Phys.org news
Phys.org / Some trees thrive after lightning strikes: How electric jolts can boost survival and growth
Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to ...
Phys.org / Enzyme engineering: New method selectively destroys disease-causing proteins
Scientists have long struggled to target proteins that lack defined structure and are involved in cancer, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's disease, and other serious illnesses. Now, a new study from Scripps Research ...
Phys.org / Reverse genetics system enhances vaccine development for African swine fever virus
Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have developed a reverse genetics system for African swine fever virus ...
Phys.org / Hypersonic shock waves: 3D simulations expose new flow disturbances
At hypersonic speeds, complexities occur when the gases interact with the surface of the vehicle, such as boundary layers and shock waves. Researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The Grainger College of ...
Phys.org / The amount of fresh water available for lithium mining is vastly overestimated, hydrologists warn
New research into lithium mining in the "Lithium Triangle" of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia—source of more than half of the world's lithium resources—shows that the commonly accepted models used to estimate how much water ...
Phys.org / RNA interference and nanomedicine join forces to fight dangerous fungal infections
Fungal infections are on the rise globally. According to a study by the Manchester Fungal Infection Group, in 2022, approximately 6.5 million people were infected by a pathogenic fungus, and about 3.8 million died as a result—nearly ...
Phys.org / Clouds may amplify global warming far more than previously understood
Tropical marine low clouds play a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate. However, whether they mitigate or exacerbate global warming has long remained a mystery. Now, researchers from the School of Engineering at the ...
Phys.org / 'Magnetic tweezers': Making robotic surgery safer and more precise with a human touch
Imagine if a doctor could remotely do a non-invasive, highly precise medical procedure on her patients using a tiny robot, or microrobot. With a device researchers from SMU and George Washington University created, that is ...
Phys.org / Chemical oscillations in palladium nanoparticles could pave way for recycling precious metal catalysts
Researchers at the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe the complete lifecycle of palladium nanoparticles in a liquid environment, from nucleation through growth ...
Phys.org / Zooming in on the structure of the lethal Ebola virus
Six years before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Ebola outbreak in West Africa had people fearing the possibility of a global outbreak. This was the first time many had ever heard of the virus, but since it was first ...
Phys.org / A new method to recycle fluoride from long-lived PFAS chemicals
Oxford Chemistry researchers have developed a method to destroy fluorine-containing PFAS (sometimes labeled 'forever chemicals') while recovering their fluorine content for future use. The results have been published in Nature.
Phys.org / 'Too much of a good thing': Overuse is making Bt corn less effective against rootworm, analysis shows
Widespread planting of corn hybrids designed to combat corn rootworm, the crop's most damaging pest in the Corn Belt, is reducing both the technology's effectiveness and some farmers' profits.