Phys.org news

Timing is critical in diagnosing diseases such as cancer. Researchers within The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used a historically underappreciated tiny powerhouse to detect ...

An extensive computational study by researchers from Finland's University of Jyväskylä predicts that gold nanoclusters could selectively recognize chiral biomolecules. This property may help in detecting certain diseases ...

A study led by the University of Oxford has identified a new type of planet beyond our solar system—one that stores large amounts of sulfur deep within a permanent ocean of magma. The findings have been published in Nature ...

Livestock breeders could soon have more tools to improve the health and quality of their animals, thanks to a recent study that sheds new light on regulatory elements in the sheep genome.

Heat shields are designed to protect the surface and cargo of a spacecraft as it enters an atmosphere. Aerospace engineers in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently observed ...

For decades, lab-grown cells have been studied in materials that don't reflect the softness and flexibility of human tissue. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a water-rich, Jell-O-like material ...

The genomes of phages—viruses that infect bacteria—are largely composed of "dark matter": genes that encode proteins whose functions remain unknown. Less than four years ago, a team led by Prof. Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann ...

Scientists have long observed that embryos of different species within a phylum look quite distinct at early and late developmental stages but resemble one another more during mid-embryogenesis, a phenomenon known as developmental ...

Why do widely supported solutions to major problems, such as climate change, so often struggle to gain real traction? A new study suggests that part of the answer lies in understanding why people resist change, and how the ...

A metabolic enzyme studied for over seven decades has a hidden second function—it can unwind RNA and promote cell cycle progression, an additional function beyond its role in energy production, according to a new study ...

A humpback whale alters the pitch of its song when joined by a neighboring singer, a finding that opens a new chapter in the ongoing effort to understand whale song, some of the most structurally and acoustically complex ...

Diagnosing some diseases could be as easy as breathing into a tube. MIT engineers have developed a test to detect disease-related compounds in a patient's breath. The new test could provide a faster way to diagnose pneumonia ...