Phys.org news
Phys.org / Why do brown bats stop feeding during fireworks?
Firework shows are controversial in this day and age. While beautiful, fireworks are loud, bright, and smoky, and they can be dangerous to the surrounding environment, releasing contaminants into the air and frightening both ...
Phys.org / How Qing featherwork got its colors: New scans reveal multiple birds and hidden pigment layers
The kingfisher's brilliant blue feathers were once used like paint to create works of art. The technique, known as tian-tsui, was popular during China's Qing Dynasty. And because tian-tsui uses delicate feathers, previous ...
Phys.org / Gentle, laser-driven flows enable precise 3D imaging of delicate samples
Until now, it has been technically nearly impossible to rotate highly sensitive samples in all directions under a microscope without making contact. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed ...
Phys.org / Birds can suffer serious harm from heat waves
Extreme weather poses a big threat to birds. Yet there is a lack of both knowledge and methods for measuring its negative effects. In a new study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, researchers from Lund University ...
Phys.org / Roots reveal climate adaptation as 284 plant varieties reshape water barrier
Plant roots are far more than simple absorption organs: they can adjust their structure to better cope with water stress. Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the University of Lausanne (UNIL), ...
Phys.org / DeepAFM decodes protein motion from noisy images with 93.4% accuracy
In 2018, an artificial intelligence (AI) program called AlphaFold achieved a major breakthrough by placing first in the critical assessment of structure prediction, a competition for predicting the three-dimensional structures ...
Phys.org / One drug, two cleanup crews: A built-in backup for targeted protein degradation
Most drugs work by inhibition: they block a protein's activity but leave the protein itself intact. Targeted protein degradation takes a fundamentally different approach, harnessing the cell's own quality-control machinery ...
Phys.org / Metabolism-inspired hydrogels replicate heartbeat-like motion and photosynthesis
Living organisms sustain themselves through intricate metabolic processes that continuously convert energy and materials into useful functions. Inspired by these biological systems, researchers are now engineering synthetic ...
Phys.org / Self-activating catalysts boost hydrogen output by reshaping themselves during electrolysis
To what extent can self-activating catalysts enhance hydrogen production in electrolyzers? Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have investigated this question, and their findings were published in Advanced ...
Phys.org / Why ocean warming experiments may be making misleading predictions
Accurate experiments on how ocean warming affects marine life are vital to ensure we can best prepare for the future, protect our food sources, and help safeguard ocean ecosystems. But some of these experiments may miss how ...
Phys.org / JWST spots two early black holes growing far faster than their galaxies
Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black ...
Phys.org / More Star Wars-like worlds emerge as 27 planet candidates with two suns discovered
There's so little we know about circumbinary planets—planets that orbit two stars instead of one—that they can feel like the stuff of fantasy. And for good reason: to date, we've only confirmed the existence of 18 circumbinary ...
