Phys.org news

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are often described as a "fifth state of matter": a quantum state in which many particles lose their individual identities and behave as one collective object. For more than 60 years, researchers ...

For more than 60 years, evolutionary biologists have debated whether a unique genetic system found in ants, bees and wasps helps explain one of nature's most remarkable innovations: eusociality, a form of social organization ...

Wastewater treatment is a critical issue for global environmental protection and public health. Researchers from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have recently achieved a major breakthrough with ...

Our DNA is often pictured as a simple spiral, like a piece of rope held taut. But inside cells, it folds into a complex three-dimensional structure, with 2 meters (6.6 feet) of DNA scrunched like a headphone wire in a pocket. ...

Modern photonic chips can pack sophisticated optical functions onto devices smaller than a fingernail. They are increasingly used to generate, manipulate and measure light for applications ranging from communications to sensing. ...

Data released by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) marks a landmark expansion in the study of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs). As part of the fifth generation of the survey (SDSS-V), the Black Hole Mapper (BHM) ...

An international study led by Flinders University has found a fertile area of inspiration to explain an important step in evolution—and it's a whole lot of poop. The new study describes the "fecal revolution" to explain a ...

A team of scientists has announced the discovery of Erhaia dijiang, a species of eyeless freshwater cave snail.

Researchers at the 4th Physics Institute of the University of Stuttgart and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Milan have demonstrated a new mechanism for directing light in a naturally hyperbolic van der Waals ...

A diamond-based quantum sensor inserted into a living cell can provide previously unseen levels of detail about how life works and how diseases form. "Think of it as an EKG for a single cell—a way to capture everything happening ...

University of British Columbia researchers have developed an edible, seaweed-derived coating that can keep strawberries fresh for at least four days at room temperature, outperforming uncoated berries stored in the refrigerator.

Smithsonian researchers have identified the genetic relationships among all Hawaiian honeycreeper species known to have existed—and subsequently faced major losses—since the arrival of Europeans to the islands.