Phys.org news
Phys.org / How Qing featherwork got its colors: New scans reveal multiple birds and hidden pigment layers
The kingfisher's brilliant blue feathers were once used like paint to create works of art. The technique, known as tian-tsui, was popular during China's Qing Dynasty. And because tian-tsui uses delicate feathers, previous ...
Phys.org / DeepAFM decodes protein motion from noisy images with 93.4% accuracy
In 2018, an artificial intelligence (AI) program called AlphaFold achieved a major breakthrough by placing first in the critical assessment of structure prediction, a competition for predicting the three-dimensional structures ...
Phys.org / One drug, two cleanup crews: A built-in backup for targeted protein degradation
Most drugs work by inhibition: they block a protein's activity but leave the protein itself intact. Targeted protein degradation takes a fundamentally different approach, harnessing the cell's own quality-control machinery ...
Phys.org / Metabolism-inspired hydrogels replicate heartbeat-like motion and photosynthesis
Living organisms sustain themselves through intricate metabolic processes that continuously convert energy and materials into useful functions. Inspired by these biological systems, researchers are now engineering synthetic ...
Phys.org / Self-activating catalysts boost hydrogen output by reshaping themselves during electrolysis
To what extent can self-activating catalysts enhance hydrogen production in electrolyzers? Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have investigated this question, and their findings were published in Advanced ...
Phys.org / Why ocean warming experiments may be making misleading predictions
Accurate experiments on how ocean warming affects marine life are vital to ensure we can best prepare for the future, protect our food sources, and help safeguard ocean ecosystems. But some of these experiments may miss how ...
Phys.org / JWST spots two early black holes growing far faster than their galaxies
Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black ...
Phys.org / More Star Wars-like worlds emerge as 27 planet candidates with two suns discovered
There's so little we know about circumbinary planets—planets that orbit two stars instead of one—that they can feel like the stuff of fantasy. And for good reason: to date, we've only confirmed the existence of 18 circumbinary ...
Phys.org / Scurvy's skeletal fingerprint found in California's Late Holocene archaeological sites
A recent study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology documented skeletal changes linked to scurvy in Late Holocene archaeological sites in California (500 BCE–1834 CE). The change observed shows the cascading ...
Phys.org / Buried in Sudan's desert, 280 vast stone circles reveal a vanished cattle-herding culture
Recent satellite remote sensing surveys have identified 280 stone structures spread across the Atbai desert in Sudan. Twenty of these structures were previously identified by fieldwork or informal surveys, but were not systematically ...
Phys.org / Resilient quantum sensor monitors Earth's magnetic field from space for 10 months
From navigation to solar weather forecasting, many different areas of research require space-based sensors to measure Earth's magnetic field as accurately as possible at any given moment. So far, however, existing sensors ...
Phys.org / New alien-life test could help Mars and Europa missions read organic molecules
For decades, the search for life beyond Earth has revolved around a key question: What molecules should scientists be looking for on other planets or moons? A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that the more ...
