Phys.org news

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a computation-guided strategy to produce urea more efficiently from carbon dioxide and nitrate. By combining large language models, density functional ...

Waterlogged land areas such as marshes, bogs and fens are the world's largest natural source of methane. Even the smallest of wetlands emit this powerful greenhouse gas. In a study from The University of Texas at Austin, ...

National governments and multilateral institutions face difficult challenges reconciling environmental goals, such as biodiversity conservation and addressing climate change, with economic development goals. In a first-of-its-kind ...

The concept of the "15-Minute City" has gained global traction as a blueprint for more livable, sustainable communities by placing daily essentials—such as grocery stores, schools, restaurants and parks—within easy reach ...

Ozone pollution has worsened in much of the continental United States over the past decade, fueled by wildfires and the long-distance transport of unhealthy air, according to a new study titled "Fires reverse progress toward ...

Mangrove forests, once considered one of the world's most threatened coastal ecosystems, are showing signs of recovery worldwide, according to new research from Tulane University that finds decades of losses largely offset ...

Designing surfaces that precisely control how light behaves at the nanoscale is tricky. Optical Fourier surfaces, which are nanostructured gratings that redistribute light into specific directions and wavelengths, hold enormous ...

Using box jellyfish as an example, researchers from Kiel University show how the physics of density, not behavior or physiology, can prevent animals from reaching the surface even as they actively swim upward.

In the region where the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will search for signs of life, clay deposits extend beyond previous estimates, a new study finds. One hypothesis even suggests a vast ocean once covered the landing ...

Deep below the Tyrrhenian Sea offshore Italy, scientists drilled into what they thought would be dark mantle rock—and found pieces of granite that seemingly had no business being there. Those unexpected intrusions turned ...

For the first time, mighty ocean waves generated in the Southern Ocean have been accurately measured all the way to the tiny ripples they form on the shores of Alaska. Professor Ian Young, from the University of Melbourne's ...

University of Florida researchers are exploring how lasers could help astronauts build structures on the moon using materials already available there, including lunar soil transformed into glass. The work, led by Victoria ...