Phys.org news
Phys.org / Massive insect body size 300 million years ago may not have been due to high atmospheric oxygen
Three-hundred-million years ago, Earth was very different. The continents had coalesced into Pangea, which was dominated in its equatorial regions by vast coal-swamp forests. With high atmospheric oxygen levels, wildfires ...
Phys.org / Ice Age animals and slice of Earth history found in central Texas water cave
A paleontologist from The University of Texas at Austin has discovered the fossilized remains of Ice Age animals that have never been found in Central Texas before—and he came across the bones while snorkeling for fossils ...
Phys.org / Unusual signal may prove existence of primordial black holes
It may well take years to prove, but a pair of University of Miami astrophysicists could be on the verge of a cosmic breakthrough that will confirm the existence of primordial black holes and the role they play in one of ...
Phys.org / A captive chimp's instrumental performances hint at the evolution of vocal externalization
In February 2023, a resident at Kyoto University's Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior—EHUB—treated researchers to a spontaneous musical performance. Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee, removed floorboards ...
Phys.org / Shell-cracking turtles defied mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period
The mass extinction at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods was catastrophic, wiping out much of life on Earth. Vertebrate groups that dominated at the time, such as dinosaurs and many large marine reptiles, ...
Phys.org / 'Cool' detectors cut neutrino mass upper limit by an order of magnitude
Their mass is extremely low, but how light are neutrinos really? A collaboration comprising German and international research groups has optimized its experiments to determine the mass of these "ghost particles." In doing ...
Phys.org / RNA-guided CRISPR system activates gene expression
In back-to-back studies published in Nature, researchers from Purdue University and Columbia University report a naturally evolved gene-editing system that can activate genes, offering an advantage over existing CRISPR gene-editing ...
Phys.org / Radio signals at the edge of extreme stars come from far beyond their surfaces
Pulsars are ultra-dense, rapidly spinning, and highly magnetized remnants of dead stars. They act like cosmic lighthouses, sending out regular pulses of radio waves and sometimes gamma rays in beams that sweep across the ...
Phys.org / Laser-modified graphene enables molecule-thick films to grow only where needed
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University have developed a new method based on laser modification, which allows metal-organic materials to be grown locally one molecule-thick layer at a time. The method ...
Phys.org / Uncovering the evolutionary limits of the COVID-19 virus
A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, indicates that while the COVID-19 virus has developed rapidly since 2019, it has done so within limited genetic channels. These genetic limits have remained unchanged. Despite ...
Phys.org / Microtubules discovered to play an active role in correctly distributing chromosomes during cell division
Microtubules, the dynamic filaments that form the cell's internal scaffolding, have long been viewed as mere passive structural supports. But a new study reveals they play a far more active signaling role. The findings, published ...
Phys.org / Webb and Hubble share the most comprehensive view of Saturn to date
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have teamed up to capture new views of Saturn, revealing the planet in strikingly different ways. Observing in complementary wavelengths of light, the two space ...
