Phys.org news

Phys.org / First 'Bible map' published 500 years ago still influences how we think about borders, study suggests

The first Bible to feature a map of the Holy Land was published 500 years ago in 1525. The map was initially printed the wrong way round—showing the Mediterranean to the East—but its inclusion set a precedent which continues ...

7 hours ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Archaeologists discover solitary grave from ancient Kingdom of Kerma in remote Bayuda Desert

Dr. Monika Badura and her colleagues have published a study analyzing an isolated burial found in the Bayuda Desert in the journal Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. The discovery, made at site BP937 in Sudan, has ...

15 hours ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Domestic cats came from North Africa to Europe only 2,000 years ago, DNA evidence suggests

Despite the ubiquity of cats in modern homes, we still don't know many details about the timing and routes of early cat domestication and dispersal into Europe and beyond, aside from the common association of cats with ancient ...

14 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / New universal law predicts how most objects shatter, from dropped bottles to exploding bubbles

When a plate drops or a glass smashes, you're annoyed by the mess and the cost of replacing them. But for some physicists, the broken pieces are a source of fascination: Why does everything break into such a huge variety ...

16 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Google Quantum AI realizes three dynamic surface code implementations

Quantum computers are computing systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects. These computers rely on qubits (i.e., the quantum equivalent of bits), which can store information in a mixture of states, ...

17 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Quantum sensor based on silicon carbide qubits operates at room temperature

Over the past decades, physicists and quantum engineers introduced a wide range of systems that perform desired functions leveraging quantum mechanical effects. These include so-called quantum sensors, devices that rely on ...

19 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations

The Pecos River murals are a stunning collection of monumental, multicolored rock paintings in limestone rock shelters across southwest Texas and northern Mexico. They depict human-like figures that reach up to eight meters ...

20 hours ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Tiny reconfigurable robots can help manage carbon dioxide levels in confined spaces

Vehicles and buildings designed to enable survival in extreme environments, such as spacecraft, submarines and sealed shelters, heavily rely on systems for the management of carbon dioxide (CO2). These are technologies that ...

17 hours ago in Nanotechnology
Phys.org / Rare high-resolution observations of a flare-prolific solar active region

Scientists have captured an exceptionally rare, high-resolution view of an active region that produced two powerful X-class solar flares—an achievement rarely possible from Earth. Using the GREGOR solar telescope in Tenerife, ...

13 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Africa's forests have switched from absorbing to emitting carbon, new study finds

New research warns that Africa's forests, once vital allies in the fight against climate change, have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source.

21 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Dark matter-dark energy interaction shapes cosmic halo spin and alignment, simulations show

A cosmological simulation study by researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has systematically revealed, for the first time, how the interaction between dark matter and dark ...

13 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / Finding information in the randomness of living matter

When describing collective properties of macroscopic physical systems, microscopic fluctuations are typically averaged out, leaving a description of the typical behavior of the systems. While this simplification has its advantages, ...

13 hours ago in Physics