Phys.org news
Phys.org / Snakes on trains: King cobras are 'hopping railways' to unsuitable habitats in India
King cobras are the world's longest venomous snakes. So, imagine seeing one a few feet away as you embark on a train in India. The Western Ghats King Cobra (Ophiophagus kaalinga)—a vulnerable king cobra species found in ...
Phys.org / Why are Tatooine planets rare? General relativity explains why binary star systems rarely host planets
Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.
Phys.org / Lab study suggests longer waves fracture floating ice sheets at lower stress
When waves are moving across ice-covered seas, they can cause sheets of ice to bend and ultimately break. Understanding the processes underlying these wave-induced ice fractures and predicting when they will occur could help ...
Phys.org / Spider spinneret evolution: How a genome duplication event 438 million years ago set the stage
Scientists have uncovered a 400-million-year-old genetic secret that gave spiders the ability to produce silk and weave their webs. Spiders didn't begin their journey on Earth in the same way as they are known today. Arthropods ...
Phys.org / Puzzling slow radio pulses are coming from space. A new study could finally explain them
Cosmic radio pulses repeating every few minutes or hours, known as long-period transients, have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in 2022. Our new study, published in Nature Astronomy today, might finally add some ...
Phys.org / How a broken DNA repair tool accelerates aging
Although DNA is tightly packed and protected within the cell nucleus, it is constantly threatened by damage from normal metabolic processes or external stressors such as radiation or chemical substances. To counteract this, ...
Phys.org / NASA delays the first Artemis moonshot with astronauts because of extreme cold at the launch site
NASA has delayed astronauts' upcoming trip to the moon because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site.
Phys.org / Record-breaking photons at telecom wavelengths—on demand
A team of researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg led by Prof. Stefanie Barz (University of Stuttgart) has demonstrated a source of single photons that combines on-demand ...
Phys.org / Tropical peatlands are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, research reveals
Using a new method to track groundwater levels and greenhouse gas emissions, researchers uncover the climate impact of Southeast Asia's peatlands. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and other parts of Southeast Asia, vast areas spanning ...
Phys.org / Scientists teach microorganisms to build molecules with light
Researchers are continually looking for new ways to hack the cellular machinery of microbes like yeast and bacteria to make products that are useful for humans and society. In a new proof-of-concept study, a team from the ...
Phys.org / Quantum mechanical effects help overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy
Researchers from Regensburg and Birmingham have overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy. With the help of quantum mechanical effects, they succeeded for the first time in performing optical measurements with ...
Phys.org / Beyond the eye of the beholder: Mathematically defining attributes essential to color perception
Research on the perception of color differences is helping resolve a century-old understanding of color developed by Erwin Schrödinger. Los Alamos scientist Roxana Bujack led a team that used geometry to mathematically define ...
