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Phys.org / Obstacle or accelerator? How imperfections affect material strength
Imagine a material cracking—now imagine what happens if there are small inclusions in the material. Do they create an obstacle course for the crack to navigate, slowing it down? Or do they act as weak points, helping the ...
Phys.org / AI tool observes solar active regions to advance warnings of space weather
New research by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF-NCAR) has developed a new tool providing a first step toward the ability to forecast ...
Phys.org / Archaeologists identify elders in Iron Age Israel through household artifacts
A new study from Bar-Ilan University is shedding light on a long-overlooked social group in archaeology: the elderly. While research on women and children has flourished in recent decades, older adults have remained largely ...
Phys.org / Ancient cone-shaped vessels may have served as beeswax lamps during ritual processions, study finds
Chalcolithic cornets are conical ceramic vessels produced exclusively during the Chalcolithic period, recovered in abundance at some archaeological sites but absent at others. Their function has long been debated. However, ...
Phys.org / 'Boomerang' earthquake simulations suggest ricocheting ruptures may be more common than previously thought
An earthquake typically sets off ruptures that ripple out from its underground origins. But on rare occasions, seismologists have observed quakes that reverse course, further shaking up areas that they passed through only ...
Phys.org / Flickering glacial climate may have shaped early human evolution
Researchers have identified a "tipping point" about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the Northern ...
Phys.org / Novel bacteria discovered in Florida's stranded pygmy sperm whales
Pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) are among the ocean's most enigmatic inhabitants—rarely seen and largely unstudied. They live far offshore in small groups, diving in search of squid and fish. Their quiet behavior and ...
Medical Xpress / Scientists find a mechanism showing how exercise protects the brain
Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a mechanism that could explain how exercise improves cognition by shoring up the brain's protective barrier. With age, the network of blood vessels—called the blood–brain ...
Phys.org / Machine learning helps solve a central problem of quantum chemistry
By applying new methods of machine learning to quantum chemistry research, Heidelberg University scientists have made significant strides in computational chemistry. They have achieved a major breakthrough toward solving ...
Tech Xplore / New perspective charts path to next-generation water and energy membranes
When you turn on a faucet, charge an electric vehicle or use products made with clean hydrogen, you may not realize that membranes—ultrathin films perforated with pores too small to see—make these modern processes possible. ...
Medical Xpress / How blast waves can damage the brain without a head injury
An explosion does not need to strike the head to injure the brain. When a blast occurs, it generates a sudden pressure wave that can pass through the body and skull in milliseconds, potentially deforming brain tissue and ...
Tech Xplore / Exposing biases, moods, personalities and abstract concepts hidden in large language models
By now, ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models have accumulated so much human knowledge that they're far from simple answer-generators; they can also express abstract concepts, such as certain tones, personalities, ...