Phys.org news

At several archaeological sites in southern Africa, hundreds of highly unusual fragments of ostrich eggs have been found. Dating back more than 60,000 years, the shells were engraved by groups of Homo sapiens who lived in ...

Scores of sea lions continue to beach themselves along the Southern California coastline, stricken with sickness. Toxic algae blooms are to blame, though a mechanical engineering innovation could shift the tide in favor of ...

Many therapeutic molecules used in cancer treatments are highly toxic, often harming healthy tissues and causing significant side effects. This creates a critical need for strategies that localize their toxic activity to ...

Dining on the moon or Mars might seem like a fantasy reserved for science fiction, but researchers are investigating how it could become a reality. Their efforts to recycle plant and human waste into a fertilizer material—turning ...

Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades. More fires are burning at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where homes and other buildings meet the natural landscape—but our understanding ...

A new study provides a comprehensive global synthesis of how vessel traffic affects large marine wildlife, including whales, dolphins, seals, manatees, sea turtles, sharks and rays. The study, "Charting the Course for Management: ...

Pinpointing when early land plants colonized terrestrial environments and began influencing Earth's systems is a core question in the evolution of the Earth system. A research team led by Prof. Zhao Mingyu at the Institute ...

When you toss a coin, you put it into a higher-energy state until it falls back down again. It can then end up in one of two possible states: heads or tails. No matter which state the coin was in before, after the toss both ...

Basketball shoes on a gym floor, bicycle brakes in need of a tune-up, or the squeal of tires are everyday examples of squeaking sounds. Such sounds have long been attributed to stick-slip friction, or a cycle of intermittent ...

Researchers have reported the discovery of a new species of jellyfish, Malagazzia michelin, marking only the second species of its genus ever found in Japanese waters. Led by Takato Izumi of Fukuyama University, the discovery ...

Coral reefs are teeming with life: they are home to over a third of all marine animal and plant species on Earth, despite covering less than one percent of the ocean floor. However, this immense diversity is under threat ...

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers identified 10 new species and seven new groups (genera) of Hawaiian leaf-roller moths. While new species are frequently discovered, the description of a new genus of insects is ...