Phys.org news
Phys.org / A hidden reason inner ear cells die—and what it means for preventing hearing loss
Proteins long known to be essential for hearing have been hiding a talent: they also act as gatekeepers that shuffle fatty molecules across cell membranes. When this newly discovered function goes haywire—due to genetic ...
Phys.org / Australian sea lion pups learn diving and foraging skills from their mothers
Research from Adelaide University and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) has shown for the first time that Australian sea lion pups can learn foraging behavior from their mothers. Social information ...
Phys.org / Are one in 200 men really related to Genghis Khan? Maybe not, according to a new study
In present day Kazakhstan, both local folklore and genetic evidence found buried in royal tombs have shone a light on the region's ties to Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. New DNA analysis of ruling elites from the Golden ...
Phys.org / Saturday Citations: A virus that makes its own proteins; a new Spinosaurus; exercise beats anxiety
This week in the scientific process: researchers reported the first-ever shark sighted in Antarctic waters. Penguins beware! Biologists report that honey bees navigate more precisely than previously thought. And not all humans ...
Phys.org / Mirror image pheromones help beetles 'swipe right' to find mates
There are many ways to communicate with prospective romantic partners. If you are a Japanese scarab beetle, it's a matter of distinguishing left from right. New work from U.S. and Chinese scientists, published this week in ...
Phys.org / Sometimes less is more: Messier nanoparticles may actually deliver drugs more effectively than tightly packed ones
The tiny fatty capsules that deliver COVID-19 mRNA vaccines into billions of arms may work better when they're a little disorganized. That's the surprising finding from researchers who developed a new way to examine these ...
Phys.org / How tuberculosis bacteria use a 'stealth' mechanism to evade the immune system
Scientists have uncovered an elegant biophysical trick that tuberculosis-causing bacteria use to survive inside human cells, a discovery that could lead to new strategies for fighting one of the world's deadliest infectious ...
Phys.org / A low-cost microscope to study living cells in zero gravity
As space agencies prepare for human missions to the moon and Mars, scientists need to understand how the absence of gravity affects living cells. Now, a team of researchers has built a rugged, affordable microscope that can ...
Phys.org / New generation of climate models sheds first light on long-standing Pacific puzzle
Researchers have long been puzzled by the observed cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific and the Southern Ocean accompanying global warming. Existing climate models have failed to capture this pattern. At the Max Planck ...
Phys.org / Supercomputer simulations reveal rotation drives chemical mixing in red giant stars
Advances in supercomputing have made solving a long‐standing astronomical conundrum possible: How can we explain the changes in the chemical composition at the surface of red giant stars as they evolve?
Phys.org / Chemists synthesize first stable copper metallocene complex, closing a 70-year gap
Almost half a century ago, a remarkable molecule called metallocene took center stage in chemistry, earning Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst Otto Fischer the Nobel Prize. These organic compounds, made of a transition metal "sandwiched" ...
Phys.org / Living tissues are shaped by self-propelled topological defects, biophysicists find
With a new mathematical model, a team of biophysicists has revealed fresh insights into how biological tissues are shaped by the active motion of structural imperfections known as "topological defects." Published in Physical ...