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87 articles from PhysOrg

Humans managed shellfish and their predators for millennia, study finds

Due to their protected status, sea otter populations have rebounded across the Pacific Northwest Coast following their near elimination during the historic maritime fur trade. But the recovery of these shellfish predators and the federal laws now protecting them challenge local Indigenous communities who hold constitutionally protected rights to harvest those same shellfish but who are legally...

New research analyzes investor reaction to robo-advisors: Some investors miss opportunities

Believe it nor not, more and more lending companies are turning to human-robot interaction to help with investment advice. But how do people react and what's the result of an investment decision when robots use algorithms to make suggestions? New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research finds that investors who could benefit most from robo-advisors (RAs) aren't using them. And...

Smartphone cameras offer smallholder farmers promising new access to soil health knowledge

The lack of adequate access to effective soil fertility testing in India, and much of the subtropical and tropical world, has led a group of scientists to explore how a smartphone camera might be transformed into a powerful and readily available alternative. Recently published in the Elsevier journal Biosystems Engineering, the research team describes important advances in the area of image-based...

New framework could help teachers personalize their professional learning

Digital badges used as emblems to indicate an accomplishment or skill is a concept familiar to online learners seeking advanced knowledge in their profession. For many learners, digital badges have been used as a motivation to continue along a prescribed path—often through workshop attendance or completion of required online learning modules.

'Triangle singularity' is responsible for transformation in the particle zoo

An international study led by the University of Bonn has found evidence of a long-sought effect in accelerator data. The so-called "triangle singularity" describes how particles can change their identities by exchanging quarks, thereby mimicking a new particle. The mechanism also provides new insights into a mystery that has long puzzled particle physicists: Protons, neutrons and many other...

An emberometer could gauge the threat of wildfire-spreading embers

As wildfire fronts advance through landscapes or communities on the ground, they also attack from above, launching volleys of glowing embers into the air. Also known as firebrands, these specks of burning debris can glide for up to 40 kilometers (approximately 24 miles) before landing and can cause up to 90% of home and business fires during wildfires.

'Shadow waveguide' casts complex acoustic patterns to control particles

Engineers at Duke University have devised a new approach to using sound waves to manipulate tiny particles suspended in liquid in complex ways. Dubbed a "shadow waveguide," the technique uses only two sound sources to create a tightly confined, spatially complex acoustic field inside a chamber without requiring any interior structure. The technology offers a new suite of features to the...

Mystery of the seadragon solved

Seadragons (Phyllopetryx taeniolatus) live off the coast in western and southern Australia. An international team involving evolutionary biologist Axel Meyer from the University of Konstanz has now found the genetic basis for some external characteristics of the seadragon, like its lack of teeth and its distinct leaf-like appendages. The team also localized the sex-determination gene in the...

The fewer forests, the more space giant anteaters need

Giant anteaters living in less forested habitats make use of larger home ranges, according to a study by Aline Giroux at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul and colleagues, publishing August 18 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. This behavior may allow them to incorporate forest patches into their territory, the authors say.

What if our history was written in our grammar?

Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH's lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods. Their findings: grammar reflects best the common prehistory of a...

Experimental confirmation of wave-particle duality

The 21st century has undoubtedly been the era of quantum science. Quantum mechanics was born in the early 20th century and has been used to develop unprecedented technologies which include quantum information, quantum communication, quantum metrology, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. However, in quantum science, there are still unresolved and even inapprehensible issues like wave-particle...

Parents remain concerned about safety of in-person instruction

A gap remains between white parents and Black and Hispanic parents in their preferences for in-person schooling, but it has narrowed since May. The RAND Corporation survey, funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, details parents' responses concerning school hesitancy and preferences for COVID-19 safety practices in U.S. schools in fall 2021.  

Mapping the universe's earliest structures with COSMOS-webb

When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope begins science operations in 2022, one of its first tasks will be an ambitious program to map the earliest structures in the universe. Called COSMOS-Webb, this wide and deep survey of half a million galaxies is the largest project Webb will undertake during its first year.

Exploring how tantalum behaves at high pressures and temperatures

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have explored high-pressure behavior of shock-compressed tantalum at the Omega Laser Facility at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). The work showed tantalum did not follow the predicted phase changes at high pressure and instead maintained the body-centered cubic (BCC) phase until melt.