Phys.org news

Phys.org / Southern Ocean intermediate waters may hold key to Earth's carbon dioxide history

Researchers at National Taiwan University and partner institutions have uncovered new evidence that Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW)—a distinct layer sitting 500–1,500 meters below the ocean surface—played a pivotal role ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / Worker bumble bees help determine which baby bee will become queen

Every bumble bee colony has a queen, but a new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests the process of determining which baby bee reigns supreme may be less monarchal than the royal title suggests. The study, published ...

2 hours ago
Phys.org / 370 billion crickets are farmed for food every year. Scientists have discovered they may feel pain

You're cooking dinner, distracted, and your hand brushes a hot pan. Nerve signals race to your spinal cord and back to yank your arm away in a fraction of a second, with no thought required.

3 hours ago
Phys.org / White hydrogen discovered in billion-year-old Canadian Shield rock points to potential new energy source

Within the Canadian Shield, hydrogen gas is steadily building up naturally among some of the oldest rocks on Earth. Now, for the first time, geochemists at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa have measured ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Ancient Arctic fossils uncover three mammal species that survived months of darkness

Today's Arctic may feel remote and desolate, but more than 70 million years ago, it was a surprisingly lively place for some of Earth's ancient mammals.

3 hours ago
Phys.org / AI-generated fake citations are flooding scientific literature across publications, scientists warn

The citations at the end of a research paper should represent a solid foundation of existing knowledge about a particular field, a pool of peer-reviewed sources built over years of research and study. However, with the increasing ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Neanderthals gathered shellfish using the same strategies as modern humans, study finds

Neanderthal populations in southern Europe collected shellfish throughout the year, with a marked preference for the colder months, according to a new international study led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Even after adopting cattle, early east African herders kept hunting and gathering for 1,000 years

Eastern Africa's earliest livestock herders continued fishing, hunting and gathering for centuries after livestock were first brought to the region. The first pastoralists in eastern Africa didn't suddenly switch to a diet ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Debunking a core chemistry concept taught in classrooms everywhere

A new study has revealed that a core idea taught in chemistry classrooms around the world may be wrong. Dr. Edwin Johnson, Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, co-authored the paper published in the Journal of Chemical ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / How hidden viruses wake up inside seaweed and pass on to future generations

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have shown that giant viruses long thought to exist only as fleeting, free-living particles that can embed themselves permanently in the genome of a multicellular ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Galactic collision may have reset Milky Way disk 11 billion years ago

A new study led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) reveals how the disks of galaxies like the Milky Way are affected ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / Nondestructive DNA sampling reveals 1,300 years of secrets in historic parchments

Researchers have demonstrated a nondestructive way to collect cellular material from historical parchment manuscripts, allowing them to conduct genetic analyses that offer new insights into everything from trade routes to ...

4 hours ago