Phys.org news

Some of the best engineers and inventors are copycats. They look at how the natural world solves complex problems and use those mechanisms as the basis for innovations. But Mother Nature doesn't always give up her secrets ...

Superconductors, materials that can carry electric current with an electrical resistance of zero, have proved to be promising for the development of various technologies, including medical devices, particle accelerators and ...

A remarkably preserved elephant tooth previously recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA)—a prehistoric site in northern Israel where early humans made stone tools some 700,000 years ago—has now enabled researchers to ...

Tiny, shapeless invaders can find their way from ponds to the human brain and cause an infection so severe that it has a 95% fatality rate. The amoeba Naegleria fowleri naturally lives in ponds, feasting on bacteria, but ...

A giant isopod from Puerto Rico, rediscovered in the depository of the University of Tübingen's Paleontological Collection, has turned out to be a previously unknown species.

Just two weeks after it was launched, the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite returned its first images and measurements from two of its key instruments—a major milestone that confirms the satellite is working well and on track ...

Using data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, with help from artificial intelligence, an international team of scientists has discovered 70 new gravitational lenses—rare cosmic alignments that act as natural magnifying ...

Researchers may have uncovered the reason why some of Earth's earliest animals were commonly preserved as fossils—even though they were essentially fragile "bags of goo"—while later soft-bodied creatures have largely disappeared ...

Astronomers have detected and traced the most distant fast radio burst ever recorded, a powerful flash of radio waves that traveled for more than 10 billion years across the cosmos before reaching Earth.

Wild African savanna elephants use a wide range of gestures when competing with other elephants, according to research from an international group of scientists, including researchers from the University of Portsmouth, University ...

Pokémon, sports and other physical trading and collectible cards have been around for decades but have surged in popularity since COVID. These cards are usually obtained through gambling-like packs containing random cards. ...

A prehistoric cold case near Drumheller reveals either a small-time raptor scavenged on an apex predator, or a baby Albertosaurus engaged in a shocking act of cannibalism. These two possible explanations for what happened ...