Phys.org news
Phys.org / Hubble shows star formation in Andromeda galaxy is winding down
A new study using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope finds that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years. Andromeda, ...
Phys.org / Kids who own cellphones have poorer reading comprehension scores than those who don't, researchers find
School cellphone bans might seem like a good way to improve learning for elementary school children, but new research published in Behavioral Sciences shows that simply owning a cellphone correlates with worse reading comprehension. ...
Phys.org / How invasive rats rewire coral reef food webs to create winners and losers
Invasive rats on tropical islands are creating winners and losers among the tiny underwater animals near the bottom of the food chain that inhabit surrounding coral reefs. Scientists say the changes to these marine ecosystems ...
Phys.org / New thermodynamic framework explains pressure and edge currents in spinning active particles
Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), the Technical University of Darmstadt, Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Camerino (both in Italy) have calculated the fundamental laws of thermodynamics ...
Phys.org / Water's local asymmetry drives proton hopping between molecules, simulations reveal
Complex simulations—the most intricate of their kind to date—carried out by an international research team led by scientists at Heidelberg University's Institute for Physical Chemistry, have revealed how water governs the ...
Phys.org / Industrial poultry farming is accelerating the spread of a major foodborne disease
A new study by the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research at the University of Oxford reveals that industrial poultry farming has led to a more than 100-fold increase in the movement of Campylobacter, allowing ...
Phys.org / Thin films 'dance' with substrates that are no longer inert, opening path toward 3D chips
Many of today's electronic devices—from the semiconductors in your cell phone to the photovoltaic cells in your solar panels—are built on thin-film substrates. The thin film is an electrically conductive material, while the ...
Phys.org / Low-level cloud loss amplifies global warming, simulations suggest
Low-level clouds over Earth's oceans play a prominent role in keeping our planet cool by reflecting sunlight away from the surface. But their response to climate change has been hard to model. Now, researchers at Caltech ...
Phys.org / Highly tunable electro-optic isolator achieves one-way light flow on photonic chips
Integrated photonic devices—tiny circuits that use light instead of electrons—are becoming increasingly important for scalable photonics technologies and high-bandwidth communications. They are particularly valuable for managing ...
Phys.org / Scientists pinpoint where cells first begin copying DNA
Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and collaborators have uncovered one of the earliest steps in DNA replication: the moment a cell first opens its DNA to begin making a copy of its genome. The findings, ...
Phys.org / Saber-toothed cats' spinal tumors suggest inbred species struggled to survive
The fossilized spines of saber-toothed cats in the La Brea Tar Pits reveal evidence of an unexpectedly high prevalence of rare spinal nerve tumors, suggesting that the species became inbred just before extinction. These tumors, ...
Phys.org / Seven possible quasar lenses emerge from AI scan of 800,000 DESI objects
Quasars, distant cores of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, are among the most luminous objects in the universe. While not uncommon, their brightness can make it difficult to accurately measure the galaxies they ...
