Phys.org news

Due to artificial irrigation and rising temperatures, the concentration of salts (including sodium chloride, or "table salt") is increasing in soils worldwide. This is not only an environmental problem but also a challenge ...

The secret of how seals can hear in air and water has been revealed, thanks to pioneering research led by Natural History Museum scientists.

When extreme drought strikes, drier grasslands receive the greatest productivity benefit from biodiversity. By contrast, forests did not show the same context-dependent pattern under drought, according to a new global synthesis ...

The nucleolus is a liquid-like cellular organelle where protein factories called ribosomes are assembled. Researchers knew of three distinct compartments within the nucleolus, but how these compartments function to drive ...

Oryzias latipes, commonly known as medaka, is a small fish measuring about 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 inches) in length that exhibits highly active spawning behavior during the breeding season. Previous research by an Osaka Metropolitan ...

While particulate matter air pollution from human activity in transportation, households and industry is decreasing in Europe, thanks to strict regulations, another source is developing in the opposite direction: desert dust.

Horses know a predator when they see one—even if it's only on a video screen while they're standing in a stall, with no sounds, smells or previous experience providing context for what they're viewing, a new study suggests.

Bones preserved in underwater caves offer a rare and powerful window into the past—but until now, researchers have had limited tools to understand how the remains of extinct megafauna and other animals came to rest in their ...

Researchers at the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore have identified a key design principle for building reliable electronics from materials only one atomic layer thick, giving engineers ...

Australia's largest gliding marsupial may not be the country's best glider after all, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) that challenges a decades-old belief about how far southern greater ...

Scientists from prestigious universities and large research groups are significantly more likely to have their research published in general-interest, top-tier scientific journals. Meanwhile, authors based in China and those ...

LMU researchers demonstrate that oxygenic photosynthesis can occur with only a single photosystem, overturning a fundamental principle of biology.