Phys.org news

Phys.org / The Caspian Sea has lost an area nearly the size of Sicily: Human activities are a major reason why

The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on Earth, is shrinking. Not fluctuating, not entering another natural cycle, but shrinking.

11 hours ago
Phys.org / How solar wind forecasting will help define heliosphere's boundaries

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are using a solar wind forecasting method combined with analytic and numerical heliosphere models to find out where the first plasma boundary of the outer heliosphere lies as ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Cats age like humans—could studying their brains reveal healthy aging secrets?

Domestic cats age in remarkably similar ways to humans and show comparable age-related patterns of brain deterioration, according to an international collaboration among the University of Bath in the U.K., Auburn University ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Protein-tagging technology maps a hidden communication network between organs

The body's organs are in constant communication. Fat tissue tells the liver when to store or release energy, the immune system signals localized inflammation, and thousands of proteins carry these messages to organs throughout ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Heat stress exposure climbed from 16% to 22% worldwide over 50 years, study shows

The number of people exposed to dangerous heat stress worldwide has risen sharply over the past half-century, propelled by climate change, according to a study released Monday as Europe sweltered through a punishing heat ...

11 hours ago
Phys.org / How cyanobacteria developed photosynthetic membranes over the course of evolution

A new study provides the first insights into how thylakoid membranes—the internal compartments where oxygen-producing photosynthesis takes place—emerged during evolution. By comparing the genomes of cyanobacteria with and ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Corrected Pantheon+ analysis of supernovae challenges accelerating universe claim

Research led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, along with Professor Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford, questions the widely accepted argument that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / 125-million-year-old fossil reveals 'pregnant' shellfish

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Graciela Delvene of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (CSIC) has uncovered the oldest known evidence of maternal care in shellfish, revealing that some freshwater ...

14 hours ago
Phys.org / Feeding data to AI to speed up drug discovery

Developing new medicines can require thousands of chemistry experiments to identify the right recipe for a safe, effective and ideally affordable drug.

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Long-dismissed gas emerges as a hidden driver of urban air pollution

Researchers from Tampere University and the University of Helsinki have identified an unexpected chemical process that may influence the formation of air pollution particles in urban environments. The study shows that nitric ...

5 hours ago
Phys.org / Cryo-EM imaging reveals how a molecular gate lets bulky proteins pass cell membranes intact

How large, fully folded proteins can pass through cell membranes without destroying them has long been one of the open questions in cell biology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Leonid Sazanov and Ziyu Zhao at the ...

12 hours ago
Phys.org / Four new chameleon species found on Mozambique's mountaintop 'sky islands'

Tropical rainforest patches perched on isolated granite mountains in northern Mozambique have yielded four new species of sylvan chameleons, according to a new study by Prof. Krystal A. Tolley and Dr. Werner Conradie, recently ...

5 hours ago