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Krystal Kasal

Krystal Kasal

Author

Krystal is a freelance science and technical writer with a Master's degree in physics from Washington State University. She has been doing freelance work for the last five years, with experience in clinical research and writing educational physics content. She enjoys writing about science, nature, health, and anything a little bit out of the ordinary.

Articles by Krystal Kasal

Phys.org / Rare intersex spider among new species discovered in Thailand

A new species of spider was recently discovered near a forested area in Nong Rong, Phanom Thuan, Kanchanaburi, in western Thailand. The spiders were presented to researchers at the Chulalongkorn University Museum of Natural ...

Oct 7, 2025
Tech Xplore / 'FlyingToolbox' drone system achieves accurate mid-air tool exchange despite airflow interference

Flying manipulator robots have shown themselves to be useful in many applications, such as industrial maintenance or construction. Their utility in hard to reach or hazardous locations makes them particularly promising in ...

Oct 6, 2025
Medical Xpress / Scientists identify a new dendritic nanotubular network in the brain that may contribute to Alzheimer's disease

Neurons in the brain communicate with each other through synapses—connection points that allow the passage of electrical and chemical signals. In non-neuronal cells, direct cell-to-cell connections have been found to occur ...

Oct 5, 2025
Phys.org / Bearded Vulture nests found to have hoards of cultural artifacts—some up to 650 years old

Many people have probably seen birds picking up small pieces of man-made materials, like strips of a plastic bag or paper litter, and taking them into their nest. This behavior appears to be fairly widespread among birds. ...

Oct 2, 2025
Phys.org / Infrared data from the James Webb Telescope reveals more structural details of M87's black hole jet

Scientists have long been aware of the massive elliptical galaxy, M87. The galaxy was first observed in the late 18th century by Charles Messier, who cataloged objects in the sky specifically to avoid them when looking for ...

Oct 1, 2025
Phys.org / Microlightning might provide long-sought explanation for will-o'-the-wisps

For centuries, people have described strange blue balls of light floating around in marshes, wetlands, and even cemeteries. It's no surprise that these mysterious flames, termed "will-o'-the-wisps" or ignis fatuus, have spurred ...

Sep 30, 2025
Phys.org / Scientists discover 63 new young asteroid families—more than doubling the previous number

Young asteroids—which formed much later than those that were created during the formation of our solar system—are typically created when larger asteroids, planetesimals, or comets collide and break up into smaller pieces. ...

Sep 29, 2025
Phys.org / Termite observations reveal their sophisticated technique to prevent contamination in fungal crop

Some species of termites are known to cultivate their own crops of fungus within their nests, similar to the way humans maintain farms to feed people. One such species is Odontotermes obesus, which cultivates the fungus Termitomyces. ...

Sep 26, 2025
Phys.org / Guts of endangered Indus River dolphins found to be inundated with microplastics

Microplastics are a growing problem worldwide. They disrupt ecosystems and contribute to adverse effects, like metabolic disorders, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and developmental toxicity in the bodies of various organisms ...

Sep 25, 2025
Phys.org / Mysterious moon rust explained by oxygen coming from Earth's 'wind'

In 2020, scientists reported the detection of hematite, an iron oxide mineral otherwise known as rust, distributed through the higher latitudes of the moon, particularly on the nearside. This came as a surprise, considering ...

Sep 24, 2025
Phys.org / Pianists' subtle finger movements influence variations in timbre, according to new study

While it is known that auditory characteristics like loudness and tempo are associated with the physical movements of musicians, more subtle features, like timbre (also known as the "tone color" or tonal quality), are not ...

Sep 23, 2025
Phys.org / New, improved 3,000-qubit neutral atom array system reloads atoms continuously for more than two hours

The neutral atom array architecture for quantum computing has been rapidly advancing over the last several years, and a recent study published in Nature has just revealed another step forward for this technology. The team ...

Sep 22, 2025
Tech Xplore / Bird-like robot with novel wing system achieves self-takeoff and low-speed flight

In 2021, a group of scientists from China engineered the RoboFalcon—a bird-inspired flapping-wing robot with a newly engineered mechanism made to drive bat-style morphing wings capable of flight. While this bio-inspired robot ...

Sep 19, 2025
Phys.org / Jaguar swims over a kilometer, showing dams are not absolute barriers to large carnivores

Scientists in Brazil recently recorded evidence that a jaguar visited an isolated island in the reservoir area of the Serra da Mesa Hydroelectric Power Dam in northern Goiás State. The same jaguar had been identified on the ...

Sep 18, 2025
Phys.org / New evidence points to two distinct Australian tektite groups with different origins

Throughout the planet, there are only a handful of known tektite strewn fields, which are large swaths of land where natural glass (tektite) was strewn about after forming from terrestrial material and being ejected from ...

Sep 17, 2025