Phys.org news
Phys.org / An end to the battle between touchscreens and long fingernails is on the horizon
Anybody who has tried to use a smartphone or tablet with long nails knows that there's a learning curve. Rather than effortlessly tapping with a fingertip, you must awkwardly lay the pads of your fingers onto the screen. ...
Phys.org / One step closer to deciphering TOR, the molecular machinery that makes humans and yeast grow
The name might sound like a Nordic god, but it is actually the molecular machinery that allows many different species to eat and grow: fungi, plants, whales, humans, flies. It is the mighty TOR protein. An expedition to Easter ...
Phys.org / CryoPRISM: A new tool for observing cellular machinery in a more natural environment
The blobfish, once considered the ugliest animal in the world, has since had quite the redemption arc. Years after it was first discovered, scientists realized that the deep-sea creature appeared so unnervingly blobby only ...
Phys.org / Genome-hopping 'Starships' may explain why some pest-killing fungi stop working
A new study from Kiel University shows how the massive exchange of mobile genetic elements between fungi can impair their effectiveness against insects and ticks. Microbial fungi, such as the genus Metarhizium, are often ...
Phys.org / Precision of the food-directional 'waggle dance' fluctuates with audience size and who's in attendance, study reveals
In recent years, scientists have carefully deciphered details of the honey bee "waggle dance," which is an advanced form of social communication in the animal kingdom. University of California San Diego biologists and their ...
Phys.org / Jamming bacterial communications, instead of killing the microbes, might provide long-lasting treatment
Every minute, nearly 500 antibiotic prescriptions are written in the U.S. Many of these drugs succeed, but more are being outmaneuvered by resistant bacteria. This can lead to tragic results, like the death of one Nevada ...
Phys.org / A safer, nonflammable battery electrolyte exists, but self-assembly flaw is holding it back
Many important technologies, from handheld phones to medical devices and transportation vehicles, rely on rechargeable batteries. Modern top-of-the-line rechargeable batteries transport lithium ions between electrodes to ...
Phys.org / Diamonds are not a geoengineer's best friend: Carbon impurities provide a reality check
The field of solar geoengineering revolves around the idea of cooling the globe via the injection of aerosols to reflect sunlight or to thin clouds. One such strategy, stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), aims to mimic ...
Phys.org / Frustrated Lewis pair chemistry enables dual atom insertion to build bioactive molecules
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a boron-catalyzed method to transform oxetanes, which are small four-membered ring molecules, into larger, medicinally relevant 1,3-oxazinanes by ...
Phys.org / Nanoplastics become more harmful after being outdoors, study finds
When cutlery, insulation, packaging and other items made of polystyrene plastic break down, they can form nanoplastics up to 100 times thinner than the average human hair—small enough to be inhaled into the lungs. For the ...
Phys.org / Green clay courts serve up environmental solutions by absorbing carbon dioxide
Green clay tennis courts are able to absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide via enhanced rock weathering, according to a new study in Applied Geochemistry. Enhanced rock weathering—the process of using silicate rocks ...
Phys.org / Mining a methane-degrading bioreactor for protein rubies
Scientists have found a new type of iron-storing protein in a mixture of microbes containing methane-degraders. This discovery underscores the importance of characterizing proteins from microbes that cannot be isolated, thereby ...
