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72 articles from PhysOrg

How chemical reactions compute

A single molecule contains a wealth of information. It includes not only the number of each kind of constituent atom, but also how they're arranged and how they attach to each other. And during chemical reactions, that information determines the outcome and becomes transformed. Molecules collide, break apart, reassemble, and rebuild in predictable ways.

Mapping the cellular circuits behind spitting

For over a decade, researchers have known that the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans can detect and avoid short-wavelength light, despite lacking eyes and the light-absorbing molecules required for sight. As a graduate student in the Horvitz lab, Nikhil Bhatla proposed an explanation for this ability. He observed that light exposure not only made the worms wriggle away, but it also prompted them to...

New study finds emperor penguins increasingly threatened by climate change

A new study published today in Global Change Biology provides valuable new data that highlights how species extinction risk is accelerating due to rapid climate change and an increase in extreme climate events, such as glacial calving and sea ice loss. The study, led by Stephanie Jenouvrier, associate scientist, and seabird ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and co-authored by an...

Can East Asian monsoon enhancement induce global cooling?

The study of the orogenic effects of the Tibetan Plateau uplift on global climate during the Cenozoic has focused almost exclusively on the India-Asia collision zone, the Himalayas. The strong erosion in the Himalayas was assumed to be a primary driver of Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 decline and global cooling predominantly through accelerating silicate chemical weathering in the India-Asia collision...

Acquisition of channel state information for mmWave MIMO: Traditional and machine learning approaches

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications have attracted extensive interest from academia, industry, and government as they can make full use of abundant frequency resources at the high-frequency band to achieve ultra-high-speed data transmission. The mmWave communication systems are usually equipped with large antenna arrays, known as mmWave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), to...

Prestressed plasters for old buildings

Bent concrete beams, cracks on the undersides of bridges, risk of rust for the reinforcement: In Switzerland, many structures are getting on in years. Take national roads, for example: According to the 2019 report of the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO), a large proportion of bridges were built between the mid-1960s to the 1980s—with significantly lower traffic loads than today.

Two new genera and species of conifers from upper Cretaceous discovered in Hokkaido, Japan

Illustrations depicting the dinosaur era—whether in books or movies—are often accompanied by lush greenery. During the Cretaceous period, the trees commonly dominating a wide range of Earth's terrestrial environments were conifers—similar to the pines, spruces, cypresses and cedars that populate the earth today. These conifers played a key role in ecosystems, providing nourishment,...

Smart water tank to improve platypus breeding odds

Water authorities will be turning to Melburnians to help with a novel system of 'smart' rainwater tanks and urban lakes that can provide crucial water to support platypus habitat when it's most needed—just before the breeding season.

Artificial stomach reveals fluid dynamics of food digestion

In efforts to fight obesity and enhance drug absorption, scientists have extensively studied how gastric juices in the stomach break down ingested food and other substances. However, less is known about how the complex flow patterns and mechanical stresses produced in the stomach contribute to digestion.

New tool enables mapping of protein interaction networks at scale

Proteins—long chains of amino acids—each play a unique role in keeping our cells and bodies functioning, from carrying out chemical reactions, to delivering messages, and protecting us from potentially harmful foreign invaders. More recent research has shown that these proteins not only serve their individual purpose, but also interact with other proteins to carry out even more numerous and...

Whatever is killing coral reefs in Florida is also killing them in Belize

In 1842, Charles Darwin described the Belize Barrier Reef as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies." Fast forward to 2021, only about 17 percent of live coral cover remains on fore-reefs in Belize. Overfishing, resulting in reduced grazing of algae, has long been blamed for adversely impacting this globally significant ecosystem along the Caribbean coast of Central America. Designated in...

People living in dense parts of UK cities found to be more lonely

A team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong and one from Oxford University has found that people who live in the denser parts of U.K. cities tend to be lonelier than people living in more open areas. In their paper published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, the group describes their study of health data for people in the U.K. and what they found.

Mott insulator exhibits a sharp response to electron injection

In a finding that will give theorists plenty to ponder, an all-RIKEN team has observed an unexpected response in an exotic material known as a Mott insulator when they injected electrons into it. This observation promises to give physicists new insights into such materials, which are closely related to high-temperature superconductors.