Phys.org news

Phys.org / How to CT scan a 400-pound crocodile

At 61, Bill had begun showing changes in his health—decreased appetite, weight loss and abdominal bloating. But his bloodwork was normal, leaving the cause of his symptoms unknown. The next step was clear: Bill should get ...

16 hours ago
Phys.org / Mechanical memory helps explain how cells adapt their movement to changing environments

Cells in our bodies squeeze through dense tissue channels, thread past neighboring cells and navigate every nook and cranny within the extracellular matrix—the mesh-like network that surrounds and supports cells. How well ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / Soil bacteria share amino acids, helping nearly half survive nutrient gaps

Bacteria, too, depend on good neighborly relations: A new study by the Osnabrück University, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cambridge in England, shows that soil bacteria live in beneficial communities ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Tiny root hairs, big impact: How bacteria help plants survive drought

What helps plants cope better with drought? With heat waves and periods of extreme drought becoming increasingly common worldwide, the need for drought-tolerant plants is increasingly urgent. With the help of bacteria, plants ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / Antarctic bacteria share 'life‑support' genes to survive extreme conditions

Antarctica is one of the driest, coldest places on Earth. Very little life survives its extremes. In the soils scattered around the frozen ice sheets, however, communities of microbes do survive. And one of the keys to their ...

13 hours ago
Phys.org / LST-1 and MAGIC telescopes shatter distance record for the very high-energy blazar OP 313

On Aug. 15, the CTAO LST Collaboration and the MAGIC Collaboration released findings from observations of OP 313, the most distant very-high-energy blazar ever recorded. The paper, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, presents ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / New free-space optical link adds a wireless component to the nation's longest quantum network

There's a new lighthouse on Long Island. But instead of shining light to guide ships through waterways, this one transmits and receives particles of light that carry quantum information. Perched atop a seven-story building ...

15 hours ago
Phys.org / Climate scientists solve monsoon puzzle and warn of risks to fisheries

A new study has reconciled a long-standing paradox in the South Asian summer monsoon cycle. Climate scientists have discovered why geological records from land and sea have told opposite stories about monsoons throughout ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / Engineered yeasts help turn PET plastic and crop waste into protein-rich cookies

Plastic might be the last ingredient you would ever add to a cookie recipe. But a team of researchers is looking to change that. They've programmed yeasts to turn plastic and agricultural waste into edible proteins and flavoring ...

20 hours ago
Phys.org / Can satellites detect when forests lose resilience?

For years, scientists have been using a method called "temporal autocorrelation (TAC)" to measure forest resilience using satellite data. However, scientists have not used TAC uniformly, and its use as a resilience indicator ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / Tiny ocean plankton hold clues to the future of Maine lobster

The future of Maine's lobster industry may depend on a creature the size of a sesame seed. Researchers at the University of Maine have discovered that planktonic baby lobsters, or larvae, preferentially feed on Calanus finmarchicus, ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / Scientists identify design rules for the best thermoelectric materials

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used a theoretical framework to derive design rules for creating new thermoelectric materials. The efficiency of converting thermal energy to electricity is often determined ...

15 hours ago