Phys.org news
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 ...
Phys.org / Heron-like, fish-eating dinosaur from 70 million years ago discovered in Argentina
A new raptor-like dinosaur from some 70 million years ago that ate fish and behaved like modern herons has been unearthed from southern Patagonia. The new species, which has been named Kank australis, was identified based ...
Phys.org / Hailstorms could grow more dangerous and damaging with climate change
Hailstorms can be incredibly dangerous, posing risks to life and property. Then there's the economic damage to cars, crops, and infrastructure caused by large balls of ice falling at high speed from the sky. And the problems ...
Phys.org / Ripples in fire-ant collectives suggest motions are driven by neighbor alignments
Researchers in Spain have discovered that in collectives of moving fire ants, rippling "waves" of density and activity are likely triggered by local regions where ants collectively travel in the same direction as their neighbors.
Phys.org / Arctic Ocean food chain is disrupted as a key tipping point has now been passed
An irreversible shift in the chemical makeup of the Arctic Ocean driven by climate change is disrupting the region's food chain, a study suggests. Widespread loss of Arctic sea ice has led to a sharp fall in levels of a key ...
Phys.org / New MRI sensors detect target molecules in the brain and body with high sensitivity
When doctors and scientists want to see inside a body, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool. MRI can noninvasively capture detailed images of the body's muscles, organs, and bones. It can monitor blood flow ...
Phys.org / Nitrogen-fixing genes moved into new bacterial strains, opening path beyond fertilizer
Most major crops, such as wheat and corn, require expensive nitrogen fertilizer to flourish. But what if bacteria could help those plants draw nitrogen from the atmosphere, as peas and beans do?
Phys.org / Neanderthal ancestry may lower defenses against common DNA viruses in people today
Researchers have found surprising links that show that Neanderthal ancestry influences our immune system today in ways more nuanced than previously recognized. Their work is published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.
Phys.org / Introduced wild pigs linked to fewer invasive plants, while native deer show the opposite pattern
Wild pigs are generally considered among the world's most problematic invasive mammals. But a major new study from Aarhus Universitet shows that the introduced animals may actually have beneficial effects in North American ...
Phys.org / Peering into the Milky Way's far side, Roman could unveil 100,000 worlds
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to make a major leap in the hunt for worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Scientists expect the mission to reveal around 100,000 worlds—a staggering leap ...
