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93 articles from PhysOrg

Compost is a major source of pathogenic aspergillus spores

Fourteen percent of Aspergillus fumigatus isolates cultured from garden soils were resistant to an agricultural triazole antifungal drug, tebuconazole. Tebuconazole resistance confers resistance to medical triazoles that are used to treat aspergillosis, a lung infection that can be serious, which results from inhalation of A. fumigatus spores. The research is published in Applied and Environmental...

The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is sinking. Can sediment save it?

In Vietnam's Mekong Delta, home to about 17 million people, large areas of land have been poldered for the cultivation of crops such as rice and shrimp. At the moment, the delta is on average less than a meter above sea level. But due to accelerated land subsidence, mainly caused by groundwater extraction, a shortage of river sediment, and rising sea levels, researchers from Wageningen University...

Astronomers confront massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*

At the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole, 4.3 million times bigger than the sun, known as Sagittarius A*. Until recently, it was not clear how much of the matter at the heart of the galaxy was Sagittarius A*. Astronomers measured the velocities of four distant stars around the black hole. The movement of the stars indicates the mass at the galaxy's center is composed almost...

Fuzzy molecular threesome is basis of gene expression

Specific nuclear proteins act as a glue to pack genetic material in an absurdly small space in the human body. Proteins "gluing" DNA are called linker histones, and hold their secret in their electric charge. They are strongly positively charged, fusing to the strongly negatively charged DNA.

New photonic technology effect could speed drug development

Twisted nanoscale semiconductors manipulate light in a new way, researchers at the University of Bath and the University of Michigan have shown. The effect could be harnessed to accelerate the discovery and development of life-saving medicines as well as photonic technologies.

Study reveals how to break symmetry in colloidal crystals

Nature keeps a few secrets. While plenty of structures with low symmetry are found in nature, scientists have been confined to high-symmetry designs when synthesizing colloidal crystals, a valuable type of nanomaterial used for chemical and biological sensing and optoelectronic devices.

Two new species of freshwater goby fish discovered in the Philippines

A team of biologists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan and Western Philippines University (WPU) in the Philippines have found two new species of goby fish in Palawan, a Philippine archipelago. The goby fish, both belonging to the genus Rhinogobius, were described recently in the journal Zootaxa.

New research advocates a basic strategy for native fish recovery: Access to water

Rivers need water—a fact that may seem ridiculously obvious, but in times of increasing water development, drought, and climate change, the quantity of natural streamflow that remains in river channels is coming into question, especially in the Colorado River basin. Newly published research poses a tough question in these days of falling reservoir levels and high-stakes urban development:...

Tuning the bonds of paired quantum particles to create dissipationless flow

Electrons flowing through power lines and computers inevitably encounter resistance; when they do, they lose some of their energy, which dissipates as heat. That's why laptops get hot after being used for too long and why the server farms that power the cloud require so much air conditioning to keep the machines from overheating. Likewise, any particles carrying energy tend to lose that energy...

Plants: RNA notes to self

How does a developing plant shoot know how, where, and when to grow? Dividing cells need to pass messages from one another to coordinate growth. In plants, important messages are packaged into RNA, which are sent from cell to cell. By studying the mustard-like plant Arabidopsis thaliana, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor David Jackson and his team found that RNA messages need a...

Physicists discover 'secret sauce' behind exotic properties of new quantum material

MIT physicists and colleagues have discovered the "secret sauce" behind some of the exotic properties of a new quantum material that has transfixed physicists due to those properties, which include superconductivity. Although theorists had predicted the reason for the unusual properties of the material, known as a kagome metal, this is the first time that the phenomenon behind those properties...

Urban areas can be a refuge for bats if certain conditions are met

Urbanization is a notable threat to bat populations all over the world, especially through artificial light and the reduction of habitat and food supply. If certain conditions are met, some spaces within metropolitan areas can be suitable for bats, so managing these spaces appropriately could contribute to bat conservation. With the help of more than 200 citizen scientists in Berlin, a team of...