Phys.org news
Phys.org / Extreme engineering: Unlocking design secrets of deep-sea microbes
The microbe Pyrodictium abyssi is an archaeon—a member of what's known as the third domain of life—and an extremophile. It lives in deep-sea thermal vents, at temperatures above the boiling point of water, without light ...
Phys.org / AI can dramatically speed up digitizing natural history collections
A new study from UNC-Chapel Hill researchers shows that advanced artificial intelligence tools, specifically large language models (LLMs), can accurately determine the locations where plant specimens were originally collected, ...
Phys.org / Free radicals caught in the act with slow spectroscopy
Why does plastic turn brittle and paint fade when exposed to the sun for long periods? Scientists have long known that such organic photodegradation occurs due to the sun's energy generating free radicals: molecules that ...
Phys.org / Human-cat friendship started much later than you think
A research team led by Professor Luo Shujin from the School of Life Sciences has uncovered a surprising chapter in the history of cats in China. Through ancient DNA sequencing of feline remains spanning more than 5,000 years, ...
Phys.org / Copper-64 isotope made easier: Recoil chemistry could lower medical imaging costs
The copper isotope Cu-64 plays an important role in medicine: It is used in imaging processes and also shows potential for cancer therapy. However, it does not occur naturally and must be produced artificially—a complex ...
Phys.org / Subnational income inequality revealed: Regional successes may hold key to addressing widening gap globally
Income inequality is one of the most important measures of economic health, social justice and quality of life. More reliably trackable than wealth inequality, which was recently given a gloomy report card by the G20, income ...
Phys.org / Microplastics in oceans may distort carbon cycle understanding
The carbon cycle in our oceans is critical to the balance of life in ocean waters and for reducing carbon in the atmosphere, a significant process to curbing climate change or global warming.
Phys.org / X-ray spikes reveal electron beam size
While synchrotron radiation is often thought of as "stable," the electromagnetic field exhibits pronounced randomly fluctuating distributions both temporally and spatially. These fluctuations encode spatial information about ...
Phys.org / Social justice must guide global ecosystem restoration for lasting success, say researchers
Social justice must be at the heart of global restoration initiatives—and not "superficial" or "tokenistic"—if ecosystem degradation is to be addressed effectively, according to new research.
Phys.org / Physicists provide key mass data for determining X-ray burst reaction rate
A research team from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has directly measured the masses of two highly unstable atomic nuclei, phosphorus-26 and sulfur-27. These precise measurements ...
Phys.org / Visual system of butterflies changes with seasons, research reveals
The shift from warm summer to cool fall conditions can be stressful for many animals. Surviving each season requires a multitude of different physiological and behavioral traits that scientists are still working to understand.
Phys.org / Yeast cell factory converts methanol into L-lactate for biodegradable plastics
Methanol is an ideal feedstock for bio-manufacturing. Converting it into lactate, a monomer for biodegradable plastic, offers a promising strategy for addressing the challenge of white pollution. However, it remains difficult ...
