tunnels found in fossils. In a new study published in Earth Science Reviews, a team of researchers ...
Phys.org / Discovery of CRISPR's long lost ancestor may expand gene-editing toolkit
CRISPR may be a powerful technology for gene editing, but the system existed in bacteria long before scientists began using it. For billions of years, CRISPR has acted as a natural immune system in bacteria and other microbes, ...
Phys.org / Deep-sea hydrothermal vents may be a hot spot for pregnant Antarctic krill
Antarctic krill are tiny shrimp-like creatures that were previously thought to mostly inhabit the upper layer of the Southern Ocean. Although they had occasionally been observed at deeper levels, they were never seen near ...
