Phys.org news
Phys.org / Spider spinneret evolution: How a genome duplication event 438 million years ago set the stage
Scientists have uncovered a 400-million-year-old genetic secret that gave spiders the ability to produce silk and weave their webs. Spiders didn't begin their journey on Earth in the same way as they are known today. Arthropods ...
Phys.org / Lab study suggests longer waves fracture floating ice sheets at lower stress
When waves are moving across ice-covered seas, they can cause sheets of ice to bend and ultimately break. Understanding the processes underlying these wave-induced ice fractures and predicting when they will occur could help ...
Phys.org / Baby dinosaurs were common prey for Late Jurassic predators, reconstructed food web suggests
Babies and very young sauropods—the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land—were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to ...
Phys.org / How a broken DNA repair tool accelerates aging
Although DNA is tightly packed and protected within the cell nucleus, it is constantly threatened by damage from normal metabolic processes or external stressors such as radiation or chemical substances. To counteract this, ...
Phys.org / Quantum mechanical effects help overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy
Researchers from Regensburg and Birmingham have overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy. With the help of quantum mechanical effects, they succeeded for the first time in performing optical measurements with ...
Phys.org / Webb reveals five-galaxy merger just 800 million years after the Big Bang
Astronomers at Texas A&M University have discovered a rare, tightly packed collision of galaxies in the early universe, suggesting that galaxies were interacting and shaping their surroundings far earlier than scientists ...
Phys.org / Beyond the eye of the beholder: Mathematically defining attributes essential to color perception
Research on the perception of color differences is helping resolve a century-old understanding of color developed by Erwin Schrödinger. Los Alamos scientist Roxana Bujack led a team that used geometry to mathematically define ...
Phys.org / Liquid-repellent particle coating enables near-frictionless motion of pico- to nanoliter droplets
The precise control of tiny droplets on surfaces is essential for advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and next‐generation lab‐on‐a‐chip diagnostics. However, once droplet volume reaches pico- and nanoliter scales, ...
Phys.org / One of Earth's most abundant organisms is surprisingly fragile
A group of ocean bacteria long considered perfectly adapted to life in nutrient-poor waters may be more vulnerable to environmental change than scientists realized. The bacteria, known as SAR11, dominate surface seawater ...
Phys.org / The devastation of island land snails: Pacific leads global wave of extinctions, researchers find
A comprehensive new review paper reveals the staggering loss of biodiversity among island land snails globally. Lead author Robert Cowie of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology ...
Phys.org / Beamline measurements of unstable ruthenium nuclei confirm advanced nuclear models
A novel apparatus at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has made extremely precise measurements of unstable ruthenium nuclei. The measurements are a significant milestone in nuclear physics ...
Phys.org / Scientists teach microorganisms to build molecules with light
Researchers are continually looking for new ways to hack the cellular machinery of microbes like yeast and bacteria to make products that are useful for humans and society. In a new proof-of-concept study, a team from the ...
