Phys.org news

It's well known that many animals, including migratory birds, butterflies, and even fish, use the sun for navigational purposes. Nocturnal animals are dealt a more difficult hand, however, as the moon's path is far more variable. ...

For sexual reproduction to yield healthy offspring, newly generated oocytes—immature egg cells—must receive the correct amount of DNA after cell division. This process of segregating chromosomes becomes more prone to ...

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have developed a new electrolyte system that significantly boosts the energy-harvesting performance of twistrons, which are carbon nanotube yarns that generate electricity ...

A new study estimates that the Israel–Gaza war has generated around 33 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), highlighting the often-overlooked environmental impact of armed conflict.

Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have demonstrated a new kind of vacuum ultraviolet laser that is 100 to 1,000 times more efficient than existing technologies of its kind. The researchers say the device could ...

Hibernation is a risky endeavor for many animals, as they can be taken away by the elements or predators. For several months of the year, queen bumblebees enter a dormant state underground called diapause. While this keeps ...

The growing paleopathological literature shows that scurvy was not a rare problem among people living in the ancient Asia-Pacific tropics. Scurvy is increasingly identified throughout the region, primarily in children but ...

It is not uncommon for a body to be moved after a murder, usually to hide or eliminate evidence. And while the Arizona desert may seem like the perfect place to commit such a crime, a new study shows that a cadaver can still ...

Plants are constantly on guard. Their roots are equipped with molecular alarm systems that detect invading microbes and trigger immune responses. Yet beneficial soil fungi routinely enter living root cells and establish close ...

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a chip-scale device that can dynamically control the "handedness" of light as it passes through—also known as its ...

Analysis of a volcanic ash tuff layer, only a few millimeters thick and discovered during excavations in 2024, revealed that the fossil-bearing Bromacker rocks are 294 million years old—four million years older than previously ...

The warming world has disrupted the timing for plant and animal reproduction, and it's usually bad news for species that depend on each other—like flowers blooming too early and pollinating bees arriving too late. But researchers ...