Phys.org news
Phys.org / How an RNA-binding protein detects and responds to non-optimal codon usage in human cells
Human genes are written in long strings of three-letter units composed of four different nucleotides. These units—or codons—specify one of many amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Multiple codons can encode ...
Phys.org / How young galaxies grew magnetic fields faster than expected
How fast can a galaxy build ordered magnetic fields spanning thousands of light-years? Existing theories say several billion years, but observations of galaxies in our universe imply shorter timescales. In a study published ...
Phys.org / The way you walk can reveal your true feelings
Whether you're striding with purpose, swaggering with confidence, or trudging slowly along the street, the way you walk can reveal how you're feeling, according to new research published in the journal Royal Society Open ...
Phys.org / Is glass a solid or a super slow liquid? Physicists create equilibrium glassy phase from rod-shaped particles
Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories ...
Phys.org / The fish species that knows when you are watching them
Emperor cichlids, large fish native to Lake Tanganyika in Africa, don't like being stared at, especially if someone's gaze is directed at their offspring. Those are the findings of a new study published in the journal Royal ...
Phys.org / Platypus fur adds another strange feature to an increasingly long list
The combination of a beaver-like body and duck-like bill of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is only the first of a long list of strange features on this unique creature. These odd mammals also lay eggs, have venomous ...
Phys.org / Neanderthals may have used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties, experiments suggest
Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers led by Tjaark Siemssen of the University ...
Phys.org / Challenging a 300-year-old law of friction
Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that arises without any mechanical contact, driven purely by collective magnetic dynamics. The study, published ...
Phys.org / Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find
Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged ...
Phys.org / Microwave quantum network shows resilience against heat-related disturbances
Quantum communication systems are emerging solutions to transmit information between devices in a network leveraging quantum mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement. Entanglement is a quantum effect that entails a link ...
Phys.org / Most mass spectrometers can process just a few molecules at once: Reengineered prototype does a billion simultaneously
Mass spectrometry is already a powerful tool for determining what kind and how many molecules are present in a given sample. But most instruments still analyze their molecules one or just a few at a time, an approach that ...
Phys.org / A 'consortium' of bacteria cooperates to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can't stomach
Plastic trash has reached the world's most remote locations, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest. Hundreds of plastic-eating microbes that could help us clean up have been discovered over the past ...
