Phys.org news
Phys.org / UV light method offers repeat recycling for acrylic plastics without the environmental cost
A breakthrough method for chemically recycling acrylic—one of the world's most widely used plastics—has been developed by researchers at the University of Bath. In contrast to conventional mechanical recycling, this method ...
Phys.org / Watering smarter, not more: A modern-day robotic divining rod
Advanced technology can help farmers get to the root of a growing problem—overwatering in an era of increasing drought and water scarcity. A new UC Riverside system can map soil moisture tree by tree, so growers water only ...
Phys.org / Native Americans were making dice, gambling, exploring probability millennia before their Old World counterparts
A new study in American Antiquity presents evidence that the earliest known dice in human history were made and used by Native American hunter-gatherers on the western Great Plains more than 12,000 years ago at the end of ...
Phys.org / Male fish lose their learning edge in drug-polluted waters, research reveals
A common antidepressant detected in rivers and streams worldwide is disrupting how fish learn, and the impact is strikingly one-sided. New research led by Monash University shows the drug amitriptyline impairs spatial learning ...
Phys.org / Protostars 'sneeze' and produce rings of gas and magnetic flux as they grow
Researchers have uncovered new insights into the early development of baby stars. As published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a research team from Kyushu University and Kagawa University reports that during the early ...
Phys.org / Tiny frogs prefer concrete apartments over wooden shelters
James Cook University researchers have tested frog housing and nursery preferences in the Wet Tropics rainforest of North Queensland, with frogs finding the thermal regulation of concrete shelters to be the perfect tropical ...
Phys.org / Graphene 'nano-aquariums' capture atomic-resolution videos of gold atoms in solvents
A team led by scientists at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester has developed the first technique capable of capturing atomic‑resolution videos of individual gold atoms 'dancing' across a ...
Phys.org / Software package makes gene regulation easier to study—and tweak
Understanding how genes are switched on and off in specific cell types remains one of biology's central challenges. While AI has made major progress in decoding the regulatory logic of DNA, applying these approaches across ...
Phys.org / DNA-binding protein blocks virulence cascade in a diarrhea pathogen outside hosts, study finds
Some pathogens use temperature as a trigger and activate virulence only after entering the warmer environment of a host. A research team from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the University of Münster, Germany, investigated ...
Phys.org / AI turns electron microscopy into materials insights in minutes
An electron microscopy image can capture atoms arranged in a crystal lattice or defects threading through a semiconductor material, but turning that image into materials insight can take weeks of careful analysis. Now, an ...
Phys.org / Microscopic coils and coffee trees lead to new fungal discovery
Yunnan Province in southwestern China is a global biodiversity hotspot, accommodating an incredible variety of plants and animals. It is also the heart of China's coffee industry, with Yunnan accounting for almost all of ...
Phys.org / Unexplained sky flashes from the 1950s: Independent analysis supports their existence
Historical observations from an observatory in Germany have now independently verified evidence for brief, mysterious flashes of light in the night sky, first picked up by an American astronomical survey in the 1950s. Through ...
