Phys.org news

Superconductors—materials that can conduct electricity without energy loss—are crucial for next-generation high-efficiency, ultrafast electronics. However, most superconductors share a critical limitation: they lose their ...

Tiny particles bubbling up from the tops of melting sea ice into the Arctic sky may be a key, understudied element of cloud formation in that climate-sensitive region.

The mechanics of the onset of cancer or neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease or ALS remain a mystery. Scientists associate these diseases with an increase in unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species ...

Gray whales migrate from Arctic waters full of food to the lagoons of Baja Mexico—but as the climate crisis gathers pace, they have been sighted foraging in unexpected places. Recently, some have begun to explore the dangerously ...

Isolating the first spark of life on Earth is a matter of biology, geology, and chemistry—but it's also an amazing math problem. At least, that's how Varun Varanasi viewed it when he was a Yale undergraduate. The question, ...

Materials that emit and manipulate light are at the heart of technologies ranging from solar energy to advanced imaging systems. But even in well-studied materials, some fundamental behaviors remain unexplained. Researchers ...

British scientists have launched a crew of microscopic worms to the International Space Station in a pioneering experiment that could help unlock the secrets of long-duration space travel—and support ambitions to reach the ...

In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of chemists has unveiled a radically simple way to attach a highly sought-after "molecular handle," known as the dichloromethyl group, onto complex compounds. Instead ...

A new study by scientists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that when a pressure disturbance moves across an ultrasoft elastic material, such as a gel or a biological tissue, ...

The small talk you try to avoid because you think it will be boring may actually be more enjoyable than you think, and good for you as well, according to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Light, as we usually conceive of it, is defined by the astonishing velocity at which it moves from one point to another. For example, in just one second, light can travel most of the distance between Earth and the moon. This ...

Two unrelated groups of nectar eaters, hummingbirds and sunbirds, have evolved different techniques to slurp the sweet liquid from flowers. The tongue suctioning employed by sunbirds is unique among vertebrates, according ...