Phys.org news
Phys.org / Grasses provide most of the world's calories—but we're only now starting to learn how they grow
If we want to dismiss something as irrelevant, we'd say that it's "as boring as watching the grass grow." And yet grasses—including corn, wheat and rice—make up most of the plant-based calories humans eat, as well as most ...
Phys.org / Tiny worms reveal backup circuits that keep survival reflexes from failing
A research team led by Professor Chaogu Zheng from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with scientists from Princeton University and Columbia University, has discovered ...
Phys.org / Intricate molecular mechanisms help bacteria evade immune detection
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a novel mechanism used by the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea to evade immune detection and achieve widespread infection, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings ...
Phys.org / Capturing the cosmic 'drift' before a star is born
Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of ...
Dialog / Dark energy flips its sign, but the Hubble tension refuses to budge
For nearly a century, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. In the late 1990s, two independent teams, the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team, led by ...
Phys.org / Darwin's 150‑year‑old hillside steps mystery may have a new answer from virtual grazing animals
Steep hillsides and mountainsides in many regions worldwide are often covered in characteristic step-like patterns, also known as terracettes. These repeating landforms have fascinated scientists for more than a century, ...
Phys.org / Why natural forests survive heat waves better than planted forests
When a record-breaking drought and heat wave swept across China's Yangtze River Basin in 2022, forests across the region faced an extreme test. The event provided a rare opportunity for researchers to test how different forests ...
Phys.org / New Jurassic dinosaur species identified in Thailand from a single bone
A new study published in Scientific Reports describes the identification of a new species of long-necked dinosaur found in the Phu Kradung Formation in Thailand. The team calls the dinosaur Uragasaurus kalasinensis and says ...
Phys.org / Hidden health risks found in New York City's free-roaming cats
Cats may be cute and adorable, but stray and feral cats can sometimes pose a risk to human health. Veterinary researchers have discovered that more than 50% of free-roaming cats in New York City carry parasites that could ...
Phys.org / Warm Jupiter exoplanet transiting a sun-like star discovered
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The newfound alien world, designated NGTS-39 b, is a Jupiter-sized ...
Phys.org / Bacteria turn dissolved uranium into stable compound in 130 days, study finds
Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), together with Wismut GmbH and scientists from the University of Granada in Spain, have demonstrated for the first time that bacteria can convert uranium dissolved ...
Phys.org / Physical laws explain why most flies evolved similar flight, with mosquitoes as outliers
A new study in PLOS Biology of 133 species of flies, mosquitoes and their relatives shows that most species fly in surprisingly similar ways. Physical and aerodynamic laws shape the evolution of their flight behavior more ...
