Phys.org news
Phys.org / Sun sets on the Sunlight glacier: Researchers document melting of Wyoming glacier
The glacier located near Sunlight Peak, Wyo., has been its icy self since the Yellowstone region's last major glaciation occurred some 20,000 years ago. The bulk of Sunlight's ice has remained ensconced in its northern Rocky ...
Dialog / Built to withstand, or built to worry? Housing and disaster risk perception
I have always been interested in how people make decisions under uncertainty—especially decisions about safety. But it was not until I began studying housing conditions and disaster risk that I realized how deeply our built ...
Phys.org / Eye-tracking study explores fear of spiders
Whether it's a sudden dash across the garage or silhouette in a backyard web, spiders evoke fear in many people. But researchers don't have a clear picture of why, exactly, this phobia is so common. An interdisciplinary team ...
Phys.org / Survival training in a safe space—how staged risk helps young predators learn dangerous prey
Adaptation is essential for survival. Across species, it occurs over many generations through evolution and natural selection. Individual animals, however, can also adapt within their own lifetimes—through learning. For ...
Phys.org / How flatworms keep their regeneration powers on track
Scientists have discovered a key biological safeguard that helps one of nature's most impressive regenerators, the planarian flatworm, correctly rebuild its organs. The new research, published in Nature Communications, illuminates ...
Phys.org / How invasive house sparrows are helping scientists detect dangerous contaminants
The house sparrow is a highly invasive pest in North Carolina, and bluebird enthusiasts frequently throw their eggs out and remove their nests to keep them from overtaking the nestboxes that bluebirds call home. A new study ...
Phys.org / Water interactions reveal how surface coatings reshape nanoparticle drug delivery
Researchers at Arizona State University have uncovered a key scientific principle that governs how what's coated on the surfaces of engineered nanoparticles may ultimately control how they work in our bodies. In a new study ...
Phys.org / A crystal that 'comes alive': Heat-driven bubbles push it forward while it changes fluorescence color
In a study published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, researchers from National Taiwan University report that a seemingly solid, nonporous organic crystal can undergo dramatic structural and mechanical transformations ...
Phys.org / 'Plug-and-play'—how plants steal genetic shortcuts to survive
Plants are fast-tracking their own evolution by "plugging in" genetic code stolen from their neighbors, according to new research that reveals the secret to their own successful genetic engineering. The study, led by Catherine ...
Phys.org / New 2D membrane reactor improves photocatalytic synthesis
Chinese researchers have developed a photocatalytic membrane reactor that dramatically improves the synthesis of imines—a class of compounds essential to the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and advanced synthetic ...
Phys.org / Wildfire smoke silences grassland birds in New York state
On a hazy day in June 2023, doctoral students Trifosa Simamora and Timothy Boycott noticed that the birds at their field site had gone quiet. Now in a study published in Biological Conservation, they show that the culprit ...
Phys.org / Bird flu rampant among black vultures: Study points to year-round H5N1 circulation
More than four out of every five dead black vultures examined by University of Georgia researchers tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. The actual ...