Phys.org news

University of British Columbia researchers have developed an edible, seaweed-derived coating that can keep strawberries fresh for at least four days at room temperature, outperforming uncoated berries stored in the refrigerator.

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a new quantum-dot mechanism that could significantly expand the reach of light-driven chemistry. By introducing magnetic manganese dopants into semiconductor ...

A diamond-based quantum sensor inserted into a living cell can provide previously unseen levels of detail about how life works and how diseases form. "Think of it as an EKG for a single cell—a way to capture everything happening ...

Smithsonian researchers have identified the genetic relationships among all Hawaiian honeycreeper species known to have existed—and subsequently faced major losses—since the arrival of Europeans to the islands.

Using a combination of laser cooling techniques and strong magnetic fields, researchers at Colorado State University have for the first time created an ultracold neutral plasma with electrons cooled to temperatures measured ...

How readily a cell divides and how well it survives are fundamental to life, shaping everything from organ size to the body's ability to withstand disease. That combination, known as cell fitness, isn't the same for everyone. ...

The dancing lights of fireflies and the eerie blue sparkle in crashing waves get their glow when a molecular square of carbon and oxygen atoms breaks. New research from Stanford University has shown that mechanical force ...

In a billion years, the sun will start to run out of fuel and expand to become a red giant. Earth's oceans and atmosphere will be burned away, and Earth will likely be engulfed by the sun altogether. The sun will then shrink ...

Ants live in highly organized colonies and cooperate daily to tackle a wide range of problems. Their striking group behaviors have fascinated biologists for centuries and even inspired the development of various artificial ...

So far, almost all stellar-mass black holes detected by astronomers have been found in binary systems. However, astronomers have long suspected that these binary black holes are the exception and that, within the Milky Way, ...

Digital security currently relies on difficult equations to protect data. For example, when you use a credit card online, the information is locked inside a math problem that would take a modern computer thousands of years ...

While Earth's core consists mostly of iron, its density implies that lighter elements are also mixed in. Because hydrogen is abundant in the universe and can mix with iron under certain conditions, scientists suspect it makes ...