Phys.org news
Phys.org / Bird guano powered rise of Chincha Kingdom in Peruvian Andes, archaeologists find
New archaeological evidence reveals that seabird guano—nutrient-rich bird droppings—was not only essential to boosting corn yields and supercharging agriculture in ancient Peru, but it may have been a driving force behind ...
Phys.org / Strike against mask wearing in 1930s echoed COVID-19 protests, study finds
New research from The University of Manchester has shown that debates and resistance about wearing face masks go back a lot further than the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Meng Zhang, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University's ...
Phys.org / Twilight fish study reveals unique hybrid eye cells
Researchers have identified a new type of visual cell in deep-sea fish larvae that challenges a century of knowledge about vertebrate visual systems. Dr. Fabio Cortesi from The University of Queensland's School of the Environment ...
Phys.org / A new way to 'cage' plutonium
Plutonium (Pu) exhibits one of the most diverse and complex chemistries of any element in the periodic table. Since its discovery in 1940, scientists have synthesized and studied many different types of plutonium-containing ...
Phys.org / Widespread loss of marine sponges possible if heat waves intensify by just 1°C
New research shows the effects of marine heat waves on sponges could be much more severe as temperatures rise. More intense marine heat waves as a result of climate change could lead to the mass loss of a sponge species found ...
Phys.org / Southern right whales are facing climate-driven decline in Australia
The tide has turned on the conservation success story of the southern right whale. Once considered a global conservation success story, the species is now emerging as a warning signal of how climate change is impacting threatened ...
Phys.org / Tiny marine animal reveals bacterial origin of animal defense mechanisms
Marine animals, such as the extremely simple flatworm Trichoplax, are ideal model organisms for studying the early evolutionary origins of animal life processes. Despite measuring only a few millimeters and lacking true organs ...
Phys.org / Flipping and reversing mini-proteins could improve tuberculosis treatment
Antibiotic treatments are losing effectiveness against a range of common bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella and Acinetobacter, according to a warning issued by the World Health Organization ...
Phys.org / Root microbes could help oak trees adapt to drought
Microbes could help oak trees cope with environmental change. Publishing in Cell Host & Microbe, a study observing oaks growing in a natural woodland found that the trees' above- and below-ground microbiomes were resilient ...
Phys.org / Keeping an eagle eye on carbon stored in the ocean
Geologic reservoirs that trapped petroleum for millions of years are now being repurposed to store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. New research is improving how we monitor this storage and verify how much CO2 these reservoirs ...
Dialog / Old galaxies in a young universe?
The standard cosmological model (present-day version of "Big Bang," called Lambda-CDM) gives an age of the universe close to 13.8 billion years and much younger when we explore the universe at high-redshift. The redshift ...
Phys.org / Football-sized fossil creature may have been one of the first land animals to eat plants
Life on Earth started in the oceans. Sometime around 475 million years ago, plants began making their way from the water onto the land, and it took another 100 million years for the first animals with backbones to join them. ...
