Phys.org news
Phys.org / Urban growth may slow by 2100, leaving big cities smaller than expected
The world is urbanizing fast. In 1975, about 11% of the global population lived in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. "Today, we estimate that share to be about 24%," says Andrea Musso, junior fellow at the Complexity ...
Phys.org / Cyclic sealing and drainage on the Gofar Oceanic Transform Fault revealed
Oceanic transform faults are strike-slip boundaries—faults that move horizontally rather than up and down and connect offset mid-ocean ridge segments. They have long been regarded as simple "conservative" plate boundaries ...
Phys.org / Deep-sea extremophile yields protein that forms super stable biofilm
Scientists discovered a protein secreted by a deep-sea extremophile—an organism adapted to extreme environmental conditions—that self-assembles into a biofilm and is highly stable, boosting its potential for biomedical applications.
Phys.org / Cultural values may decide when comforting others feels like real support
When someone you love is upset, your first instinct may be to comfort them. To reassure them. To make them feel better. But what if that instinct isn't universal?
Phys.org / Table sugar could hold a cheaper, quicker key to making vital drugs
Pioneering research has developed a new way of creating carbohydrate-based medicines that could ultimately replace costly drugs for common health conditions, using two cheap basic ingredients—table sugar and vinegar.
Phys.org / Structural blueprint for RNA therapeutics reveals why some siRNA molecules work better than others
RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used. Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the discovery of RNA interference has since been harnessed ...
Phys.org / Analyzing avalanches on asteroid Vesta offers new method for understanding regolith processes
A study conducted at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris uses images from NASA's Dawn mission and a Bayesian inversion of the Hapke photometric model to analyze avalanches and ejecta deposits on the asteroid Vesta. ...
Phys.org / Understudied enzyme helps S. aureus pathogen prosper, study finds
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has offered insight into how Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, fine-tunes its internal machinery to survive stress and potentially ...
Phys.org / When mitochondria grow abnormally long, leaked RNA may activate anti-tumor immune responses
Researchers from the University of Osaka have demonstrated that mitochondrial hyperfusion, when induced by low levels of DRP1 or cellular stress, activates an immune response through the RIG-I–MAVS pathway. Dependent on the ...
Phys.org / There may be 3 times more insect species than previously thought
A new estimate of insect species globally finds that there may be 8 million to 14 million more species than people thought, with few of them discovered.
Phys.org / Ultra-faint galaxy discovered near Andromeda may be 12.5 billion years old
A new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered in the vicinity of Andromeda (M31), the Milky Way's large neighboring galaxy. The new study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics suggests that the galaxy, named And XXXVI, ...
Phys.org / Why Europe's rising plant diversity may signal habitat disruption, not ecological recovery
The number of plant species in many ecosystems in Europe has grown rather than shrunk over the last 100 years. However, this is not necessarily cause for celebration, as this local increase is primarily due to generalists ...
