Phys.org news
Phys.org / Black hole feeding frenzy ends in lingering cosmic indigestion
Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic gluttons that swallow everything that comes too close. But new observations of a dramatic black hole outburst—led by Warwick Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Noel Castro Segura—suggest the ...
Phys.org / Female birds have shorter lifespans than male birds across 35 North American species, researchers find
Birds have a lot to do in their short lives: defend territories, build nests, raise chicks and feed themselves. But the toll of these activities may be greater for female birds than for male birds. A new study by UCLA ornithologists ...
Phys.org / Surface engineering advances mitochondrial transplantation as a potential therapeutic strategy
Inside almost every cell in our bodies are tiny structures called organelles that keep us alive and functioning. Among these are many bean-shaped mitochondria, often referred to as the cell's power plants because they generate ...
Phys.org / Quantum spin effects may enhance one-way electrical transport in chiral magnets
Quantum fluctuations influence direction-dependent electrical transport in chiral magnets, researchers from Science Tokyo report. In chiral magnetic systems, electric current flows differently depending on its direction, ...
Phys.org / Ancient Chinese seeds spanning 5,000 years train AI to ease archaeology's specialist bottleneck
Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilization. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) ...
Phys.org / Ancient stardust grains were seeds for the earliest solids in the solar system
How did the first solids that made up planets, moons and asteroids form from the "hot soup" that characterized our solar system's earliest years? New research from Caltech analyzing pieces of a meteorite has found that, just ...
Phys.org / Scientists solve mystery of how muscle cells grow and stay healthy
In a study published in Nature Communications biophysicists unravel the mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and maintain their function. The findings may help design treatments for muscle diseases such as dilated ...
Phys.org / Spectroscopy system detects aerosols using light reflected from traffic signs and tree trunks
Researchers have developed and tested an infrared spectroscopy system that can rapidly detect chemical aerosols from a distance by using light reflected from common surfaces such as traffic signs, tree trunks or painted surfaces. ...
Phys.org / Likelihood of wildfires in Southern Europe has doubled since the 80s, study shows
Summer days featuring conditions that promote wildfire ignition, intensity and spread have more than doubled across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy and Greece since 1981, according to a study in Scientific ...
Dialog / Bacteria may identify a virus without recognizing its DNA
When a virus enters a cell, its top priority is to replicate its genome rapidly, creating new viruses to infect elsewhere. The host has the opposite priority: to destroy the virus, ideally before it can do any harm. Biology ...
Phys.org / Flash droughts can pull 'alarming' amounts of moisture from the landscape and intensify wildfires
When catastrophic wildfires capture global headlines, such as the unprecedented blazes sweeping through southern Europe this summer or the devastating 2019–20 "Black Summer" in Australia, they are almost always preceded by ...
Phys.org / Tiny fossils crack a Cretaceous cold case: Ocean acidification triggered one of the ocean's most severe extinctions
A 113-million-year-old marine murder mystery may finally be solved. Using chemical clues locked inside microscopic fossils, Northwestern University scientists found evidence that ocean acidification drove one of the largest ...