Phys.org news
Phys.org / Blended satellite data reveal what drove methane's 2019–2024 rise worldwide
Because methane has around 80 times the warming potential of CO2 over a 20-year period, it has been a major focus for climate action groups. The Global Methane Pledge, launched at COP26 in November 2021, aims to cut human-caused ...
Phys.org / Museum drawer fossil reveals 200-million-year-old crocodile relative with a powerful bite
The fossil record has given us another new prehistoric species, named Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (from the Greek personification of the morning star—the planet Venus), a member of the group called Crocodylomorpha, which includes ...
Phys.org / Dark matter could explain the earliest supermassive black holes
A growing mystery in astronomy is the presence of gargantuan black holes—some weighing as much as a billion suns—existing less than a billion years after the Big Bang. According to the standard theory of black hole formation, ...
Phys.org / Nature might have a universal rhythm
Animal communication can look wildly different—flashing lights, chirping calls, croaking songs and elaborate dances. But new research from Northwestern University suggests many of these signals share a surprising feature: ...
Phys.org / Sperm whale clicks follow similar rules to human speech
Sperm whales produce powerful clicks to communicate. To our ears, they sound nothing more than a series of repetitive, mechanical taps. But we could be a step closer to understanding some of their complex communication, as ...
Phys.org / Scientists solve 100-year-old mystery behind rubber that powers modern life
Every time you drive, board a plane or water your lawn, you're relying on a material that has quietly powered modern life for nearly a century—reinforced rubber. It's in car and aircraft tires, industrial seals, medical devices ...
Phys.org / First physical evidence of Peruvian Hairless Dogs at Wari site uncovered in Peru
A study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology combined zooarchaeology with multi-isotopic analysis to reveal the diverse life histories of ancient dogs in the Wari Empire (ca. 600–1050 CE). Not only has ...
Phys.org / JWST spots methane on a giant exoplanet, but its star may be distorting the signal
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have observed a giant exoplanet known as HATS-75 b. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv ...
Phys.org / Wasps move in on ant-plant partnership, disrupting a 10‑million‑year mutualism
An international team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and other institutions has uncovered surprising new behavior in ...
Phys.org / Astronomers crack a decades-old mystery, catching gas morphing into planet-building disks around newborn stars
An international team led by Dr. Indrani Das of Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) has shown, for the first time, how infalling gas from star-forming cores gradually transitions into planet-forming ...
Phys.org / America's sewage and manure hold a $5.7 billion key to breaking synthetic fertilizer dependence
Nutrients recovered from animal and human waste could drastically reduce synthetic fertilizer use in the U.S., according to a new Cornell University study that takes into account real-world implementation challenges like ...
Phys.org / How farming changed us: Ancient DNA reveals natural selection sped up in recent human evolution
A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought.
