Phys.org news

Phys.org / CERN's ATLAS detects evidence for decay of Higgs boson into muon–antimuon pair

Although its existence had been theorized for decades, the Higgs boson was finally observed to exist in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Since then, it has continued to be heavily studied at the LHC. Now, ...

33 minutes ago in Physics
Phys.org / A direct leap into terahertz: Dirac materials enable efficient signal conversion at room temperature

Highspeed Internet, autonomous driving, the Internet of Things: data streams are proliferating at enormous speed. But classic radio technology is reaching its limits: the higher the data rate, the faster the signals need ...

47 minutes ago in Physics
Phys.org / Pleasant-sounding words are easier to remember, pseudoword experiment shows

Which words do we find beautiful? And do beautifully sounding words stick better in memory? A new study led by linguist Theresa Matzinger from the University of Vienna suggests that the phonemic composition of words influences ...

31 minutes ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / New study challenges the idea of humans as innately nature-loving

Nature is a source of well-being and recovery for many people. However, research shows that there is also a growing number of individuals who experience negative emotions, such as fear, discomfort, or even disgust, toward ...

41 minutes ago in Earth
Phys.org / Cleaner rayon fiber production cuts solvent use by up to 70%

A UBC research team has developed a cleaner way to produce rayon, a popular fabric used in clothing for more than a century. The process could significantly reduce chemical use and improve sustainability in textile manufacturing.

13 minutes ago in Chemistry
Phys.org / New molecular view of cholera 'tail' could inform better treatment

Cholera is a deadly bacterial disease that kills about 95,000 people every year. Vibrio cholerae bacteria infect cells in the small intestine, which the bacteria can do in part due to their flagella—powerful tail-like structures ...

23 minutes ago in Biology
Phys.org / Ancient quakes along 150-mile fault system in Nepal revealed

A common misconception about research is that it takes place in climate-controlled labs with microscopes, beakers, and Bunsen burners. While that is true for many fields, obtaining geoscience data can demand fieldwork in ...

44 minutes ago in Earth
Phys.org / How volcanic eruptions set off a chain of events that brought the Black Death to Europe

Clues contained in tree rings have identified mid-14th-century volcanic activity as the first domino to fall in a sequence that led to the devastation of the Black Death in Europe.

43 minutes ago in Earth
Phys.org / Earlier ultra-relativistic freeze-out could revive a decades-old theory for dark matter

A new theory for the origins of dark matter suggests that fast-moving, neutrino-like dark particles could have decoupled from Standard Model particles far earlier than previous theories had suggested.

2 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / A solid-state quantum processor based on nuclear spins

Quantum computers, systems that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential of outperforming classical systems on some tasks. Instead of storing information as bits, like classical computers, ...

2 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Glaciers speed up and slow down at predictable times according to the first global map of ice movement

The speed at which glaciers move changes predictably each year, according to the first-ever global map of how glacier and ice sheet speeds vary with the seasons. Knowing this yearly rhythm could help us better predict sea-level ...

1 hour ago in Earth
Phys.org / Archaic humans were strategic and picky hunters, new study suggests

Extinct relatives of modern humans, like Neanderthals and Homo erectus, that lived in the Levant around 120,000 years ago, did not engage in mass hunting but preferred selective and strategic hunting of wild cattle. Scientists ...

4 hours ago in Other Sciences