Phys.org news
Phys.org / Platypus fur adds another strange feature to an increasingly long list
The combination of a beaver-like body and duck-like bill of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is only the first of a long list of strange features on this unique creature. These odd mammals also lay eggs, have venomous ...
Phys.org / Neanderthals may have used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties, experiments suggest
Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers led by Tjaark Siemssen of the University ...
Phys.org / Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find
Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged ...
Phys.org / Challenging a 300-year-old law of friction
Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that arises without any mechanical contact, driven purely by collective magnetic dynamics. The study, published ...
Phys.org / The way you walk can reveal your true feelings
Whether you're striding with purpose, swaggering with confidence, or trudging slowly along the street, the way you walk can reveal how you're feeling, according to new research published in the journal Royal Society Open ...
Phys.org / Microwave quantum network shows resilience against heat-related disturbances
Quantum communication systems are emerging solutions to transmit information between devices in a network leveraging quantum mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement. Entanglement is a quantum effect that entails a link ...
Phys.org / Clearest evidence yet that giant planets spin faster than their cosmic lookalikes
For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars. Through a telescope, these cosmic ...
Phys.org / Is glass a solid or a super slow liquid? Physicists create equilibrium glassy phase from rod-shaped particles
Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories ...
Phys.org / Most mass spectrometers can process just a few molecules at once: Reengineered prototype does a billion simultaneously
Mass spectrometry is already a powerful tool for determining what kind and how many molecules are present in a given sample. But most instruments still analyze their molecules one or just a few at a time, an approach that ...
Phys.org / Clearing circular RNA from cells extends lifespan, C. elegans study reveals
Cells in our bodies produce RNA based on genetic information stored in DNA, and RNA serves as a blueprint for making proteins. Researchers at KAIST have discovered a new phenomenon: Removing "circular RNA" that accumulates ...
Phys.org / NASA's Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up
In a happy twist of fate, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule. The findings are published in the journal ...
Phys.org / A 'consortium' of bacteria cooperates to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can't stomach
Plastic trash has reached the world's most remote locations, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest. Hundreds of plastic-eating microbes that could help us clean up have been discovered over the past ...
