Phys.org news

As materials become thinner—now reaching the thickness of single atoms—it has become increasingly difficult to create sufficiently large sheets and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. Recent work by a broad ...

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown law of geometry that explains why some growing surfaces, whether in nature or in engineered materials, suddenly stop being able to stay smooth and instead form dimples and folds. ...

Scientists have discovered a new way to determine how big an earthquake may become just seconds after it begins. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Cal ...

New research, led by the University of Glasgow reveals that adaptation to warmer waters causes fish to display a range of behavioral and biological differences, including obesity, overeating and lower metabolism.

For lakes across the Northern Hemisphere, winter ice is more than a frozen surface. It is a seasonal regulator that shapes underwater ecosystems and energy balance. But as the planet warms, this frozen season is disappearing ...

For decades, scientists have largely relied on painstaking trial and error to coax proteins into crystalline forms. Crystallization enables scientists to determine the molecular structures of proteins, which can provide a ...

You might not often think about the molars of livestock, but everything from the grass they eat to the water they drink can tell a story about how people lived centuries ago. An international collaboration led by University ...

Landslides cause an estimated $3 billion to $6 billion in damage and multiple fatalities annually in the United States. Those numbers could easily increase as housing needs spur development in landslide-prone areas and climate ...

Forest trees growing in air containing higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) radically change the way they "cycle" nitrogen, a key plant nutrient, with implications for forests as a nature-based climate solution.

Scientists have found a genetic switch that could shave years off avocado breeding by allowing researchers to identify one of a young tree's most important traits long before it flowers.

Over the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly interested in developing materials that do not simply withstand mechanical forces but instead respond to them in useful, detectable ways. For example, it is now ...

A new study on how rising temperatures will affect rice production in Science Advances compares 214 observations from field-warming experiments with seven crop models, revealing modeled estimates for yield reductions from ...