Phys.org news

Giant ancestors of modern-day kangaroos—which previous research has estimated could weigh up to 250 kilograms—may have been able to hop in short bursts, according to research published in Scientific Reports.

Whether in the human body or on surfaces, bacteria protect themselves from outside attackers using biofilms. Physicist Eleonora Secchi is researching how these slime-like protective films are formed, with the aim of making ...

The astronauts evacuated last week from the International Space Station say a portable ultrasound machine came in "super handy" during the medical crisis.

Astronomers have long searched for life within a rather narrow ring around a star, the "habitable zone," where a planet should be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water. A new study argues that this ring is too strict: ...

An international research team led by scientists at Waseda University and Tohoku University has discovered an extraordinary quasar in the early universe that hosts one of the fastest-growing supermassive black holes known ...

University of Queensland researchers say the discovery of a new stress reduction role for a naturally occurring molecule in the body could lead to new drugs and treatment for metabolic disorders and aging.

Men assess potential rivals that have a larger penis as more of a threat, both physically and sexually, according to a study by Upama Aich at the University of Western Australia and colleagues, published in PLOS Biology.

People have long said that "bread is life." Now, researchers at Tufts University are using the bubbling mixtures of flour and water known as sourdough starters to explore what shapes life at the microscopic level. Their findings, ...

Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbors, looking far younger than their true age. Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities ...

Every time we speak, we're improvising. "Humans possess a remarkable ability to talk about almost anything, sometimes putting words together into never-before-spoken or -written sentences," said Morten H. Christiansen, the ...

Many mammal populations in European and North American zoos are aging—a trend that jeopardizes the long-term viability of so-called reserve populations and, with it, a core mission of modern zoos in global species conservation. ...

Inserting, removing or swapping individual atoms from the core of a molecule is a long-standing challenge in chemistry. This process, called skeletal editing, can dramatically speed up drug discovery or be applied for upcycling ...