Phys.org news
Phys.org / Elusive thorium–thorium bonding directly observed using Hirshfeld atom refinement
Researchers have directly visualized a rare type of chemical bond between some of the heaviest elements in the periodic table, providing experimental evidence of how these atoms share electrons in systems where this has been ...
Phys.org / Secrets of how we see color revealed at the molecular level
A global team has cracked a decades-old mystery, revealing the atomic structures of the molecules in our eyes that allow us to see colors. "To understand how we detect light and perceive colors, we need to know the exact ...
Phys.org / Rising heat and humidity challenge energy-efficient data center cooling worldwide
Reliable operation of data centers has become essential to nearly all sectors of modern society, including health care, education, government services, power grid operation, banking, defense and disaster relief. New research ...
Phys.org / How bacteria use circadian clocks to colonize their world
Research has revealed how bacteria rely on circadian clocks to control the spread of their multicellular colonies. The findings provide important clues as to how we might improve soil health and plant growth. They may also ...
Phys.org / Wastewater management reverses widespread freshwater deoxygenation in China
Freshwater ecosystems worldwide have been suffering from declining oxygen levels—a trend known as deoxygenation—that threatens biodiversity, fisheries and ecosystem stability. However, a new study published in Nature Geoscience ...
Phys.org / Whitebait rapidly switch life cycles when earthquakes cut off route to sea
Aotearoa New Zealand whitebait can rapidly switch their life cycles in response to sudden environmental changes, new University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research shows. The research is published in the journal Nature ...
Phys.org / Screen reveals new proteins that control RNA processing
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a large-scale screening approach that identifies proteins controlling a fundamental step in gene expression known as alternative polyadenylation (APA). ...
Phys.org / Tiny raptor, tiny range: GPS tracking reveals pygmy falcons use less than 1 km² to raise nestlings
A new study, published in the Journal of Raptor Research, reveals that Africa's smallest diurnal bird of prey, the pygmy falcon (Polihierax semitorquatus), operates within one of the smallest breeding home ranges ever recorded ...
Phys.org / Do animal behavior experiments give a distorted view of cooperation?
When biologists study cooperation in animals, they usually offer just a single task at a time. But what happens when animals can choose among several opportunities to work together? Biologists at Utrecht University discovered ...
Phys.org / A thermodynamic approach to gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy
Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This framework describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the invisible four-dimensional ...
Phys.org / The universe should look the same in all directions at large scales, but DESI data suggest otherwise
Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years, allowing astronomers to better evaluate the large-scale structure of ...
Phys.org / Scientists find molecular-level evidence for two structures in liquid water
A study published in Nature Physics provides new molecular-level evidence from simulations that liquid water is not a single uniform substance, but a constantly shifting mixture of two distinct microscopic structures.