Phys.org news
Phys.org / Suburban street design has driven emissions since WWII, study suggests
Half of all Americans live in the suburbs. For decades, planners and policymakers have blamed suburban sprawl's environmental and social costs on one thing: distance. The farther people live from city centers, the more they ...
Phys.org / Rice gene switch helps plants rebound from cold and use nitrogen more efficiently
Global climate change has increased the frequency of regional cold spells, causing substantial yield losses and even crop failure. Meanwhile, excessive nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture has increased non-point-source ...
Phys.org / Orangutans eat medicinal plants in patterns that suggest self-medication
Orangutans seek out plants with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties, new research shows. Based on 20 years of observations of orangutans in Indonesian Borneo, scientists assessed how often the animals ...
Phys.org / Real-time microscopy reveals how semiconductor nanowires grow, and how bismuth seeds can speed their formation
Scientists from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester and Sun Yat-sen University have captured the growth of semiconducting tellurium nanostructures in liquid in real time, revealing how tiny seed ...
Phys.org / Asteroid Donaldjohanson wobbles as it rotates, Lucy flyby reveals
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists studying the inner main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson have found that its rotation wobbles. Rather than rolling through space in a steady pattern, Donaldjohanson turns on two ...
Phys.org / Laser pulses set layered metals vibrating 1 trillion times per second, revealing electron-driven motion
How does light turn into motion within a metal? A team of researchers from European XFEL, the University of Potsdam and other participating institutions has shown that ultrashort optical laser pulses can trigger extremely ...
Phys.org / Beyond bread and beer, alluring yeast species could yield new mosquito traps to combat malaria
An orange-colored yeast species isolated from a Baltimore sidewalk several years ago could be the basis of eco-friendly mosquito traps that reduce malaria transmission, according to a new study from researchers at the Johns ...
Phys.org / AI-driven optical tweezers sort hundreds of particles per hour without humans
By teaching an AI to use optical tweezers, researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology have sped up the analysis of life's smallest components. The AI platform captures particles, takes ...
Phys.org / How sea-ice microbes survive the Southern Ocean's harsh winter has implications for climate change
A study led by South African scientists reveals that during winter, the sea ice around Antarctica harbors a reservoir of microbes, most of which have one thing in common—the ability to produce and break down a compound known ...
Phys.org / Cockroach genomes are packed with DNA transferred by their endosymbiont bacterial partners
Genes aren't just transferred from parents to their offspring. Nature has found other ways to pass on genetic information, even between different species. And a new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National ...
Phys.org / Why just sharing a stick while walking can significantly improve balance
Could the secret to preventing dangerous falls be surprisingly simple? For older adults, these unexpected tumbles are a leading cause of injury, affecting roughly 1 in 4 people 65 and older each year. What if the key isn't ...
Phys.org / AI could be trapped in a 'Carbon Valley' unless action is taken soon
AI is growing fast, and keeping up means building more data centers, manufacturing advanced chips and powering the tech behind it. All of that comes with a carbon cost. AI advocates claim that in the long run, AI will save ...
