Phys.org news
Phys.org / How choices made by crowds in a train station are guided by strangers
In crowds, most people are strangers to you, and everyone else for that matter. However, until now, the effect of stranger-to-stranger interactions on the choices people make in crowds has not been properly examined. Ziqi ...
Phys.org / Impact-formed glass provides evidence of cosmic collision in Brazil about 6 million years ago
For the first time in Brazil, researchers have identified a field of tektites. These are natural glasses formed by the high-energy impact of extraterrestrial bodies against Earth's surface. These structures, named geraisites ...
Phys.org / Quantum trembling: Why there are no truly flat molecules
Traditional chemistry textbooks present a tidy picture: Atoms in molecules occupy fixed positions, connected by rigid rods. A molecule such as formic acid (methanoic acid, HCOOH) is imagined as two-dimensional—flat as a ...
Phys.org / Scientists reveal best- and worst-case scenarios for a warming Antarctica
The climate crisis is warming Antarctica fast, with potentially disastrous consequences. Now scientists have modeled the best- and worst-case scenarios for climate change in Antarctica, demonstrating just how high the stakes ...
Phys.org / Phonon lasers unlock ultrabroadband acoustic frequency combs
Acoustic frequency combs organize sound or mechanical vibrations into a series of evenly spaced frequencies, much like the teeth on a comb. They are the acoustic counterparts of optical frequency combs, which consist of equally ...
Phys.org / Birds change altitude to survive epic journeys across deserts and seas
Every year, billions of birds undertake extraordinary migrations, crossing vast deserts and open seas with no place to stop, feed, or rest. A new international study published in iScience by a consortium of researchers from ...
Phys.org / How root growth is stimulated by nitrate: Researchers decipher signaling chain
When 200 natural accessions of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana grown in a nitrate-enriched medium were compared, one observation stood out: some accessions formed significantly longer lateral roots than others. Genetic ...
Phys.org / Americium, curium and californium—crystallizing the rarest elements
Actinides are a group of heavy, radioactive elements that include uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium. Understanding how these elements bond with other atoms (known as coordination chemistry), ...
Phys.org / Social media advertising suppresses voting in targeted communities, research shows
Messages intended to suppress votes can be precisely delivered to particularly vulnerable and consequential groups of people via social media and keep millions of them from casting ballots, according to a new study that is ...
Phys.org / Neutron scattering helps clarify magnetic behavior in altermagnetic material
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have identified the true source of a magnetic effect seen in the material ruthenium dioxide (RuO₂), helping resolve an active debate in the rapidly growing field of ...
Phys.org / Blood marker from dementia research could help track aging across the animal world
A protein called neurofilament light chain (NfL)—studied in humans in the context of neurodegenerative diseases and aging—is also detectable in the blood of numerous animals, and NfL levels increase with age in mice, ...
Phys.org / Scientists home in on Acinetobacter baumannii's resistance evolution
Acinetobacter baumannii is a bacteria which can become a virulent killer in health-care settings among severely ill patients. The germ has rapidly developed drug resistance to even last-line carbapenem drugs. Now a group ...