Phys.org news
Phys.org / Reading the enemy: How genome science is reshaping the fight against wheat stem rust
In 2013, farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia began to notice something unsettling: a familiar variety of wheat was failing in an unfamiliar way. Stems weakened, plants collapsed, and fields that had once held firm against ...
Phys.org / Plant hormone therapy could improve global food security by balancing growth with immunity
Plants have an immune system, like people, and when it is triggered by threats like disease or pests, a plant's defenses are activated. But there's a downside to this protective mechanism: the plant's growth is suppressed ...
Phys.org / Stretchy plastics conduct electricity via tiny, whisker-like fibers
A stretchy, conductive type of plastic could help power the next generation of implantable biomedical devices, like longer-lasting pacemakers or glucose monitors, according to Enrique Gomez, professor of chemical engineering ...
Phys.org / How horses whinny: Helium tests reveal whistling while singing mechanism
A horse's whinny is an unusually distinctive mix of sounds including both high and low frequencies. Reporting in Current Biology, researchers demonstrate how horses produce high-frequency sounds that defy their large size ...
Phys.org / Courtship is complicated, even in fruit flies
Love is in the air for the vinegar fly. Drosophila melanogaster has long been a model for understanding how brains translate sensory information into courtship behavior. Male flies perform a multitude of romantic actions—orienting, ...
Phys.org / A new method reveals hidden rules of gene control
Inside every cell, thousands of molecular signals collide, overlap, and compensate, obscuring the true drivers of gene expression. Scientists have now developed a way to silence that cellular noise, revealing transcription ...
Phys.org / Quantum algorithm beats classical tools on complement sampling tasks
Quantum computers—devices that process information using quantum mechanical effects—have long been expected to outperform classical systems on certain tasks. Over the past few decades, researchers have worked to rigorously ...
Phys.org / Ant queen frozen in time: New ant species found in Dominican amber
A study by Dr. Gianpiero Fiorentino and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Paleontology, describes the identification of a new species of ant, Hypoponera electrocacica, belonging to the genus Hypoponera and representing ...
Phys.org / Quantum computers go high-dimensional with a four-state photon gate
The collaboration of TU Wien with research groups in China has resulted in a crucial building block for a new kind of quantum computer: The realization of a novel type of quantum logic gate makes it possible to carry out ...
Phys.org / Why laws named after tragedies win public support
When lawmakers name bills after victims of tragedy—such as Megan's Law or the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993—public support surges, but this emotional boost may come at the expense of sound policymaking, ...
Phys.org / Earth's mantle may have been cooler than thought before Pangea's breakup
When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the familiar geography of today ...
Phys.org / Missing geomagnetic reversals: Earth's past may be incomplete
Several studies have predicted that not all geomagnetic reversals have been discovered, but it was unknown in which periods they might be hidden. Researchers led by the National Institute of Polar Research used a statistical ...
