Phys.org news

For decades, scientists have relied on tree rings to estimate how long trees can live. But new research suggests that this widely used method may have been underestimating the lifespan of many flowering trees—sometimes ...

Recently-revealed notebooks belonging to a late paleontologist contain the missing information needed to help researchers finish their study of a remarkable fossil discovered nearly three decades ago.

After more than a decade of research, scientists have discovered the natural mechanism behind a novel form of cell death called ferroptosis. The work, described in the current issue of Cell, points toward an entirely new ...

When you reach the bottom of a container of milk or honey, you might be tempted to tip the container over to get that last pesky little bit out. After all, you only need another teaspoon for that recipe, and you're sure it's ...

Scientists at TU Delft have designed a nanostring that, when poked, doesn't lose its energy to the environment immediately. Instead, the energy leaks out within the string, triggering a cascade of distinct vibrational modes. ...

Almost all plants live in close symbiosis with so-called mycorrhizal fungi—an important symbiosis for absorbing essential nutrients. In their new study, a team led by ecologist Christina Kaiser from the Center for Microbiology ...

Tiny life forms tucked into debris from an asteroid hit could catapult to other planets—including Earth—and survive, a new Johns Hopkins University study finds. The work demonstrates that a certain hardy bacterium easily ...

University of Queensland researchers say Australia's reptiles are at risk of extinction because a little understood fungus is infecting species throughout the environment. Associate Professor Celine Frere from UQ's School ...

In most plants and animals, including humans, mitochondria are inherited exclusively, or nearly exclusively, from the mother. By contrast, paternal transmission is observed only occasionally, and the mechanisms behind this ...

Astronomers with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have used data from the project to make the largest, most accurate 3D map yet of the light emitted by excited hydrogen in the early universe, 9 billion ...

There are many open questions about how our planet formed 4.55 billion years ago: When did plate tectonics start? When did the Earth's mantle begin to vigorously circulate in a process called convection? What was Earth like ...

For decades, the basics of plant growth have been taught in grade school: Plants make their food out of water from the soil, light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air in a process called photosynthesis. What gets ...