Phys.org news
Phys.org / Ancient sea levels reveal when the Earth's poles went wandering
Earth's poles do not always stay in the same place. For example, a region once near the North Pole can end up near the equator, and an area near the equator can shift up toward the pole. This is known as true polar wander ...
Phys.org / Black holes may grow quietly alongside galaxies even without violent mergers
Astronomers analyzed 2,435 galaxies hosting actively feeding black holes using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Among them, they identified 546 "bulgeless" galaxies—systems with little or no central ...
Phys.org / Cosmic-ray particles help probe powerful electric fields inside thunderstorms
An instrument built to study cosmic rays has turned out to be a powerful tool for investigating thunderstorms. Earlier observations with the GRAPES-3 muon telescope revealed that thunderclouds can develop electrical potential ...
Phys.org / Iron Age skulls reveal some babies had flat head syndrome—long before the 'Back to Sleep' campaign
Nearly 3,000 years ago, in central Italy, dozens of Picene people were laid to rest curled up on their sides, as if asleep. When their eternal slumber was disturbed thousands of years later, researchers noted a curiously ...
Phys.org / Two active magma reservoirs may lie beneath Masaya volcano, near 2 million people
Masaya volcano in Nicaragua sits within 13 miles (21 kilometers) of 2 million people and is a popular tourist destination due to its lava lake. Penn State researchers recently found evidence of two new magma sources under ...
Phys.org / A 'reality check' for lab-grown human embryo models
University of Sydney researchers have developed a new way to test how closely lab-grown biological models resemble real human embryos, finding that while some models perform well, none yet fully capture the complexity of ...
Phys.org / Computer-designed protein targets immune receptor linked to inflammation at new 'undruggable' site
To sense their environment and respond accordingly, cells enlist membrane proteins as communication hubs, receiving molecular messages from outside and triggering responses inside. One of these proteins is Toll-like receptor ...
Phys.org / A conservation success story for New Zealand's heaviest insect
The success of a large-scale recovery program for wētāpunga/Little Barrier giant wētā, New Zealand's heaviest insect, has been officially documented in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology.
Phys.org / Uranium forms rare triple bond with carbon in newly isolated compound
In a study published in Nature Chemistry, an international team of researchers from Germany and the U.K., including chemists from The University of Manchester, has synthesized and characterized what they describe as the first ...
Phys.org / Animals may have evolved vastly earlier than fossil evidence suggests
The earliest animals may have evolved hundreds of millions of years before their first unmistakable fossils appear in the fossil record, according to a new study led by the University of Oxford. The findings, published in ...
Phys.org / A laser that stays locked without active control
EPFL researchers have developed a chip-based laser that keeps a very stable frequency across its tested operating range, without needing active electronic control. Their research is published in the journal Nature Photonics.
Phys.org / Researchers turn America's scattered local laws into a free searchable database covering all 50 states
America is a nation of local laws—millions of them. From noise ordinances and construction codes to rules about fishing licenses and roadside mango peddling, every town, city and county has its own set of regulations and ...
