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79 articles from PhysOrg

Does cold wildfire smoke contribute to water repellent soils in burned areas?

After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after rainfall events—a phenomenon that many scientists have attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry. But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new paper from the Desert Research Institute...

Dimensions of invasive plant success

Invasive alien plants are plant species that grow in an environment outside their native habitat. If they successfully establish self-sustaining populations in these new environments—an event called "naturalization"—they can have considerable negative impacts on local ecosystems, economies, and societies. But not all alien plant species are equally effective in invading new habitats....

Probing deeper into origins of cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are high-energy atomic particles continually bombarding Earth's surface at nearly the speed of light. Our planet's magnetic field shields the surface from most of the radiation generated by these particles. Still, cosmic rays can cause electronic malfunctions and are the leading concern in planning for space missions.

PUNCH mission passes important milestone

On May 20, 2021, the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission achieved an important milestone, passing NASA's Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of its spacecraft and payload experiments. Southwest Research Institute is leading PUNCH, a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission that will integrate understanding of the Sun's corona, the outer atmosphere visible during total solar...

Candid cosmos: eROSITA cameras set benchmark for astronomical imaging

Recently, the eROSITA (extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) X-ray telescope, an instrument developed by a team of scientists at Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), has gained attention among astronomers. The instrument performs an all-sky survey in the X-ray energy band of 0.2-8 kilo electron volts aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) satellite that...

Scientists explore racemases and propose strategies for finding drugs that target these important enzymes

Scientists from the UK's University of Bath explore racemases—an important type of enzyme that is linked to certain cancers and other life-threatening diseases while also being critical to cell function—in a paper published in the prestigious journal Chemical Society Reviews. The scientists also propose new strategies for finding drugs that neutralize these enzymes.

New international research provides tips for entrepreneurs to beat the grind

Staying up all night, working nonstop, eating on the run and skipping meals are often telltale signs of starting a new business. But research shows this constant hustle—which is often glorified as the key to success—can have a negative impact not only on an entrepreneur's health and well-being but also his or her business.

Scientists discover a protein that naturally enhances wheat resistance to head scab

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), also known as scab, is a significant disease of small grain cereals, such as wheat and barley, that impacts farmers around the world. The disease has been reducing acreage and increasing the price of wheat production in the United States since the early 1990s, which in turn increases costs for downstream producers, such as millers and brewers.

Immune function of small chloroplasts in the epidermal cells of plants

It is said that 10 to 15% of the world's agricultural production loss is caused by diseases, which is equivalent of the food for about 500 million people. And since 70-80% of this plant disease is caused by filamentous fungi, protecting crops from filamentous fungi is an important issue in effectively feeding the world population. In order for pathogenic fungi to infect plants, they must break...

Silver attacks bacteria, gets 'consumed'

For millennia, silver has been utilized for its antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Although its use as a disinfectant is widely known, the effects of silver's interaction with bacteria on the silver itself are not well understood.

Food scraps get a bold new life

Most people don't think much about the food scraps they throw away; however, investigators from the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo have developed a new method to reduce food waste by recycling discarded fruit and vegetable scraps into robust construction materials.

Research finds half of UK residents willing to adopt vaccine passports for travel

On 17 May 2021, the UK moved to step three of the Government's Roadmap out of Lockdown—which allowed for the lifting of a ban on foreign travel. Yet, traveling to amber and red list countries still carries strict regulations. UK residents can use proof of vaccination or COVID status (via the NHS app) to comply with travel restrictions in different countries—a scheme known as vaccine passports....

Female mice take longer to find a new mate after death of monogamous mate than males

A trio of researchers at Saint Joseph University's Department of Psychology has found that female California mice take longer to mate with a new partner after the loss of their monogamous mate than do males. In their paper published in the journal Behavioural Processes, Amber Valentino, Robert Roy and Elizabeth Becker describe their study of lab mice reproductive behavior.

Metamaterials offer multifunctional materials for engineering

In recent years, the popularity of metamaterials has increased significantly. These materials are not found in nature or made using chemical reactions, but are designed geometrically in the physics lab. Metamaterials can be given special, often counterintuitive, properties. For the first time, physicists have now developed a toolbox to create materials that feature multiple such properties...

Quantitatively understanding defects in phosphors from a nano perspective

Researchers led by Hong Zhang at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences of the University of Amsterdam have been able to provide insight into the microscopic dynamics of energy transfer and conversion in doped phosphors. Using dedicated nanostructures and computer modeling they were able to quantitatively determine the mechanism of interaction between hydroxyl impurities and luminescence...

Does the Milky Way move like a spinning top?

An investigation carried out by the astrophysicists of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) Žofia Chrobáková, a doctoral student at the IAC and the University of La Laguna (ULL), and Martín López Corredoira, questions one of the most interesting findings about the dynamics of the Milky Way in recent years: the precession, or the wobble in the axis of rotation of the disc warp is...