Phys.org news

Young umbrella acacia trees in Africa survive severe drought by putting their natural processes into overdrive when water is in short supply, prioritizing continued growth over water conservation, new research shows.

Massive birds whose loud wingbeats and rollicking cries resound through tropical rainforests, African hornbills were a common sight in my experience working in Gabon, Central Africa, 30 years ago. Highly gregarious, African ...

Life just got more difficult for those fighting antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Researchers at McGill University have discovered two enzymes that use a never-before-seen mechanism to confer resistance, opening a whole new ...

The most dangerous animal in the world just got easier to study—and perhaps defeat one day. Researchers from Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, in collaboration with mosquito experts around ...

Nitrogen is an important component of the global environment, affecting agriculture, climate, human health, and ecosystems. The role of the nitrogen cycle has become more widely appreciated, yet Earth system models (ESMs) ...

A fragment of a mask that was preserved for hundreds of years in permafrost sat in the muck of a low tide in the western Alaska community of Quinhagak. Wooden spoons, toys, a fishing lure and other artifacts were strewn, ...

Throughout history, crises have often led to collapse—but not always. An international team of researchers, including members of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), highlights four cases where societies under extreme pressure ...

Leiden researchers, led by Sebastian Pomplun, have developed a new method to screen hundreds of thousands of molecules for drug discovery, using mass spectrometry instead of DNA tags. "We wanted to make drug discovery faster ...

A study appearing in Nature Microbiology analyzes soils sampled across the state of Kansas to determine the importance of "legacy effects"—or how soils from a specific location are influenced by microbes that have evolved ...

The origins of vivid colors within the gemstone ammolite—a rare type of brightly colored fossilized ammonite shell—are reported in research published in Scientific Reports.

When chatting with friends these days, there's a good chance Americans are talking about politics, and they're more likely to be talking with people they agree with politically instead of crossing lines of belief.

Diverse life forms exist on and within the ocean floor. These primarily consist of microbes, tiny organisms that can cope with extreme environmental conditions. These include high pressures and salinities, as well as extreme ...