Phys.org news
Phys.org / Scottish Neolithic tombs were used to trace kinship—including descent, DNA analysis reveals
Archaeologists have investigated genetic relationships between individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland, suggesting monumental tombs may have been physical embodiments of prehistoric kinship, tracing ...
Phys.org / Between eternal night and day, the faces of two cousins of Earth
An international team including the University of Bern (UNIBE) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), members of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, has succeeded in mapping the climate of rocky exoplanets ...
Phys.org / Low-cost robotic chemistry system can be built and deployed in any lab
In a paper just out in Nature Synthesis, researchers led by Prof. Timothy Noël of the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences presented a breakthrough in autonomous laboratory systems for synthesis ...
Phys.org / A tiny twist and synthetic diamond put superconductivity on a switch, opening a new route to lossless electronics
Researchers have discovered evidence that superconductivity can be controlled by influencing the surrounding environment, a finding that may lead to more efficient electronics down the road, according to a new study published ...
Phys.org / Record-breaking photonics approach traps light on a chip for millions of cycles
For years, scientists have dreamed of using atomically thin van der Waals (vdW) materials to build faster, more efficient photonic chips. These materials can be stacked and tuned with extraordinary precision, opening possibilities ...
Phys.org / Satellites reveal city methane emissions are rising faster than official estimates
Urban emissions of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—are rising faster than bottom-up accounting estimates anticipated, according to a study led by University of Michigan Engineering. The discrepancy was found with satellite ...
Dialog / Why do some stars in the galactic center survive while others are destroyed?
The center of our galaxy is an extreme place. Surrounding the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, stars are packed densely into a region where gravity, radiation, and dark matter all interact in complex ways. It is a ...
Phys.org / Of gray whales that enter San Francisco Bay, nearly 18% die there, scientists find
Gray whales migrate from Arctic waters full of food to the lagoons of Baja Mexico—but as the climate crisis gathers pace, they have been sighted foraging in unexpected places. Recently, some have begun to explore the dangerously ...
Phys.org / Unlocking unusual superconductivity in a lightweight element
Superconductors—materials that can conduct electricity without energy loss—are crucial for next-generation high-efficiency, ultrafast electronics. However, most superconductors share a critical limitation: they lose their ...
Phys.org / Tiny crystal defects solve decades-old mystery in organic light emitters
Materials that emit and manipulate light are at the heart of technologies ranging from solar energy to advanced imaging systems. But even in well-studied materials, some fundamental behaviors remain unexplained. Researchers ...
Phys.org / Math model reveals how life may have switched on from Earth's primordial soup
Isolating the first spark of life on Earth is a matter of biology, geology, and chemistry—but it's also an amazing math problem. At least, that's how Varun Varanasi viewed it when he was a Yale undergraduate. The question, ...
Phys.org / New 'molecular handle' uses common amino acid to build complex medicines
In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of chemists has unveiled a radically simple way to attach a highly sought-after "molecular handle," known as the dichloromethyl group, onto complex compounds. Instead ...
