Phys.org news
Phys.org / Tapping into whale talk: Open-source bio-logger captures underwater cetacean conversations
Say you want to listen in on a group of super-intelligent aliens whose language you don't understand, and whose spaceship only flies by Earth once an hour. It's not unlike what Harvard scientists and others are doing, except ...
Phys.org / Iconic 'Little Foot' fossil may be new type of human ancestor
An international study led by researchers from Australia's La Trobe University and the University of Cambridge has challenged the classification of one of the world's most complete human ancestral fossils, raising the possibility ...
Phys.org / Study uncovers new drug target for huge class of viruses
A study from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), published in Nature Communications, reveals how enteroviruses—including pathogens that cause polio, encephalitis, myocarditis, and the common cold—initiate ...
Phys.org / 3D-printed helixes show promise as THz optical materials
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have optimized and 3D-printed helix structures as optical materials for terahertz (THz) frequencies, a potential way to address a technology gap for next-generation ...
Phys.org / Scientists create stable, switchable vortex knots inside liquid crystals
The knots in your shoelaces are familiar, but can you imagine knots made from light, water, or from the structured fluids that make LCD screens shine?
Phys.org / New biomolecular technique uncovers millet in medieval Ukrainian dental calculus
A study has, for the first time, identified minute traces of broomcorn millet consumption directly from human dental calculus, offering an unprecedented window into medieval diets and expanding the toolkit available to archaeologists ...
Phys.org / Portable optical scanner reveals hidden ozone damage in plant leaves
Escalating pollution and contamination of water and soil are emerging as serious threats to plant growth and its overall health. Plants are exposed to environmental pollutants for extended periods and exhibit changes in their ...
Phys.org / AI helps solve decades-old maze in frustrated magnet physics
By partnering with artificial intelligence (AI), a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has solved a long-standing physics problem and uncovered the mathematical trickery that ...
Phys.org / Making lighter work of calculating fluid and heat flow
Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have re-engineered the popular Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM) for simulating the flow of fluids and heat, making it lighter and more stable than the state-of-the-art.
Phys.org / Heavy is the head that wears the crown: Dominant baboons miss out on restful nights
Dominant baboons rule the troops by day, but at night, they may pay a hidden cost. A study led by Swansea University has found that higher-ranking baboons get less and more fragmented rest at night than their lower-ranked ...
Phys.org / Climate change can affect human diseases in widespread and varied ways
As the planet edges towards 1.5°C of global warming, a new study led by the Natural History Museum, London has revealed that scientists still have only a limited understanding of how climate change is reshaping the risk ...
Phys.org / Molecules as switches for sustainable light-driven technologies
Metal nanostructures can concentrate light so strongly that they can trigger chemical reactions. The key players in this process are plasmons—collective oscillations of free electrons in the metal that confine energy to ...
