Phys.org news
Phys.org / Repeat thieves without kleptomania struggle to adapt to rewards in decision-making test
Theft is almost universally considered an exploitative behavior. The conventional view underlying judicial systems is that the act of taking resources from others without offering compensation stems from moral and personal ...
Phys.org / How cells pull together: Theoretical study reveals a hidden source of attraction
Imagine two people standing on a stretchy sheet. When one pulls, the other feels the fabric move and responds with a pull of their own. Each adjustment changes what the other feels. Something similar happens between living ...
Phys.org / The art of good conversation may involve a little pink noise
Most of us like a good old chat with friends, colleagues, neighbors or acquaintances. But what can turn a really good chat into a great one? Sure, conversation topics matter, but scientists have found underlying patterns ...
Phys.org / Optical experiment demonstrates the strong Mpemba effect in a single qubit
Typically, after a physical system is disturbed, it can gradually return toward a state of thermal equilibrium by exchanging heat with its surroundings. Thermal equilibrium is a state in which there is no net transfer of ...
Phys.org / The fastest levitated spinning magnet ever made might help physicists search for dark matter
Tiny levitated magnets are able to avoid contact friction, making them useful for detecting extremely weak forces and magnetic fields and acting as ultralow-noise quantum sensors and precision measurement tools. Combining ...
Phys.org / A hummingbird's brilliant magenta feathers depend on a hidden middle layer
The brilliant magenta feathers on the head and throat of a male Anna's hummingbird present an optical puzzle. Magenta cannot be produced by a single wavelength of light. Instead, the feathers reflect a mixture of red and ...
Phys.org / Endangered leatherbacks find new nesting beaches in Ecuador as Pacific Ocean warms
A hopeful story for the world's largest, critically endangered sea turtle may be playing out along the sandy beaches of Ecuador.
Phys.org / Accidental discovery enables room-temperature recrystallization of molybdenum
Researchers at the University of Rochester and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology accidentally discovered a new way to rearrange the internal structure of molybdenum—an extremely heat-resistant metal—at room temperature. ...
Phys.org / Tiny beetle trapped in 53-million-year-old amber is named after Twenty One Pilots
Preserved in amber for about 53 million years, a beetle has been described as a new species by researchers in Spain and France. Named Cnopus twentyonepilotorum, it is the first puppet beetle (family Aderidae) to be formally ...
Phys.org / 3-million-year-old Taung Child once again shakes up our human family tree
A century after the Taung Child permanently altered our view of human origins, a new study published in npj Palaeoecosystems dates the famous fossil to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old. Led by professor Gabriele Macho ...
Phys.org / Prehistoric whale reveals extreme skull asymmetry
Sperm whales and pygmy sperm whales are known among mammals for their unusually shaped heads. Unlike most vertebrates, which are bilaterally symmetrical, toothed whales have asymmetrical skulls that accommodate highly specialized ...
Phys.org / Cracking the case of the Roman frog graveyard
Ten years after 8,000 ancient frog bones were discovered in a single ditch, scientists at Bournemouth University and the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have finally identified the culprits
