Phys.org news
Phys.org / How play and social connection may help some dogs understand words
Some dogs are seemingly more talented than others. So-called gifted word learners (GWL) are rare canines that can rapidly learn the names of toys, a skill that most dogs don't possess. To understand why this is so, researchers ...
Phys.org / Global warming is speeding breakdown of major greenhouse gas, research shows
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that climate change is causing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance, to break down in the atmosphere more quickly than previously ...
Phys.org / New model predicts the melting of free-floating ice in calm water
A pair of US researchers have developed a new model to tackle a deceptively simple problem: how a small block of ice melts while floating in calm water. Using an advanced experimental setup, Daisuke Noto and Hugo Ulloa at ...
Phys.org / A new class of strange one-dimensional particles
Physicists have long categorized every elementary particle in our three-dimensional universe as being either a boson or a fermion—the former category mostly capturing force carriers like photons, the latter including the ...
Phys.org / Reproduction in space, an environment hostile to human biology
As commercial spaceflight draws ever closer and time spent in space continues to extend, the question of reproductive health beyond the bounds of planet Earth is no longer theoretical but now "urgently practical," according ...
Phys.org / Supermassive black holes sit in 'eye of their own storms,' studies find
Gigantic black holes lurk at the center of virtually every galaxy, including ours, but we've lacked a precise picture of what impact they have on their surroundings. However, a University of Chicago-led group of scientists ...
Phys.org / One-of-a-kind 'plasma tunnel' recreates extreme conditions spacecraft face upon reentry
Picture a spacecraft returning to Earth after a long journey. The vehicle slams into the planet's atmosphere at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. A shockwave erupts. Molecules in the air are ripped apart, forming a plasma—a ...
Phys.org / Political division in the US surged from 2008 onward, study suggests
Divisions within the US population on social and political issues have increased by 64% since 1988, with almost all this coming after 2008, according to a study tracking polarization from the end of the Reagan era to the ...
Phys.org / Stacked graphene sandwich reveals switchable memory without traditional ferroelectrics
A research team led by Professor Youngwook Kim from the Department of Physics and Chemistry, DGIST, in collaboration with the research team of Professor Gil Young Cho at KAIST, have discovered a new memory principle that ...
Phys.org / Ultra-thin metasurface chip turns invisible infrared light into steerable visible beams
The invention of tiny devices capable of precisely controlling the direction and behavior of light is essential to the development of advanced technologies. Researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY ...
Phys.org / Ozone-depleting CFCs detected in historical measurements—20 years earlier than previously known
An international research team led by the University of Bremen has detected chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in Earth's atmosphere for the first time in historical measurements from 1951—20 years earlier than previously known. ...
Phys.org / Two huge hot blobs of rock influence Earth's magnetic field, study reveals
Exploring Earth's deep interior is a far bigger challenge than exploring the solar system. While we have traveled 25 billion km into space, the deepest we have ever gone below our feet is just over 12 km. Consequently, little ...
