Phys.org news
Phys.org / Moving beyond money to measure the true value of Earth science information
They're all around us: sensors and satellites, radars and drones. These tools form vast remote sensing networks that collect data on the climate, the ground, the air, and the water. This information is immensely useful for ...
Phys.org / Fruit fly study reveals how mating triggers behavioral changes in females
Researchers from The Universities of Manchester and Birmingham have identified the exact nerve cells in the brain that drive important behavioral changes in female fruit flies after they mate. The discovery, published in ...
Phys.org / Half of the world's coral reefs suffered major bleaching during the 2014–2017 global heat wave, estimates suggest
Benefits to society from coral reefs, including fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, pharmaceutical discovery and more, are estimated at about $9.8 trillion per year. For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian ...
Phys.org / Bison hunters abandoned long-used site 1,100 years ago to adapt to changing climate, Great Plains study finds
On the Great Plains of North America, bison were hunted for thousands of years before populations collapsed to near extinction due to overexploitation in the late 1800s. But long before then, bison hunters used various strategies ...
Phys.org / Nature's 'engine is grinding to a halt' as climate change gains pace, says study
Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats ...
Phys.org / Building blocks of life discovered in Bennu asteroid rewrite origin story
Amino acids, the building blocks necessary for life, were previously found in samples of 4.6-billion-year-old rocks from an asteroid called Bennu, delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. How those amino acids—the ...
Phys.org / Escape from Fukushima: Pig-boar hybrids reveal a genetic fast track in the wake of nuclear disaster
A new genetic study examines an unusually large hybridization event that followed the Fukushima nuclear accident, when escaped domestic pigs bred with wild boar. The research shows that domestic pig maternal lineages sped ...
Phys.org / Leading AI models struggle to solve original math problems
Mathematics, like many other scientific endeavors, is increasingly using artificial intelligence. Of course, math is the backbone of AI, but mathematicians are also turning to these tools for tasks like literature searches ...
Phys.org / A long-lost Soviet spacecraft: AI could finally solve the mystery of Luna 9's landing site
Using an advanced machine-learning algorithm, researchers in the UK and Japan have identified several promising candidate locations for the long-lost landing site of the Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft. Publishing their results ...
Phys.org / Third exoplanet detected in the planetary system HD 176986
Using HARPS and HARPS-N spectrographs, astronomers have observed a nearby K-type star designated HD 176986, known to host two super-Earth exoplanets. The observations resulted in the discovery of another planet in the system ...
Phys.org / Scientists harness nature's chirality bias to design series of complex mechanically interlocked molecules
In nature, molecules often show a strong preference for partnering with other molecules that share the same chirality or handedness. A behavior that is quite evident in the phenomenon known as homochirality-driven entanglement, ...
Phys.org / Biofilm made from fish skin could be a sustainable alternative for food packaging
Using the skin of an Amazonian fish known as tambatinga as the raw material, researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and EMBRAPA Pecuária Sudeste—a decentralized unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation ...