Phys.org news
Phys.org / AI-driven dialogue analysis confirms popular movies have grown more violent over the past 70 years
Movies often reflect the predominant societal and cultural values at the time they were shot. These values can be expressed in various elements of a film, including the interactions between characters, their communication ...
Phys.org / Heavy metal toxicity found in Chinese port poses risk to seafood safety
Heavy metals naturally occur in the Earth's crust, but human activities can increase their concentration in the environment, including domestic sewage and waste disposal, fumes from vehicle exhausts, fertilizer runoff, mining ...
Phys.org / Genetic study sheds light on changes that shaped human brain evolution
A new Yale study provides a fuller picture of the genetic changes that shaped the evolution of the human brain, and how the process differed from the evolution of chimpanzees.
Phys.org / New DNA research examines predecessors of Red Lady of El Mirón
About 19,000 years ago, a woman from a group of hunter-gatherers died and was buried in a cave in northern Spain. In 1996, archaeologists started exploring the cave, finding abundant evidence of prehistoric people and their ...
Phys.org / Genetic study shows London's underground mosquitoes evolved from Egyptian species
A large international team of researchers has discovered that the mosquitoes that live in London's underground subway evolved from a Middle Eastern species over thousands of years. In their paper posted on the bioRxiv preprint ...
Phys.org / Soft tissue of a plesiosaur reveals it had scales similar to those of sea turtles
A small team of archaeologists, geologists, paleontologists and climate scientists has found that at least one type of plesiosaur had scales on its flippers similar to modern sea turtle species. For their study, published ...
Phys.org / The spliceosome: An atomic-level look into how cells avoid errors when manufacturing mRNA
A complex molecular machine, the spliceosome, ensures that the genetic information from the genome, after being transcribed into mRNA precursors, is correctly assembled into mature mRNA. Splicing is a basic requirement for ...
Phys.org / International collaboration sheds new light on the relationship between quantum theory and thermodynamics
Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan and the Slovak Academy of Sciences have unveiled new insights into the interplay between quantum theory and thermodynamics. The team demonstrated that while quantum theory does ...
Phys.org / Some species of baleen whales may avoid attracting killer whales by singing too low to be heard
Killer whales are the only natural predator of baleen whales—those that have "baleen" in their mouths to sieve their plankton diet from the water. More solitary than toothed whales, baleen whales face predatory attacks ...
Phys.org / Nerve cells optimize energy by controlling mRNA and protein distribution, study finds
Nerve cells have amazing strategies to save energy and still perform the most important of their tasks. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn as well as the University Medical Center ...
Phys.org / Total synthesis of ibogaine creates new opportunities for studying a psychoactive plant derivative
Ibogaine—a psychoactive plant derivative—has attracted attention for its anti-addictive and anti-depressant properties. But ibogaine is a finite resource, extracted from plants native to Africa like the iboga shrub (Tabernanthe ...
Phys.org / Evidence of cannibalism by ancient Magdalenian people found in cave in Poland
A team of archaeologists, paleontologists, and historians from several institutions in Spain, Germany, and Poland, has found evidence of Magdalenian people from approximately 18,000 years ago, living in a cave in what is ...