Phys.org news

Phys.org / Scientists have found a new way molecules can cooperate at room temperature

What if glowing molecules could synchronize, much like fireflies flashing in unison? Researchers have discovered that molecules confined within tiny gold nanostructures can behave collectively, coordinating their interactions ...

17 hours ago
Phys.org / Scientists solve mystery of how muscle cells grow and stay healthy

In a study published in Nature Communications biophysicists unravel the mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and maintain their function. The findings may help design treatments for muscle diseases such as dilated ...

18 hours ago
Phys.org / Likelihood of wildfires in Southern Europe has doubled since the 80s, study shows

Summer days featuring conditions that promote wildfire ignition, intensity and spread have more than doubled across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy and Greece since 1981, according to a study in Scientific ...

18 hours ago
Phys.org / Black hole feeding frenzy ends in lingering cosmic indigestion

Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic gluttons that swallow everything that comes too close. But new observations of a dramatic black hole outburst—led by Warwick Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Noel Castro Segura—suggest the ...

20 hours ago
Phys.org / Electrically controlled magnetic switching shows promise for next-gen cryogenic devices

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have demonstrated a new way of switching a material between two fundamentally different magnetic states using an electric current. The discovery could pave the way for ...

19 hours ago
Phys.org / Quantum spin effects may enhance one-way electrical transport in chiral magnets

Quantum fluctuations influence direction-dependent electrical transport in chiral magnets, researchers from Science Tokyo report. In chiral magnetic systems, electric current flows differently depending on its direction, ...

18 hours ago
Dialog / Bacteria may identify a virus without recognizing its DNA

When a virus enters a cell, its top priority is to replicate its genome rapidly, creating new viruses to infect elsewhere. The host has the opposite priority: to destroy the virus, ideally before it can do any harm. Biology ...

17 hours ago
Phys.org / Flash droughts can pull 'alarming' amounts of moisture from the landscape and intensify wildfires

When catastrophic wildfires capture global headlines, such as the unprecedented blazes sweeping through southern Europe this summer or the devastating 2019–20 "Black Summer" in Australia, they are almost always preceded by ...

18 hours ago
Phys.org / Ancient Chinese seeds spanning 5,000 years train AI to ease archaeology's specialist bottleneck

Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilization. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) ...

19 hours ago
Phys.org / Spectroscopy system detects aerosols using light reflected from traffic signs and tree trunks

Researchers have developed and tested an infrared spectroscopy system that can rapidly detect chemical aerosols from a distance by using light reflected from common surfaces such as traffic signs, tree trunks or painted surfaces. ...

19 hours ago
Phys.org / Uncovering the structure of the poxvirus 'portal complex'

Poxviruses have a long history in human disease as well as medicine: The first-ever vaccine was developed to protect against smallpox, which has since been eradicated. Despite this, scientists still don't fully understand ...

17 hours ago
Phys.org / Ancient stardust grains were seeds for the earliest solids in the solar system

How did the first solids that made up planets, moons and asteroids form from the "hot soup" that characterized our solar system's earliest years? New research from Caltech analyzing pieces of a meteorite has found that, just ...

21 hours ago