Phys.org news

Phys.org / Mars' 'young' volcanoes prove more complex than scientists once thought

What appears to be a single volcanic eruption is often the result of complex processes operating deep beneath the surface, where magma moves, evolves, and changes over long periods of time. To fully understand how volcanoes ...

18 hours ago in Astronomy & Space
Phys.org / 7,000-year-old deer antler headdress from Eilsleben illustrates contact between hunter–gatherers and early farmers

Central Germany is among the regions where, as early as the mid-6th millennium BC, farmers displaced the Mesolithic hunter–gatherers from the fertile loess soils. Soon after this migration, however, exchange began between ...

20 hours ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / Bird guano powered rise of Chincha Kingdom in Peruvian Andes, archaeologists find

New archaeological evidence reveals that seabird guano—nutrient-rich bird droppings—was not only essential to boosting corn yields and supercharging agriculture in ancient Peru, but it may have been a driving force behind ...

17 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Extinct Hawaiian ibis with strangely small eyes suggests a shift to nocturnal life

Islands are famous for producing some of the world's strangest creatures, and now a new international study shows that the evolution of bird species on Hawaiian islands includes an ibis with unusually small eyes and limited ...

18 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Quick course correction needed to avoid 'hothouse Earth' scenario, scientists say

Scientists say that multiple Earth system components appear closer to destabilization than previously believed, putting the planet in increased danger of following a "hothouse" path driven by feedback loops that can amplify ...

20 hours ago in Earth
Phys.org / Majorana qubits become readable as quantum capacitance detects even-odd states

The race to build reliable quantum computers is fraught with obstacles, and one of the most difficult to overcome is related to the promising but elusive Majorana qubits. Now, an international team has read the information ...

20 hours ago in Physics
Phys.org / Strike against mask wearing in 1930s echoed COVID-19 protests, study finds

New research from The University of Manchester has shown that debates and resistance about wearing face masks go back a lot further than the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Meng Zhang, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University's ...

19 hours ago in Other Sciences
Phys.org / A new way to 'cage' plutonium

Plutonium (Pu) exhibits one of the most diverse and complex chemistries of any element in the periodic table. Since its discovery in 1940, scientists have synthesized and studied many different types of plutonium-containing ...

19 hours ago in Chemistry
Phys.org / Twilight fish study reveals unique hybrid eye cells

Researchers have identified a new type of visual cell in deep-sea fish larvae that challenges a century of knowledge about vertebrate visual systems. Dr. Fabio Cortesi from The University of Queensland's School of the Environment ...

17 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Flipping and reversing mini-proteins could improve tuberculosis treatment

Antibiotic treatments are losing effectiveness against a range of common bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella and Acinetobacter, according to a warning issued by the World Health Organization ...

18 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Tiny marine animal reveals bacterial origin of animal defense mechanisms

Marine animals, such as the extremely simple flatworm Trichoplax, are ideal model organisms for studying the early evolutionary origins of animal life processes. Despite measuring only a few millimeters and lacking true organs ...

19 hours ago in Biology
Phys.org / Keeping an eagle eye on carbon stored in the ocean

Geologic reservoirs that trapped petroleum for millions of years are now being repurposed to store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. New research is improving how we monitor this storage and verify how much CO2 these reservoirs ...

20 hours ago in Earth