Phys.org news
Phys.org / Saturn's moon Titan could have formed in a merger of two old moons
Recent research suggests that Saturn's bright rings and its largest moon, Titan, may have both originated in collisions among its moons. While Cassini's 13-year mission expanded our understanding of Saturn, the discoveries ...
Phys.org / A familiar magnet gets stranger: Why cobalt's topological states could matter for spintronics
The element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic ...
Phys.org / Unseen planet or brown dwarf may have hidden 'rare' fading star
One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or "super-Jupiter" blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades, ...
Phys.org / Cell division spindles self-organize like active liquid crystals—a theory that holds up
When a cell divides, it performs a feat of microscopic choreography—duplicating its DNA and depositing it into two new cells. The spindle is the machinery behind that process: It latches onto chromosomes (where DNA is stored) ...
Phys.org / Carbon nanotube 'sandpaper' polishes semiconductor surfaces down to a few atoms
The performance and stability of smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) services depend on how uniformly and precisely semiconductor surfaces are processed. KAIST researchers have expanded the concept of everyday "sandpaper" ...
Phys.org / 7,000-year-old deer antler headdress from Eilsleben illustrates contact between hunter–gatherers and early farmers
Central Germany is among the regions where, as early as the mid-6th millennium BC, farmers displaced the Mesolithic hunter–gatherers from the fertile loess soils. Soon after this migration, however, exchange began between ...
Phys.org / Visualizing how a plant's leaves, stem and roots mutually communicate under environmental stress in real time
How do the different parts of an adult plant communicate with each other when it suffers an injury, is waterlogged, burnt or exposed to environmental stress? Today we can answer this question thanks to an innovative optical ...
Phys.org / A new framework could transform national flood prediction
When severe weather strikes, the National Weather Service's (NWS) Office of Water Prediction (OWP) makes critical flood forecasts with the National Water Model. Despite improvements over time, the model's performance has ...
Phys.org / Mira A ejects seven Earth masses, forming a heart-shaped cloud 300 light-years away
Just in time for Valentine's Day, space offers a heart-shaped greeting. The star Mira A, about 300 light-years from Earth, has released material into an expanding cloud of gas and dust resembling a heart. Both the amount ...
Phys.org / Scientists reveal formation mechanism behind spherical assemblies of nanocrystals
From table salt to snowflakes, and from gemstones to diamonds—we encounter crystals everywhere in daily life, usually cubic (table salt) or hexagonal (snowflakes). Researchers from Noushine Shahidzadeh's group at the UvA ...
Phys.org / What honey bee brain chemistry tells us about human learning
A multi-institutional team of researchers led by Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC has for the first time identified specific patterns of brain chemical activity that predict how quickly individual ...
Phys.org / 7,000 years of change: How humans reshaped Caribbean coral reef food chains
Human activity has lessened the resilience of modern coral reefs by restricting the food-fueled energy flow that moves through the food chains of these critical ecosystems, reports an international team of researchers in ...
