Phys.org news
Phys.org / Beyond the algorithm, online negativity takes on a life of its own as users try to stand out
It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that social media can trend toward the negative. But it might take one to figure out why. In a new paper in PNAS, professor of psychology Joshua Conrad Jackson and colleagues show ...
Phys.org / Melting diamond could unlock triple fusion gain and the secrets of ice giant planets
Diamond is more than a dazzling gem—the extremely hard form of carbon makes up the pellet that encases fuel for inertial confinement fusion, and scientists believe it rains down deep inside ice giant planets like Neptune ...
Phys.org / Climate change decided who ruled as top predator 35 million years ago
An international team of researchers from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and the U.S. has reconstructed the evolution of body mass in carnivorous mammals during the Paleogene—a crucial window in the diversification of ...
Phys.org / What a dry meteorite tells us about water on Mars
Detecting water where none remains today: Neutron and X-ray tomography make it possible. In an international study conducted with the participation of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, researchers have brought to light macroscopic ...
Phys.org / One in four cocoa farm audits contain data manipulated to meet sustainability targets, researchers find
ETH researchers have used a sustainability program for cocoa cultivation in Côte d'Ivoire to demonstrate that, in one in four cases, data was manipulated to meet the program's requirements. If the auditor were aware of the ...
Phys.org / Thinking fast and slow: Wild fish reveal how cognition evolved in two closely related species
Why do two individuals faced with the same information sometimes make completely different decisions? It is a question made famous by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, whose book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" explored the contrast ...
Phys.org / Soft-bodied sea slug reconfigures anatomy to simplify feeding control
Made entirely of muscle, with no rigid skeleton, muscular hydrostats like octopus arms, elephant trunks and human tongues can move in ways traditional mechanical systems cannot. Between crawling across the seafloor, picking ...
Phys.org / Satellite data reveal tropical forests respond differently to climate across continents
Satellite images can be used to estimate how much carbon forests store as aboveground biomass (AGB) and how biomass varies in different forests. In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers affiliated ...
Phys.org / Indigenous land restitution empowers communities, but environmental gains require extra support
Charting a better future will require redressing the problems of the past. That's one reason many countries have begun to return dispossessed land to Indigenous peoples. The goal of Indigenous land restitution is to empower ...
Phys.org / Fungal age remains elusive as underground networks continually grow, split and recycle
Some of Earth's oldest living organisms may be right beneath our feet: not ancient trees or coral reefs but fungi. Yet despite their ubiquity and importance, scientists still don't know how long most fungi can live—or even ...
Phys.org / Understanding nature's 'dimmer switch': Study sheds new light on how algae regulate photosynthesis with pH
A new joint study from Constructor University and Princeton University in the Journal of the American Chemical Society focuses on PC645, a protein complex that contributes to cryptophyte algae's ability to photosynthesize ...
Phys.org / A magnetic path to lower-power computing
From smartphones to data centers, modern electronics rely on billions of tiny switches that consume electricity every time they turn on or off. As global demand for computing continues to grow, so does the energy required ...
