Phys.org news
Phys.org / 'Bio-stickers' speed up plastic breakdown in marine environments
Plastic waste poses an urgent problem for the planet's ecosystems, especially in waterways. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter Earth's oceans every year, and plastic has been found in every part of the ocean, including ...
Phys.org / 'Atom Camera' maps laser light at nanoscale using a single ultracold atom
A research group led by Assistant Professor Takafumi Tomita and Professor Kenji Ohmori at the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, has developed a new microscopy technique called the Atom ...
Phys.org / A climate fix with a hidden catch: Cutting methane reshapes ozone layer's comeback in unexpected ways
Reducing methane emissions will slow climate change but could also slow the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, new research from the University of Reading shows.
Phys.org / Wildfire dark brown carbon has strong global warming effects, study finds
A new international study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that dark brown carbon from wildfires exerts a powerful warming effect on the global climate—potentially matching or even exceeding that of black carbon in ...
Phys.org / Megafire kills Joshua trees, but not fungi
When the Dome Fire tore through the Mojave Desert in 2020, it reduced 1 million Eastern Joshua trees to blackened skeletons. Scientists expected the underground ecosystem to be equally devastated. Instead, they found it thriving.
Phys.org / Humans reshape predator-prey rules across food webs, creating a challenging new world for wildlife
The relationship between predators and prey in the wild is underscored by an evolutionary arms race spanning millions of years, but new research has found modern human activity is reshaping the rules.
Phys.org / Forever chemical reaches fish before they even hatch, new study reveals
There is a forever chemical lurking in the world's oceans that could be fundamentally altering the biology of marine life before it even hatches. PFOS, a notorious member of the PFAS family of chemicals, is known for its ...
Phys.org / The solar wind's secret hammerheads and what they tell us about heat in space
The proton sharks showed up on a Friday. In a routine data calibration meeting for NASA's Parker Solar Probe in 2020, a small group of scientists were scrolling through visualizations of their data showing solar winds. Suddenly, ...
Phys.org / Green stones buried with Panama's ancient chiefs confirmed as Colombian emeralds
More than 1,000 years ago, Panama elites were buried together with translucent green stones long suspected to be emeralds. However, scientific analysis confirming the suspicion has never been conducted. Now, scientists have ...
Phys.org / How bean plants call on wasps for help when hungry caterpillars attack
Some plants are not the sitting ducks they appear to be when they come under attack. If a hungry caterpillar starts to chomp on the succulent leaves of a common bean plant, a highly sophisticated defense system kicks into ...
Phys.org / Bare supercontinent may have tipped ancient Earth into 'Snowball' phase
About a billion years ago, Earth started to come into its own. It was past the awkwardness of its younger years full of growing pains and turmoil: comet strikes and slimy water, including the Great Oxidation Event that flipped ...
Phys.org / The generation of massive Schrödinger cat states using ultracold atoms
Quantum mechanics is a physics framework that describes how matter and energy behave at an extremely small scale, specifically at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. An effect predicted by the laws of quantum mechanics ...
