Phys.org news
Phys.org / How hard-surface feeding unlocked a burst of reef fish evolution 50 million years ago
Why are there so many species of coral reef fish? According to a new study, it's because about 50 million years ago, some fish figured out how to bite food from hard surfaces.
Phys.org / Light can now be shaped in empty space, and it could simplify sensing and boost data links
Scientists at the University of East Anglia have uncovered a hidden property of light that allows it to twist, spin and behave differently—without mirrors, materials or special lenses. In a breakthrough that could transform ...
Phys.org / Data from Earth's most remote atoll show soil fungi are key to island regeneration
Palmyra Atoll, a remote, uninhabited speck of land, coral and sea halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa, is one of the healthiest, intact atolls on the planet—so ecologically sensitive that visiting researchers freeze ...
Phys.org / Hidden stripe pattern lets microscopes auto-focus across 400 times deeper range
Anyone who has ever used a microscope knows that it takes time to bring a sample into sharp focus. Each time you move the slide, the image blurs, and you have to stop and carefully turn a knob to bring everything back into ...
Phys.org / Decades-long study finds 'stable' soil carbon degrades
After nearly four decades, the world's longest-running soil warming experiment is revealing a surprising result: even "stable" carbon in forest soils can break down as temperatures rise, releasing more CO₂ into the atmosphere. ...
Phys.org / They cover just 3% of Earth, yet the unanswered questions around them could reshape climate action forever
Researchers including a number from the University of Exeter, have identified the most urgent unanswered questions about peatlands, providing a global roadmap to guide future science and policy for one of the planet's most ...
Phys.org / Bowhead whale recovery reflects century-old whaling patterns
An international study led by Adelaide University has found bowhead whale populations are recovering only in stocks where large areas of hazardous sea ice conditions limited devastating hunting centuries ago. The research ...
Phys.org / With a swipe of a magnet, microscopic 'magno-bots' perform complex maneuvers
Under a microscope, a bouquet of lollipop-like structures, each smaller than a grain of sand, waves gently in a Petri dish of liquid. Suddenly, they snap together, like the jaws of a Venus flytrap, as a scientist waves a ...
Phys.org / Two whale groups separated by seas—but not by genes, study finds
A paper in Genome Biology and Evolution discovers that the endangered Mediterranean fin whale is not completely isolated from Atlantic groups. Both Atlantic and Mediterranean populations have declined for the past 200,000 ...
Phys.org / Natural rubber process boosts tire toughness about tenfold while preserving stiffness
Natural rubber, tapped from trees as latex, is the world's most widely used bio-elastomer. Comprising long molecular chains that make it pliable and stretchy yet highly resistant to cracking and strain, natural rubber is ...
Phys.org / Deep-ocean heat has been marching closer to Antarctica, reveals long-term study
A new decades-long study of oceanographic data provides the first evidence that deep-ocean heat has moved closer to Antarctica, threatening the fragile ice shelves that fringe the continent.
Phys.org / A mechanical blue LED: Stretching GaN shifts light from UV to blue without changing chemistry
A research team from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has successfully used mechanical stretching technology to dynamically control the emission color of gallium nitride (GaN) material from ...
