Phys.org news

Phys.org / Amazonian cocoa has a new edge: Two standout cultivars could change how growers fight witches' broom

Witches' broom disease, caused by the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, decimated cocoa crops in southern Bahia state, Brazil, in the 1990s. It was even the subject of a local soap opera and continues to plague the chocolate ...

3 hours ago
Phys.org / Molecular net boosts the power of natural biopesticides

Scientists at VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps a widely used biological pesticide become more effective. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals how ...

8 hours ago
Phys.org / Quantum-scale simulations and AI uncover promising 2D perovskites for future energy tech

Researchers at Clarkson University are advancing the use of artificial intelligence and computational physics to accelerate discovery of next-generation materials for quantum technologies, optoelectronics, and renewable energy ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / Integrated solar reactor paves way to make 'clean' chemicals, plastics and food using solar energy

A new study led by Dr. Lin Su of Queen Mary University of London, published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a new integrated solar reactor in which engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) are ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / Grokipedia selectively draws on more-right leaning news sources, says new study

A large-scale analysis of Grokipedia, the world's first AI-written encyclopedia, has found that while many Grokipedia articles closely resemble their Wikipedia counterparts, a substantial subset diverged markedly in style, ...

9 hours ago
Phys.org / New form of NAND flash data storage for deep space missions can survive 1 million rads

As space missions travel farther from Earth, spacecraft must increasingly be able to process and store their own data. Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) could be the primary tool for handling this growing volume of information.

10 hours ago
Phys.org / Overlooked 'history force' may skew particle motion by up to 60% in shaken fluids

Physicists at the University of Bayreuth have investigated the so-called Basset–Boussinesq history force acting on particles in fluids. Due to the difficulty of calculating it, this force is often neglected—a fact that Bayreuth ...

9 hours ago
Phys.org / Decoding the balance between life-and-death proteins

In every organism, the regulation of cell populations is a constant process. This balance relies on a continuous interplay between "guardian" proteins that promote cell survival and "killer" proteins that trigger programmed ...

9 hours ago
Phys.org / Protected areas that help wildlife often do little for the soil fungi on which plants depend

Governments around the world conserve plants and animals in part by setting aside land. Whether as wilderness reserves or as resource management zones that allow industrial activities such as logging, 17.4% of the planet's ...

4 hours ago
Phys.org / New 'Happy-Face' spider species discovered in the Indian Himalayas

Vibrant, tiny, and sporting a bright red grin on its back, the Happy-Face spider is one of the most famous and recognizable arachnids in the world. For over a century, this cheerful-looking creature was thought to be a unique ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Quantum-centric supercomputing simulates 12,635-atom protein

The scale of chemistry simulations with quantum computing has increased dramatically in just the last few months. In the latest milestone for the field, researchers from Cleveland Clinic, RIKEN, and IBM used a quantum-centric ...

10 hours ago
Phys.org / Brutal field trip provides new insights into Arctic winter

It was the hardest field trip they had ever been on, but the result was both surprising and exciting. After hiking 9 kilometers with a 400-meter elevation gain and carrying heavy backpacks through very rocky terrain, the ...

10 hours ago