Phys.org news
Phys.org / There may be 3 times more insect species than previously thought
A new estimate of insect species globally finds that there may be 8 million to 14 million more species than people thought, with few of them discovered.
Phys.org / Table sugar could hold a cheaper, quicker key to making vital drugs
Pioneering research has developed a new way of creating carbohydrate-based medicines that could ultimately replace costly drugs for common health conditions, using two cheap basic ingredients—table sugar and vinegar.
Phys.org / Decline in plankton across Northeast Atlantic sends stark warning for ocean health
Microscopic plankton are among the most important organisms on Earth. Phytoplankton produce around half of the oxygen we breathe, while plankton as a whole underpin marine food webs, support fisheries, help regulate carbon ...
Phys.org / Urban growth may slow by 2100, leaving big cities smaller than expected
The world is urbanizing fast. In 1975, about 11% of the global population lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. "Today, we estimate that share to be about 24%," says Andrea Musso, junior fellow at the Complexity ...
Phys.org / New cellular model for rare and deadly melanomas enables study of immunotherapy resistance
A research team at the University of Turku in Finland has developed a reliable laboratory model to study BAP1-deficient melanomas, which are a rare type of melanoma that evade the immune system once they have metastasized ...
Phys.org / Toward experiment-guided AlphaFold: Researchers overcome AI tool's single-conformation limitation
The AI-based program AlphaFold predicts a protein's 3D structure with remarkable accuracy. However, it tends to reduce heterogeneous structures to a single dominant conformation, or shape, and overlooks experimental conditions ...
Phys.org / When mitochondria grow abnormally long, leaked RNA may activate anti-tumor immune responses
Researchers from the University of Osaka have demonstrated that mitochondrial hyperfusion, when induced by low levels of DRP1 or cellular stress, activates an immune response through the RIG-I–MAVS pathway. Dependent on the ...
Phys.org / Cyclic sealing and drainage on the Gofar Oceanic Transform Fault revealed
Oceanic transform faults are strike-slip boundaries—faults that move horizontally rather than up and down and connect offset mid-ocean ridge segments. They have long been regarded as simple "conservative" plate boundaries ...
Phys.org / Deep-sea extremophile yields protein that forms super stable biofilm
Scientists discovered a protein secreted by a deep-sea extremophile—an organism adapted to extreme environmental conditions—that self-assembles into a biofilm and is highly stable, boosting its potential for biomedical applications.
Phys.org / Spiders benefit from seemingly monotonous forests
In ecology, the principle holds that the more diverse and heterogeneous a habitat is, the more different species it supports. To promote species diversity in forests, clearings are therefore created for nature conservation ...
Phys.org / This tiny organism contracts 200 times faster than we can blink—here's how
A tiny, aquatic, single-celled organism can contract to one-quarter of its body length in less than 5 milliseconds—hundreds of times faster than a human can blink. Researchers have discovered that the organism, Spirostomum ...
Phys.org / Nova V612 Scuti's light curve becomes audio, revealing how stellar shocks evolved
Researchers in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Texas Tech University recently used audio to represent the spectacular explosion of a star in deep space while also delving into the data to better understand how the ...
