Phys.org news

In the last few centuries, mammals and other animals have been going extinct at least 100 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene. So who will be next? Which species are most likely to survive, and which ...

Archaeological artifacts offer valuable insights into the history of past societies. They reveal not only technological developments but also the changing economic systems, cultural traditions and everyday practices of the ...

When different materials transition from one phase to another, such as water coming to a boil or a magnet losing its ability to attract metals, something remarkable can happen: They begin to behave identically, following ...

As they build their nests, many birds are known to interweave dried grasses and other materials with green plants, such as fresh leaves, grass stems, herbs and aromatic leaves. While this behavior is well documented, why ...

Standing on the sandy, windswept shores of Provincetown, Massachusetts, people may find themselves squinting at the horizon, waiting for a whale to make its grand entrance with a spectacular breach.

Quantum computers hold great promise for applications from drug discovery to cybersecurity. Yet figuring out what would give quantum computers their edge over everyday "classical" computers is a subtle problem. A new theoretical ...

Astronomers have detected an enormous cloud of gas tens of millions of degrees hot surrounding one of the most extreme structures known in the early universe. The study offers one of the clearest views yet of a galaxy cluster ...

Quantum batteries, devices that store energy by exploiting quantum mechanical phenomena, could, in principle, be charged faster and more efficiently than classical ones. Despite their potential, connecting these batteries ...

We reach for brighter, better lighting for sharper pictures, whether we're photographing a puppy or a microscopic cell. In most cases, the light comes from outside the object being photographed. A recent study explored a ...

Scientists had previously observed that some species of shrews undergo a form of biological plasticity in which their bodies, skulls, brains and some organs shrink in the winter, then regrow in the spring. Now, a new study ...

From a fishing trawler in the Adriatic, Italian scientists gently release thousands of tiny octopuses in the hope of fighting an invasive crab species that has devastated local fisheries.

Volcanoes emit smoke. Beneath a volcano lies a huge chamber filled with liquid magma. A series of earthquakes means an eruption is imminent. And if a "supervolcano" like Yellowstone were to awaken, a global catastrophe would ...