Phys.org news
Phys.org / Perceived naturalness emerges as key driver of public support for climate technology
From nuclear energy to lab-grown meat, the list of effective but unpopular climate solutions is long. A new University of Colorado Boulder study sheds light on why people reject or accept some proposed sustainability technologies: ...
Phys.org / Fungal chitin offers new route to tougher hydrogels for medical devices and soft robots
Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, have made an advance by using a natural substance from fungi called chitin to create hydrogels ...
Phys.org / Himalayan grain demonstrates the potential of pangenome-guided breeding for higher yields and adaptability
Scientists from the Centre for Crop and Food Innovation (CCFI) at Murdoch University have participated in a landmark proof-of-concept research project demonstrating how pangenome-guided breeding strategies can reunite two ...
Phys.org / More than a decade of observation in Seattle suburbs shows where sensitive bird species won't go
Nearly 30 years ago, a simple question sent University of Washington researchers into the Puget Sound lowlands to look for birds. With Seattle's population swelling and housing developments pushing into once-forested suburbs, ...
Phys.org / New contactless method reveals how mirror-image materials respond differently to light
New research introduces a contactless way to see how mirror-image materials respond differently to circularly polarized light, without first building them into a complete electronic device. The researchers developed a novel ...
Phys.org / Weather prediction hits a theoretical 129-day ceiling
Prediction is the goal and test of all science, one might argue. Meteorologists have been curious about the inherent limits of weather forecasting ever since the dawn of numerical weather prediction in the late 1950s.
Phys.org / Twisted magnetic field around newborn star confirms decades-old jet theory
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is a partner, have captured the first direct, high-resolution ...
Phys.org / Reading daily ocean temperatures from red algae
Understanding how marine ecosystems respond to a warming ocean requires detailed records of past temperatures. An international research team led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Max Planck Institute for ...
Phys.org / Early farmers' larger grains may reflect rainfall, not genetic selection
A new archaeobotanical study by researchers from the University of Oxford and Kiel University (CAU) has revealed that increases in cereal grain size at the dawn of agriculture, more than 11,000 years ago, were initially driven ...
Phys.org / Consistency-based rewards could build lasting cooperation better than punishing free-riders
A vaccine only protects a whole community if enough people get it, including those who would stay safe anyway once their neighbors are covered. The same tension runs through climate action and social movements: The shared ...
Phys.org / Scientists uncover a hidden mechanism that drives RNA synthesis
Scientists have long been fascinated by two promising classes of antibiotics that disable RNA polymerase (RNAP). They knew that these drugs could grind gene expression to a halt in several pathogens, including the bacterium ...
Phys.org / Ancient Colombians built huge water system without centralized rule, archaeologists say
Communities living in Colombia thousands of years ago achieved an engineering wonder of the world based on cooperation among family groups without top-down government, a new study shows. Archaeologists argue that policymakers ...