Phys.org news
Phys.org / RNA barcoding approach reveals previously unknown virus–host relationships
An interdisciplinary team of Rice University researchers has uncovered previously unknown relationships between bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—and their bacterial hosts, offering a powerful new tool for next-generation ...
Phys.org / Could Earth have sent life to Jupiter's moon Europa?
Could Earth have seeded Jupiter's moon Europa with bacterial life, where it could have taken hold in Europa's ocean and perhaps evolved into something more? That's the hypothesis of a new paper in the International Journal ...
Phys.org / Third time's the charm for a row of faint galaxies without dark matter
A Yale-led team of astronomers has found a third galaxy devoid of dark matter—located alongside the other two in a formation that has never been seen before. Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third ...
Phys.org / Random deformation lets glassy materials store precise mechanical memories, simulations reveal
Amorphous materials such as glass are solids whose internal structure lacks a repeating pattern. Their molecules are arranged in a random and irregular way. Surprisingly, these disordered materials can "remember" past mechanical ...
Phys.org / Powerful UFO spotted blasting from a distant black hole
Astronomers have detected one of the most powerful ultra-fast outflows ever seen from a distant supermassive black hole. Using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, a team studied a hyper-luminous quasar at cosmic noon and found two distinct ...
Phys.org / A flexible graphene-based neural interface can 'speak and listen' to the brain
Neural interfaces are devices that can detect or modulate neuronal activity when placed in contact with the brain. They are already used to treat various conditions related to the nervous system. However, current technologies ...
Phys.org / Super El Niños may lose their punch in a warming world
In a strong El Niño winter, normally dry regions can suddenly drown in rain. NASA notes that "typically dry regions can experience nearly two times as much rain during a strong El Niño." Indeed, the blockbuster El Niños of ...
Phys.org / Why one famous predator shrank two ways: Fossils reveal distinct growth strategies in early Permian Dimetrodon
The sail-backed predator Dimetrodon is one of the most iconic animals of the early Permian—long before dinosaurs dominated Earth. Most known species of this early relative of mammals reached large body sizes, sometimes up ...
Phys.org / 'Geriatric' butterfly species lives nearly three times as long as their relatives
A tropical butterfly has evolved an ingenious anti-aging strategy by delaying the aging process, enabling it to live far longer than its closest relatives, according to a new University of Bristol-led study published in Nature ...
Phys.org / Physicists identify upper limit to resistivity in a pure metal
Experimental atomic physicists have discovered there is a maximum amount of electrical resistance, or resistivity, that can result from collisions between electrons.
Phys.org / AI system evaluates chemical spectra in minutes
A research team has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that proposes suitable molecular structures from the raw data of spectroscopic measurements and assesses their plausibility. The system is openly accessible ...
Dialog / Slaughter in the water: Can the Ramsar Convention protect African waterbirds?
The Ramsar Convention is the world's longest-standing international treaty for wetland and waterbird protection. Signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl ...