Phys.org news

Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, U.S. weather officials announced.

Nepalese craftsman, Chandra Bahadur Dangi, holds the record as the world's shortest adult, at 54.6 cm (1 ft 9 ½ inches). The tallest human is Sultan Kösen, a Turkish farmer, almost five times taller at 2.52 meters (8 feet ...

Boeing's astronaut capsule is grounded for months and possibly even until next year because of a vexing valve problem.

For years, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have engineered metasurfaces to manipulate light based on its polarization state. That research has contributed to advances ...

While some types of RNA viruses cloak themselves to hide inside a cell and create copies of themselves, a "detective enzyme" might be attuned to their whereabouts. A slight variation in their genomic code gives some people's ...

In order to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050, farmers need to grow 50% more food on a limited amount of arable land. As a result, plant scientists are in a race against time to engineer crops with higher yields by ...

Boeing's troubled Starliner spaceship could be set for further delays after the company said Thursday it was working to solve problems with the propulsion system.

Treating corals with a probiotic cocktail of beneficial bacteria increases survival after a bleaching event, according to new research. This approach could be administered in advance of a predicted heat wave to help corals ...

To synthesize plastic, small monomer molecules need to be strung together like beads in a necklace, creating long polymer chains.

Quantum engineers from UNSW Sydney have removed a major obstacle that has stood in the way of quantum computers becoming a reality. They discovered a new technique they say will be capable of controlling millions of spin ...

When you're frying something in a skillet and some droplets of water fall into the pan, you may have noticed those droplets skittering around on top of the film of hot oil. Now, that seemingly trivial phenomenon has been ...

Some proteins in cells can separate into small droplets like oil droplets in water, but faults in this process may underlie neurodegenerative diseases in the brains of older people. Now, Rutgers researchers have developed ...