Phys.org news

Unlike Earth, the moon no longer has a core-generated magnetic field. On our planet, the movement of liquid iron in the outer core generates a global magnetic field. This so-called geodynamo works on a similar principle to ...

For the first time, researchers have directly imaged the magnetization dynamics inside a spin Hall nano-oscillator—a nanoscale device that converts direct current into tunable microwave signals and is a promising building ...

If someone leaves the faucet running in your bathroom and the house floods, it's easy to assign responsibility for the damage. But for other disasters—bigger, more complicated and costlier ones—the link between cause and ...

Most primate species have relatively large brains with surfaces marked by pronounced bulges and furrows. This is not the case with common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). The brains of these small monkeys are smooth and virtually ...

Microorganisms regulate key processes in soils and aquifers, including nutrient cycling, carbon turnover and contaminant degradation. Many bacteria use chemotaxis, the ability to sense and swim toward chemical signals, to ...

The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, preceded by decades of breakthroughs in genetics. It eventually gave us a sequence of the human genome. Yet, while the physical rules behind the genome's organization remain ...

If you want to understand the origins of black holes, Yale astronomers say, you need to look beyond the centers of galaxies and start searching in the nooks and crannies. That's where you'll find the "wanderers"—black holes ...

Human and chimpanzee genomes are more than 98% identical, and the genes themselves barely differ. The changes that make us human are thought to hide instead in the DNA that controls when and where genes switch on.

Bacteriophages—or phages, for short—are viruses that kill bacteria, and scientists have been studying them for decades as a possible solution to antibiotic-resistant infections. But phages are notoriously picky eaters—a phage ...

Conditions on early Earth may have become stable enough to sustain the chemistry associated with the origins of life around 4.33 billion years ago, according to new research co-led by Planetary Science Institute senior scientist ...

In a new study, cats and dogs showed a short-term preference for kibble containing some protein derived from microorganisms over kibble containing only standard animal-derived protein. Ally Motta de Matos and A.L.B. Cruz ...

A new study has found that chemicals that can affect fertility and reproductive health are contaminating natural and drinking water supplies. The researchers involved in the study have also developed a tool to help detect ...