Phys.org news
Phys.org / Tungsten may suffer more radiation damage in fusion reactors than expected
Fusion reactors, devices that generate energy by fusing light atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures, could contribute to ongoing efforts aimed at producing electricity more sustainably. The extreme environment inside ...
Phys.org / Neptune's tiny moons tell the story of Triton's destructive capture
Neptune's moon and ring system stand out among the giant planets because of the strange imbalance between its one very large moon and its many tiny moons. Its largest moon, Triton, makes up more than 99% of the mass of all ...
Phys.org / After commercial whaling nearly erased them, blue and fin whales are slowly reclaiming the southeast Atlantic
More than 40 years after the end of commercial whaling, new research reveals a recent increase in sightings of the world's two largest whale species in the southeastern Atlantic. The findings, published in the African Journal ...
Phys.org / Nonrepeating photonic crystal may enable more tunable, reliable semiconductor lasers
Over the past two decades, photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) have shown promise as a type of advanced semiconductor laser useful in defense- and aerospace-related applications. Typically, these devices are ...
Phys.org / Black-box technologies could undermine confidence in scientific findings
Scientists are increasingly relying on powerful data sources and tools that they often cannot fully understand, inspect or verify, according to a new study.
Phys.org / Four more belugas arrive at Chicago aquarium from shuttered Canadian theme park
Four more belugas have arrived at a Chicago aquarium as part of a plan to move Canada's last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park to aquariums in the United States and Spain.
Phys.org / Scientists simulating ant swarms find a 'first mover' can set the colony in motion
In ant colonies, a single ant can be the catalyst for a wave of mob activity, launching brief bursts of coordinated movement involving hundreds or even thousands of swarming workers, according to new simulations from New ...
Phys.org / Quantum Latin squares cannot solve Euler's 36 officers problem without entanglement
Latin squares are arrangements of symbols in a grid in which every symbol appears exactly once in each row and column. These symbol arrangements, which were first studied more than three centuries ago, are now widely used ...
Phys.org / Mysterious Cygnus Bubble may trace back to microquasar, astronomers suggest
Astronomers have proposed a new explanation for the mysterious Cygnus Bubble, a vast cloud of ultra-high-energy gamma rays stretching thousands of light-years across the sky. While the bubble has generally been linked to ...
Phys.org / Rings forged from meteorites may have been fashionable among ancient Greek elites
Meteorites provided a rare but ready source of iron for ancient Bronze Age cultures before smelting became common. A new study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, sheds light on how the ancient Minoan and ...
Phys.org / Guangzhou crucibles provide earliest direct evidence of brass-making in East Asia
For centuries, scholars have read ancient documents describing the production of brass in 10th-century A.D. China. The problem was that the earliest physical evidence of brass production would be found nearly 600 years later, ...
Phys.org / Human blood may have helped preserve ancient Chinese rock art for 2,000 years
The Huashan rock art landscape in southern China, close to the border with Vietnam, is a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage site. Thousands of images are painted on river cliffs across more than 80 locations stretching 260 ...