Phys.org news
Phys.org / Fifteen years of data link plastic pollution to seabird population losses
Every year, about 50 million metric tons of plastic is dumped into the environment. This waste entangles, chokes and poisons wildlife worldwide, including sable shearwaters living on the remote Australian island of Lord Howe. ...
Phys.org / Building real-time control for engineered biological systems
Scientists can engineer living cells to perform useful tasks, from producing medicines and sustainable chemicals to detecting disease. Unlike traditional engineered systems, living cells are constantly changing as they grow, ...
Phys.org / Deep-learning approach rapidly predicts where metals bind within proteins
In the living world, roughly a third of all proteins we know rely on metals to function. Zinc helps enzymes break down molecules, iron helps carry oxygen in the blood, calcium helps relay signals in cells and potassium flows ...
Phys.org / How only a few tree species drive Amazon forest recovery
When a destroyed section of the Amazon rainforest begins to recover, nature deploys only a few tree species that can withstand poor soil conditions and blazing sun and grow rapidly, a Brazilian study has shown.
Phys.org / An African bat overlooked for two centuries is confirmed in Europe
An African bat whose presence in Sicily had remained an unresolved zoological mystery for almost two centuries has now been documented on Pantelleria Island. A study published in Global Ecology and Conservation reports the ...
Phys.org / Each degree of warming could add a month of intolerable heat for 1 billion people
The threat that rising temperatures fueled by climate change pose to the health of older people has been dramatically underestimated, according to a U.S. modeling study published Tuesday.
Phys.org / AI and 8 million digitized plant specimens reveal how the climate is changing nature in large parts of the world
AI optimists will be encouraged by a recent report on the state of the world's plants and fungi by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Phys.org / Yellowstone's past droughts may signal less geyser activity and more wildfires
A study led by a Montana State University research professor reveals how climate and hydrothermal activity have shaped the vegetation, wildfire and aquatic ecosystem histories of the Yellowstone Plateau over the past 15,000 ...
Phys.org / Fiber-optic cable reveals hidden crevasses that could destabilize glaciers
In recent years, the Alps have experienced devastating glacier collapses: In September 2023, a section of the Marmolada glacier in the Dolomites collapsed, resulting in the deaths of seven mountaineers. Just over a year and ...
Phys.org / Five new wasp species discovered in Cyprus, including one named after Aphrodite
Scientists have described five new species of parasitoid wasps from Cyprus, more than doubling the number of chalcid wasps known to be found nowhere else on the island. The wasps, all belonging to the family Pteromalidae, ...
Phys.org / Sound-based traps reveal how fragile biomolecular droplets move, merge and change stiffness
Being able to measure something plays a vital role in our ability to understand many phenomena. But measuring can often affect what we are trying to measure. This is particularly the case when measuring substances that are ...
Phys.org / End-to-end design creates two low-cost materials to capture methane
Developing new materials to tackle pressing global issues is a gap-filled process that can leave potential climate solutions lost in unread academic papers and forgotten dissertations.
