Phys.org news
Phys.org / Humans first entered Australia 60,000 years ago via two routes, DNA analysis suggests
Debate has long surrounded when humans first traveled into Sahul, the ancient landmass that is now Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Now, a study published in Science Advances, lends credence to the theory that the first ...
Phys.org / Close brush with two hot stars millions of years ago left a mark just beyond our solar system
Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two large, hot stars brushed tantalizingly close to Earth's sun. They left behind a trace in the clouds of gas and dust that swirl just beyond our solar system—almost like the scent of perfume ...
Phys.org / New digital state of matter could help build stable quantum computers
Scientists have taken another major step toward creating stable quantum computers. Using a specialized quantum computer chip (an essential component of a quantum computer) as a kind of tiny laboratory, a team led by Pan Jianwei ...
Phys.org / Fossils reveal anacondas have been giants for over 12 million years
A University of Cambridge-led team has analyzed giant anaconda fossils from South America to deduce that these tropical snakes reached their maximum size 12.4 million years ago and have remained giants ever since.
Phys.org / Elephant seals recognize their rivals from years prior, study finds
Humans are not the only animals that can remember the voices of their old acquaintances. Elephant seals, too, can remember the calls of their rivals even a year later.
Phys.org / Evidence of rain-driven climate on Mars found in bleached rocks scattered in Jezero crater
Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable ...
Phys.org / Why your faucet drips: Water jet breakup traced to angstrom-scale thermal capillary waves
Some phenomena in our daily lives are so commonplace that we don't realize there could be some very interesting physics behind them. Take a dripping faucet: why does the continuous stream of water from a faucet eventually ...
Phys.org / Are university policies holding science back? Study shows how patenting boosts pure research
When UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna first began studying how bacteria fight virus infections, she had no idea it would result in one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century. Her curiosity-driven ...
Phys.org / Scientists can finally answer an old question about cellular aging
After a finite number of divisions, cells simply give up. As each round of replication trims their telomeres—the protective caps at the chromosome ends—those caps eventually become too short to prevent chromosome ends ...
Phys.org / Do super-Jupiters look like Jupiter? Not necessarily, study shows
Using images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), an international research team including Western's Stanimir Metchev has discovered new answers to explain how some brown dwarfs form giant dust storms, contradicting ...
Phys.org / Extensive hydrothermal vent field discovered off Milos reveals tectonic influence
A new study published in Scientific Reports reports the discovery of a remarkably extensive hydrothermal vent field on the shelf of Milos Island, Greece. The vents were identified during the METEOR expedition M192, where ...
Phys.org / Bird-of-paradise inspires darkest fabric ever made
The color "ultrablack"—defined as reflecting less than 0.5% of the light that hits it—has a variety of uses, including in cameras, solar panels and telescopes, but it's difficult to produce and can appear less black when ...
