Phys.org news
Phys.org / Although woodland salamanders have looked the same for millions of years, their physiology has evolved rapidly
For her doctoral dissertation, Yale's Nathalie Alomar decided to study a small amphibian that appeared to have eluded the forces of evolution. She found that there is more to its evolution than meets the eye.
Phys.org / Sawdust, cellulose binders and beeswax combine into eco-friendly foam
Polystyrene—common in packing peanuts and box inserts—is manufactured from fossil fuels. To develop a sustainable alternative, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials tested an unconventional starting material: ...
Phys.org / 500-million-year fossil record reveals corals' symbiotic advantage shifted with changing environments
Coral reef ecosystems, widely seen as a climate change bellwether, are more complex than previously understood. A new international study by the universities of Bristol, Wuhan in China, and Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany reveals ...
Phys.org / Amazon fish reveal a synchronized survival tactic that could transfer to drone swarms
Some fish swim in synchrony. Others, it turns out, breathe in synchrony. This is true for arapaimas, an obligate air-breathing species living in the Amazon. A new study in Communications Biology, led by the Leibniz Institute ...
Dialog / Liquid ripples rewrite 130-year-old biological classic: New reflections on the lock-and-key model
This April, when the spring breeze carried the formal acceptance notice of our paper by the Journal of the American Chemical Society to my desk, my thoughts instantly drifted back to the late Phil Geissler. A legendary physical ...
Phys.org / Contact lenses can repair themselves with just one hour of UV light exposure
Contact lenses are a great vision correction option for many, but if one of them gets damaged, there is little to do other than throw it away. A team reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials has a solution: special polymer ...
Phys.org / Honeybee metamorphosis map uncovers 842 active DNA switches that drive worker bee development
Researchers have identified "DNA switches" that become active as honeybee larvae grow into worker bees, offering new insight into the development of these important pollinators and the ecosystems they support.
Phys.org / Local species trends may flag global extinction risk, global study finds
New research from the University of St. Andrews has shown that higher extinction risk is associated with a higher frequency of decreasing local prevalence of species, in an analysis of one of the most comprehensive long-term ...
Phys.org / Corrected Pantheon+ analysis of supernovae challenges accelerating universe claim
Research led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, along with Professor Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford, questions the widely accepted argument that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating ...
Phys.org / Newly described Australian ballista spider builds a spring-loaded snare to catch a single ant species
An international team of researchers has discovered a remarkable new spider species in the rainforest of North Queensland that spins an ingenious and powerful spring-actuated snare to catch a single species of ant—one ant ...
Phys.org / Broken time-reversal symmetry phase in kagome metals may establish conditions for superconductivity
Physicists have long suspected that a peculiar quantum state lurks inside a class of materials known as kagome metals, but proving its existence has been elusive. Now, a team led by Yeongkwan Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute ...
Phys.org / How languages recycle parts of words to avoid confusion
Many languages recycle words, giving them different meanings. For example, in English, "run" can mean to move quickly but also to manage something, like "run a company." In Spanish, "lengua" is both the word for tongue and ...
