Phys.org news
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 / Energetic neutral atoms may help map Uranus's odd magnetic environment
Sending a spacecraft to the underexplored planet Uranus is at the top of many planetary scientists' wish lists. But which spacecraft-mounted instruments would be most useful for answering questions about the mysterious ice ...
Phys.org / Climate change is now causing more local extinction in temperate regions than the tropics, study shows
Imagine returning to a favorite hiking trail 15 years after your first visit and discovering that many of the plants and animals that once lived there are gone. While these species may still exist elsewhere, these disappearances—known ...
Phys.org / Circular polarization could cut laser backscatter in fusion experiments
Experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) require breathtaking precision. Each of the 192 lasers is focused to a width of a few millimeters to enter a 3-millimeter hole at the ...
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 / 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 / Fermi mission uncovers possible sibling supernova remnants
A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star's detonation sent its binary companion hurtling ...
Phys.org / Hidden fungus inside desert moss could rewrite 470-million-year story of how plants moved onto land
Mosses are survivors. They can dry into what looks like green dust, only to spring back to life minutes after rain. They can grow on rocks, in deserts, and there's talk of using them to terraform Mars someday. According to ...
Phys.org / How to train your magnet: Excitons as a new knob for magnetic control
Scientists can learn a lot about a quantum material by watching how it responds to light. In magnetic semiconductors, one especially useful messenger is the exciton: a pairing of a negatively charged electron and the positively ...
Phys.org / What if there is no one to farm? Scientists reveal a hidden risk to future food security
The cause of future food shortages may not be a lack of farmland, but a shortage of agricultural workers. Amid low birth rates and rural decline, a joint international research team from KAIST has developed a new data-driven ...
Phys.org / How a telescope's mirror stability makes or breaks exoplanet detection
Finding life beyond our solar system is a major goal of modern astronomy. NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to take direct images of Earth-sized planets around stars other than our sun. This task, however, ...
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 ...
