Phys.org news
Phys.org / Neanderthal growth hormone receptor increases muscle mass in people today, study shows
Neanderthals were generally more strongly built than most people living today. Their bones show signs of large muscles, and they had characteristic features such as prominent brow ridges and relatively short tooth roots.
Phys.org / Two origins of life: Free-living cells may have emerged twice as bacteria and archaea diverged
How and where did the first forms of life arise? These are the main questions driving research at the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU). In a new publication in Science Advances, ...
Phys.org / Runaway supermassive black hole RBH-1 offers new way to reconstruct ancient merger
Black holes are fascinating regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape them. The largest known black holes, called supermassive black holes, contain millions to billions of times the ...
Phys.org / Venus's polygonal plains could point to a watery past
Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked ...
Phys.org / Scattered Roman bones point to potential fourth-century purge at Brading Villa
Disarticulated bones found scattered across a luxurious Roman villa on England's Isle of Wight may be evidence of a massacre carried out during a brutal political purge in the fourth century, a new study in Britannia suggests.
Phys.org / Astronomers catch 'Hatchling' quasar breaking out of its dusty cocoon
Using observations from multiple powerful telescopes, a team of astronomers studied a red quasar nicknamed "the Hatchling" at redshift 3.7. They may have identified one of the clearest examples yet of a quasar caught in transition ...
Phys.org / Were there tiny dinosaurs? New study explores one of evolution's biggest mysteries
Dinosaurs are famous for being big, from the towering Tyrannosaurus rex to the colossal Apatosaurus. But a new study published today in the journal Evolution by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Princeton ...
Phys.org / A new species of Ice Age toad discovered at La Brea Tar Pits: The spadefoot toad Spea labreae
For the first time, researchers have discovered a new species of extinct amphibian from Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits: a spadefoot toad they have named Spea labreae. Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian ...
Phys.org / Backpack lab finds wastewater contamination and drug-resistant bacteria in Galápagos waters
From routine surgeries to cancer treatment, modern medicine depends on drugs that can fight infections caused by microbes such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. But some microbes are becoming resistant to the drugs ...
Phys.org / 'Little red dots' may be pulsating monster stars that created early-universe black holes
Astronomers have speculated about the mysterious "little red dots" seen through the James Webb Space Telescope's images of the early universe: They could be galaxies, black holes, quasi-stars, starbursts ... or something ...
Phys.org / Turning one of the world's most difficult plastics into premium lubricant
Virginia Tech chemist and chemical engineer Guoliang "Greg" Liu and his lab have developed a process that converts the plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into polyalphaolefin, a key component in lubricants such as engine oil. ...
Phys.org / One of the world's only two complete dodo skulls reveals new clues about the extinct bird
Only two complete dodo skulls are known to exist anywhere in the world: one at the Natural History Museum Denmark and one at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The specimen housed in Copenhagen has been preserved ...
