Phys.org news

In many primate species, males are much larger than their female counterparts, which is generally attributed to male competition for mates (sexual selection). But bigger bodies may not just be about alpha males defeating ...

Rice plants and Venus flytraps share something in common that was not scientifically documented until recently. Using a faint smell to lure caterpillars into a trap, rice plants killed early-stage fall armyworm larvae by ...

Have you ever wondered if the simple building blocks of life could one day power our wearable electronics? Glycine, the simplest amino acid found in our bodies, has a superpower in its β-phase form: it is highly piezoelectric, ...

The task of gently transporting a microscopic particle from one point to another along a winding path, and then bringing it back using nothing more than a single, compact chip is a challenge we set out to address in our new ...

Buffalo's legendary snowfall totals are largely the result of one unlucky geographic reality: the city sits east of the Great Lakes instead of west. Anyone who has lived through a winter in Buffalo, Cleveland or any snowbelt ...

The twinkling stars in the night sky are not just beautiful to look at. Their flickering reveals something about the varying temperatures and densities in the layers of Earth's atmosphere, which refract the light as it travels ...

Horses were being ridden, worked, and traded long before anyone thought it possible. New research pushes back the accepted timeline of human use of horses by centuries, showing that humans used horses in organized ways as ...

Sea levels are rising not only on average, but also in their seasonal fluctuations. This is a lesser-known trend that could have major consequences for mudflats, salt marshes and other coastal ecosystems. Researchers from ...

Researchers have developed a technique to analyze how black holes "ring" when they collide and merge: one of the universe's most dramatic events. When black holes merge, the collision produces a new, larger black hole that ...

As the U.S. and other countries expand clean energy, large hydropower dams, often seen as a reliable renewable solution, can come with significant environmental and social costs if not planned thoughtfully.

Oxygen is a cornerstone of chemistry, largely because it is so good at building the organic molecules that make up our world. Some oxygen-based compounds called peroxides are famous for being highly reactive—they act like ...

The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instruments aboard ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft and NASA's Europa Clipper made unique observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS ...