Phys.org news
Phys.org / Sourdough starters: How flour choice shapes microbial communities
Sourdough starter, a fermented mix of flour and water, is a staple for bakers. It's also a rich experimental testing ground for microbiologists. The bread's chewy texture and tangy taste arise from the mix of microbes that ...
Phys.org / An 'origami' airless wheel to explore lunar caves
A joint research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (UEL) has developed a transformative wheel capable of navigating the moon's most extreme terrains, ...
Phys.org / Conventional entanglement can have thousands of hidden topologies in high dimensions
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, in collaboration with Huzhou University, discovered that the entanglement workhorse of most quantum optics laboratories can have hidden topologies, reporting ...
Phys.org / A 'scientific sandbox' lets researchers explore the evolution of vision systems
Why did humans evolve the eyes we have today? While scientists can't go back in time to study the environmental pressures that shaped the evolution of the diverse vision systems that exist in nature, a new computational framework ...
Phys.org / One and done is not enough: Study challenges traditional evolutionary research
Every living being must cope with a changing world—summer gives way to winter, one year it floods and the next is a drought. It's obvious that populations of plants and animals must constantly face new challenges, says ...
Phys.org / Soil molecular diversity spikes as microbes decompose plants, researchers discover
Globally, soils contain three times as much carbon as exists in the atmosphere and all plants, combined. Which means that understanding how soil microbes recycle organic materials—sometimes sending CO2 back into the atmosphere, ...
Phys.org / Q&A: Climate shifts drove carnivores' evolution from mongoose-like ancestors to diverse forms
The ancestors of our furry cats and dogs once looked similar to today's modern mongoose, a mammal with a long body and small, round ears. In fact, all members of the order Carnivora, which includes a variety of mammalian ...
Phys.org / Rate of US coastal sea level rise doubled in the past century, study finds
A July 2025 report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) claims that U.S. tide gauge measurements "in aggregate show no obvious acceleration in sea level rise beyond the historical average rate." However, a new study by ...
Phys.org / Shortest light pulse ever created captures ultrafast electron dynamics
Electrons determine everything: how chemical reactions unfold, how materials conduct electricity, how biological molecules transfer energy, and how quantum technologies operate. But electron dynamics happens on attosecond ...
Phys.org / Carbon-based filter removes PFAS from groundwater in field tests
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been mass produced for decades in consumer products like frying pans, water-resistant clothing, food packaging and cosmetics. They have also been used in a range of industrial ...
Phys.org / Genetic teamwork may be the secret to climate-resilient plants
A plant's success may depend on how well the three sets of genetic instructions it carries in its cells cooperate, according to a new study led by plant scientists at Penn State. In an analysis of the hybrids of two crossbred ...
Phys.org / In echo of Jurassic Park, mosquitoes capture entire ecosystems in their blood meals
Jurassic Park—and its never-ending sequels and spinoffs—starts with a basic premise: extracting the DNA of long-dead dinosaurs from mosquitoes frozen in amber.
