Phys.org news

Humans not only cooperate, but also compete more with in-group members than with out-group members and strangers, a new cross-country social-psychological study shows. This 'nasty neighbor effect' came as a complete surprise ...

A team of researchers from ANSTO and University of Technology Sydney have set a record by conducting thin film experiments at 1,100 degrees Celsius, using the Spatz reflectometer equipped with a vacuum furnace.

An updated model reconciles the gap between recent experiments and theory concerning polarization in wurtzite semiconductors—paving the way for the development of smaller, faster and more efficient electronic devices, according ...

An asteroid will whiz harmlessly past Earth this weekend. With the right equipment and timing, you just might spot it.

Advanced materials, including two-dimensional or "atomically thin" materials just a few atoms thick, are essential for the future of microelectronics technology. Now a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed ...

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft, stretchy electronic device capable of simulating the feeling of pressure or vibration when worn on the skin. This device, reported ...

When ultrafast electrons are deflected, they emit light—synchrotron radiation. This is used in so-called storage rings in which magnets force the particles onto a closed path. This light is longitudinally incoherent and ...

A study led by a UC Riverside atmospheric scientist predicts that unchecked carbon emissions will force tropical rains to shift northward in the coming decades, which would profoundly impact agriculture and economies near ...

Leiden Ph.D. candidate Jo-Anne Verschoor discovered that nearly 20% of the bacterial strains she studied could degrade plastic, though they needed some encouragement to do so. "Bacteria are just like people," says Verschoor. ...

NASA's Mars InSight Lander may be resting on the Red Planet in retirement, but data from the robotic explorer is still leading to seismic discoveries on Earth.

For years, astronomers have worried about how to explain why the Milky Way has fewer satellite galaxies than the standard dark matter model predicts. This is called the "missing satellites problem."

For hundreds of years, the clarity and magnification of microscopes were ultimately limited by the physical properties of their optical lenses. Microscope makers pushed those boundaries by making increasingly complicated ...