Phys.org news
Phys.org / Plumage reflectance framework offers new insight into how birds evolved heat-controlling feathers
Birds can inhabit various environments with different climates and temperatures, ranging from cold polar regions to scorching hot deserts. To survive and thrive in these very different environments, they need to effectively ...
Phys.org / Small tropical islands face dangerous humid heat by end of the century
Millions of people living on tropical islands could face a future of increasingly dangerous heat as climate change drives longer and more intense periods of humid conditions. While rising temperatures are often discussed ...
Phys.org / How did inbred brown tree snakes take over the island of Guam?
If you look up invasive species in a textbook, there's a good chance you'll find a picture of a brown tree snake. Native to Australia and the South Pacific, the brown tree snake arrived on Guam sometime after World War II, ...
Phys.org / Oxygen collisions at the LHC show new indications of extreme state of matter
All four main LHC experiments have found new signs that oxygen and neon collisions may create the extreme state of matter that existed during the first microseconds after the Big Bang.
Phys.org / Unraveling the climate behind the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations
The most severe droughts in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean arose when multiple natural climate cycles coincided, according to a new study from Stockholm University published in Science Advances. The findings shed new light ...
Phys.org / Scientists turn modern biobanks into a new window on human evolution
For more than a century, scientists have sought to reconstruct human evolution using diverse lines of evidence, including fossils, genetic variation across populations and ancient DNA. Building on these approaches, researchers ...
Phys.org / Quantum Zeno effect could freeze computations as qubit systems scale up
The promise of quantum computing is to solve complex problems faster and more energy-efficiently than today's supercomputers—from optimizing logistics to simulating molecules. This goal is coming within reach as the number ...
Phys.org / Why Europa's hidden ocean may be more difficult to reach than scientists thought
Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons, has long fascinated scientists because of what may lie beneath its frozen shell: a global ocean of liquid water. That hidden ocean has made Europa one of the most compelling places in the ...
Phys.org / Quantum dots reveal hidden light waves on metal surfaces
Photographs can reveal things that are otherwise impossible for the naked eye to see, be they distant galaxies or microscopic cells. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a practical and versatile imaging ...
Phys.org / Physicists turn to the universe's 'piano notes' to detect hidden particles
It's been said that a finely tuned ear knows the size and shape of a piano by merely listening to the instrument's notes. An international team of physicists has now devised an analogous approach to detect the universe's ...
Phys.org / Long-lived ytterbium states could sharpen quantum computing and atomic clocks
Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University of New South Wales have answered a question that has been around for decades: whether ions of the metal ytterbium can enter certain long-lived, nearly stable ...
Phys.org / Fossilized wood reveals 300 million years of Earth's history
Many people are familiar with fossilized wood as a decorative item from a museum shop. However, the fact that it can preserve the geological history of entire regions spanning millions of years is a new discovery. A research ...
