Phys.org news
Phys.org / Invasive termites threatening homes in Florida are spreading farther than predicted
Florida's coastal and urban counties continue to see the spread of two invasive termite species beyond South Florida. The species are now threatening structures statewide, according to a new University of Florida study.
Phys.org / Capturing gravity waves: Scientists break 'decades of gridlock' in climate modeling
Global climate models capture many of the processes that shape Earth's weather and climate. Based on physics, chemistry, fluid motion and observed data, hundreds of these models agree that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ...
Phys.org / Rare 'universal paralog' genes may reveal a pre-LUCA evolutionary record
All life on Earth shares a common ancestor that lived roughly four billion years ago. This so-called "last universal common ancestor" (LUCA) represents the most ancient organism that researchers can study. Previous research ...
Phys.org / The compleximer: New type of plastic mixes glass-like shaping with impact resistance
Researchers at Wageningen University & Research have developed a new type of plastic that, according to materials theory, should not be able to exist. Its properties sit somewhere between those of glass and plastic: it is ...
Phys.org / Global map catalogs 459 rare continental mantle earthquakes since 1990
Stanford researchers have created the first-ever global map of a rare earthquake type that occurs not in Earth's crust but in our planet's mantle, the layer sandwiched between the thin crust and Earth's molten core. The new ...
Phys.org / DNA provides a solution to our enormous data storage problem
Since the dawn of the computer age, researchers have wrestled with two persistent challenges: how to store ever-increasing reams of data and how to protect that information from unintended access. Now, researchers with Arizona ...
Phys.org / MXenes for energy storage: More versatile than expected
MXene materials are promising candidates for a new energy storage technology. However, the processes by which the charge storage takes place were not yet fully understood. A team at HZB has examined, for the first time, individual ...
Phys.org / Surgery for quantum bits: Bit-flip errors corrected during superconducting qubit operations
Quantum computers hold great promise for exciting applications in the future, but for now they keep presenting physicists and engineers with a series of challenges and conundrums. One of them relates to decoherence and the ...
Phys.org / Faster enzyme screening could cut biocatalysis bottlenecks in drug development
A team of biochemists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has developed a faster way to identify molecules in the lab that could lead to more effective pharmaceuticals. The discovery advances the rapidly growing ...
Phys.org / Seeds 'listen' to mom: Study finds mother plants send ABA hormone signals that set seed dormancy
Whatever challenges life throws, mothers often know best as they guide offspring through the risky stages of early development. This scenario, familiar when applied to humans, turns out to be true for plants too, according ...
Phys.org / Skua deaths mark first wildlife die-off due to avian flu on Antarctica
More than 50 skuas in Antarctica died from the high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5N1 in the summers of 2023 and 2024, marking the first documented die-off of wildlife from the virus on the continent. That is confirmed ...
Phys.org / Listening to polymers collapse: 'Water bridges' pull the strings
It is not easy to follow the interactions of large molecules with water in real time. But this can be easier to hear than to see. This is how an international team deciphered the role of water in the collapse of PNIPAM.
