Phys.org news
Phys.org / 'Dead stars' may have surprisingly healthy appetites
"Dead stars" known as white dwarfs have already shown the potential to help us better understand how planetary systems, including our own solar system, take shape and evolve. Now, research from the University of Michigan ...
Phys.org / AI tools for predicting protein folding produce chemically impossible structures and need human oversight
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have found that today's leading artificial intelligence tools for predicting protein structures routinely generate results that are physically and chemically impossible, ...
Phys.org / How changing environments can preserve an ancient microbial survival strategy
A research group led by Tetsuhiro Hatakeyama from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Institute of Science Tokyo has revealed how a seemingly self-destructive survival strategy could persist in yeast for hundreds ...
Phys.org / Trimming rice genes boosts yields up to 25% and improves drought tolerance
The way to make a plant grow more may be to take something away. Trimming a section off a plant gene raised rice harvests by up to 25% in new tests by University of Chicago scientists. The plants also showed a better tolerance ...
Phys.org / Research cautions that sometimes working together can actually spur inequality
Encouraging people to contribute to a common good can have a surprising drawback: a risk that rewards become concentrated among a smaller group, putting the rest at a disadvantage. Put more simply, "equality and cooperation ...
Phys.org / Burning soil and peat drove most emissions in Canada's record 2023 wildfire season, study finds
Most of the carbon released during Canada's record-breaking 2023 wildfire season came from burning soil and peat, rather than trees, according to new research from McMaster University.
Phys.org / Saber-toothed cats' spinal tumors suggest inbred species struggled to survive
The fossilized spines of saber-toothed cats in the La Brea Tar Pits reveal evidence of an unexpectedly high prevalence of rare spinal nerve tumors, suggesting that the species became inbred just before extinction. These tumors, ...
Phys.org / Christmas in July: Engineers capture gigapixel 3D video of snowflakes
For the first time, researchers can witness nanometer-scale thickness changes across a melting snowflake with a compact, lensless chip that captures gigapixel video at 30 frames per second across centimeter-scale fields.
Phys.org / Invasive species hit the Global South significantly harder than previously assumed
Invasive alien species are among the world's leading drivers of species extinction. However, previous global assessments of the geographic distribution of this damage suffered from a systematic "research bias": Because significantly ...
Phys.org / Biodegradable implant can deliver targeted cancer immunotherapy while protecting healthy tissue
Scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute have developed a biodegradable implant designed to deliver cancer-fighting immunotherapy drugs directly into tumors over an extended period, a strategy that could improve ...
Phys.org / Light reveals transient electronic step behind a hidden state in metal-organic framework
A fleeting photoinduced electronic state and the subsequent formation of a photoinduced hidden state in a metal–organic framework were captured in just 30 femtoseconds by researchers at Science Tokyo, Tohoku University and ...
Phys.org / First 3D views explain how primate cone pigments distinguish red from green
Human color vision depends on three types of cone cells in the retina. Although all three contain the same light-absorbing molecule, 11-cis-retinal, differences in the surrounding protein determine sensitivity to red, green ...
