All News

Phys.org / Ultra-cold quantum sensors cut X-ray uncertainty, improving nuclear material assessments

To monitor the amount and type of nuclear material at power plants and weapons facilities, scientists look for a special signal—the unique pattern of gamma rays emitted by specific radioactive elements. However, some of these ...

11 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Regular use of eyelash extensions linked to skin mites, eye irritation and blocked glands

A study among young women who regularly have eyelash extensions has found most have tiny mites, called Demodex folliculorum, living on their lashes. These mites can cause a painful skin reaction called demodicosis.

11 hours ago
Phys.org / Psychologist wins Ig Nobel for proving rich drivers are the worst

Paul K. Piff, UC Irvine associate professor of psychology, has officially been recognized for what millions of frustrated commuters have long suspected: The fancier the car, the worse the driver.

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Cell wall transport disruption exposes weakness in antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Even highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more vulnerable when their cell wall transport system is disrupted, according to a new study from Umeå University. The discovery reveals a previously overlooked weakness that ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / Under pressure: How a deep-sea protein adapts to an extreme environment

Life in the deep sea is under immense pressure—literally. Such extreme conditions can disrupt the delicate structures of proteins essential to life. Yet somehow, the proteins in deep-sea creatures remain functional. This ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / DRC's cobalt exports contain unreported uranium—our study estimates the global nuclear risk

The southern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is known as the Copperbelt because of its rich deposits of copper and other minerals.

7 hours ago
Phys.org / Himalayan glacial lakes are growing—and so is the downstream flood risk

Dozens of glacial lakes have formed across northern India in the last three decades, while existing lakes have expanded rapidly, highlighting the need to monitor a landscape reshaped by climate change.

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Unveiling how nanoparticles create iridescence in ancient ceramics

Scientists led by the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona and the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, have revealed the chemical reactions in nanoparticles that created a unique, shimmering effect in the painting on ninth-century ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / Gondwana really was a supercontinent—and it may have helped kickstart life on Earth

Some 550 million years ago, Earth looked very different than it does today. The Southern Hemisphere was dominated by an enormous single continent known as Gondwana.

16 hours ago
Phys.org / 'CRISPR-Combo' system speeds regeneration of hard-to-breed perennial crops

Editing a plant's genes is only half the battle. Before a new, improved trait can ever reach a farmer's field, scientists must be able to grow a whole plant from just a few edited cells—a process that can be slow, unreliable ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / A fossil feather preserved inside dinosaur poop could help explain why birds survived the mass extinction

About 66 million years ago, a dinosaur—maybe a T. rex or a Nanotyrannus—ate a bird. The record of that meal, in the form of fossilized poop, has survived to today, preserving the best example of a feather ever found from ...

19 hours ago
Phys.org / An unusual bacterium that penetrates and lives inside human cells may offer a new drug target

Research underway in the lab of Rebecca Alexander, a professor in Wake Forest University's Department of Chemistry, is shedding light on an unusual human bacterium, Mycoplasma penetrans. Alexander's work to understand how ...

14 hours ago