Phys.org news

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a key process in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, technologies expected to play a central role in a low-carbon energy future. However, ORR proceeds slowly on most materials, limiting ...

For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to create a 3D map of the sun's interior magnetic field, the fundamental driver of solar activity. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, should ...

Aging muscles heal more slowly after injury—a frustrating reality familiar to many older adults. A UCLA study conducted in mice reveals an unexpected cause: Stem cells in aged muscle accumulate higher levels of a protein ...

DNA can be thought of as a vast library that stores all genetic information. Cells do not use this information all at once. Instead, they copy only the necessary parts into RNA, which is then used to produce proteins—the ...

Southern Africa is world renowned for its fossil record of creatures that lived in the very distant past, including dinosaurs. But, about 182 million years ago, a huge eruption of lava covered much of the landscape (the inland ...

University campuses are often places of learning and discovery, but rarely do researchers find a new species living right on their doorstep. However, that is exactly what happened when a research team from Kyushu University ...

Time is almost up on the way we track each second of the day, with optical atomic clocks set to redefine the way the world measures one second in the near future. Researchers from Adelaide University worked with the National ...

The cells in our bodies move in groups during biological processes such as wound healing and tissue development—but because of resistance, or viscosity, those cells can't just neatly glide past each other.

This week, researchers identified the role of the brain's protein clean-up system in dementia. Fecal transplants show promising benefits in treating multiple cancer types. And biologists found that saltwater crocodiles traveled ...

King cobras are the world's longest venomous snakes. So, imagine seeing one a few feet away as you embark on a train in India. The Western Ghats King Cobra (Ophiophagus kaalinga)—a vulnerable king cobra species found in ...

Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.

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 ...