Phys.org news
Phys.org / Well-behaved dogs generally have lower cortisol and higher serotonin, study finds
Dogs who scored well on the Wesen test, which is used to analyze a dog's temperament, tended to have lower levels of cortisol, often called the "stress hormone," and higher levels of serotonin, often called the "happiness ...
Phys.org / From single queens to mega-colonies: How ant societies are shaped by the environment
A single queen in the tropics; large colonies in deserts; workers with uniform morphology in temperate regions; ant social structures vary according to environmental conditions. This is shown, for the first time at a global ...
Phys.org / Exposure to burn injuries played key role in shaping human evolution, study suggests
Humans' exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping how our bodies heal, fight infection, and sometimes fail under extreme injury, according to new ...
Phys.org / Olives have been essential to life in Italy for at least 6,000 years—far longer than we thought
How far back does the rich history of Italian olives and oil stretch? My new research, published in the American Journal of Archaeology, synthesizing and reevaluating existing archaeological evidence, suggests olive trees ...
Phys.org / Are returning Pumas putting Patagonian Penguins at risk? New study reveals the likelihood
Should we protect an emblematic species if it may come at the cost of another one—particularly in ecosystems that are still recovering from human impacts? This is the conservation dilemma facing Monte Leon National Park, ...
Phys.org / From sea to space: Turning the tide on microplastic pollution with satellite technology
What do microplastics, water color, and satellites have in common? Dr. Karl Kaiser, professor of marine and coastal environmental science in the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies at Texas A&M University at Galveston ...
Phys.org / Friendly bacteria can unlock hidden metabolic pathways in plant cell cultures
Plants are a rich and renewable source of compounds used in medicines, food ingredients, and cosmetics. Since growing an entire plant just to extract a few specific compounds is rather inefficient, scientists are turning ...
Phys.org / Experiments with 1,600 volunteers link social exclusion to higher interest in gossip
Ages ago, when societies were organized around small villages, a person's security and sense of belonging depended partly on how close they were to the village chiefs and elders. If the village was attacked, those closest ...
Phys.org / Reuniting forcibly separated families: How a machine-learning model can help
Around the world, millions of families have suffered forcible separation, through war, trafficking, natural disasters, or socioeconomic crises. In China, family separation is a particularly large-scale and far-reaching problem. ...
Phys.org / Hard to recycle packaging? This glue could let plastics peel apart on cue
Newcastle University engineers are at the forefront of adhesive technology that promises to change how we recycle. They have developed a reversible glue that sticks things together like any other glue but can debond on demand. ...
Phys.org / Scientists use RNA nanotechnology to program living cells, opening a new path for cancer cure
Scientists at Rutgers University–Newark have developed a first-of-its-kind RNA-based nanotechnology that assembles itself inside living human cells and can be programmed to stop propagation of harmful cells. The findings, ...
Phys.org / Researchers uncover a one-hour 'crown' checkpoint that enables malaria reproduction
A new study has uncovered a hidden step that helps the deadliest malaria parasite survive and multiply inside the human body. Researchers studying Plasmodium falciparum found that the parasite relies on a brief but essential ...