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43 articles from PhysOrg

Gulf coast mollusks rode out past periods of climate change

About 55 million years ago, a rapidly warming climate decimated marine communities around the world. But according to new research, it was a different story for snails, clams and other mollusks living in the shallow waters along what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. They were able to survive.

Distant giant planets form differently than 'failed stars'

A team of astronomers led by Brendan Bowler of The University of Texas at Austin has probed the formation process of giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs, a class of objects that are more massive than giant planets, but not massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion in their cores to shine like true stars.

Chemists develop safer hydrogenation processes

Safe and environmentally-friendly hydrogen gas on demand could be on the horizon following a new "hydrogenation" chemical process in development at The City College of New York. Led by Mahesh K. Lakshman, the research uniquely bypasses the need for an external source of hydrogen gas to accomplish a wide range of hydrogenations. It appears as an inside cover feature in the 2020 issue #1 of journal...

But what about flow? The effect of hydrodynamics on liquid-liquid transitions

For a long time, the liquid state of pure substances was believed to be a continuous state in which the component atoms or molecules are all equivalent. However, it has now been widely shown that there can be multiple phases within liquids, even those containing only one component. Understanding what causes the components of liquids to switch from one state to another is currently a subject of...

Tropical cyclones: How they contribute to better forecast in the Maritime Continent

Tropical cyclones are important players within the Earth's climate system. While literature usually investigates their role in determining flood events and inducing precipitation, a new study led by the CMCC Foundation—Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change points out for the first time that they can also create drying effects in other regions due to induced zonal wind anomalies.

NASA examines Tropical Storm Uesi's heavy rainfall

NASA analyzed Tropical Storm Uesi's rainfall and found moderate to heavy rainfall around the storm's center and in a large band of thunderstorms south of the center. That heavy rainfall has triggered warnings for Vanuatu in the Southern Pacific Ocean.

Is it hemp or marijuana? New scanner gives instant answer

Hemp is technically legal in Texas, but proving that hemp is not marijuana can be a hurdle, requiring testing in a licensed laboratory. So, when a truck carrying thousands of pounds of hemp was recently detained by law enforcement near Amarillo, the driver spent weeks in jail awaiting confirmation that the cargo was legal.

Oral traditions and volcanic eruptions in Australia

In Australia, the onset of human occupation (about 65,000 years?) and dispersion across the continent are the subjects of intense debate and are critical to understanding global human migration routes. A lack of ceramic artifacts and permanent structures has resulted in a scarcity of dateable archaeological sites older than about 10,000 years.

Camera provides view into Sun's polar regions

The Solar Orbiter mission will use a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-designed and -built heliospheric camera, known as SoloHI, to provide unique perspectives and unprecedented views of the Sun's North and South poles. The spacecraft, a NASA and European Space Agency collaboration, launched aboard an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Feb. 9.

Lack of transparency in urban sustainability rankings

"The last two decades have seen significant growth in the spread of tools to classify and measure urban performance (rankings, indexes, etc.) across both the public and private institutions that use them, in response to different types of pressures encouraging uniformity. Naturally, all these tools are useful for guiding and assessing the policies implemented by local authorities in various fields...

The effects of China's one-child policy on women's education

Women's educational attainment has increased tremendously and even exceeded men's all over the world in the late 20th century. China's One-Child Policy had a beneficial effect on women's education and explains about half of the increase in educational attainment for women born between 1960-1980, according to a review published in Contemporary Economic Policy.

Geothermal energy: Drilling a 3,000-meter-deep well

Although stopping climate change is challenging, it is imperative to slow it down as soon as possible by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But how can we meet the growing energy demand while reducing our use of polluting fossil fuels? Geothermal energy is an efficient, non-polluting solution but in certain cases geothermal operations must be handled with care. Reaching the most powerful sources...