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93 articles from PhysOrg

Birdwatching brings millions of dollars to Alaska

A committed and lucky birdwatcher in Alaska may see an elusive bluethroat north of the Brooks Range, catch a glimpse of the bold markings on a harlequin duck as it zips along an Interior river, encounter all four species of eider in Utqiaġvik, or take in the sounds of thousands of feeding shorebirds in the Copper River Delta.

Team creates first ever VX neurotoxin detector

City College of New York associate professor of physics Ronald Koder and his team at the Koder Lab are advancing the field of molecular detection by developing the first proteins that can detect a deadly nerve agent called VX in real-time and without false positives from insecticides.

Biologists' fears confirmed on the lower Colorado River

For National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Arnold, it was a moment he'd been dreading. Bare-legged in sandals, he was pulling in a net in a shallow backwater of the lower Colorado River last week, when he spotted three young fish that didn't belong there. "Give me a call when you get this!" he messaged a colleague, snapping photos.

Citizen scientists from 200 years ago and today help shed light on climate change trends

Nearly 200 years ago, a system of academies across New York set out to collect data on the state's climates and seasons. Equipped with thermometers, rain gauges and instructions for data collection, the schools' principals and teachers—and even a few students—recorded temperature measurements and observations: when the robins were first seen, when the red maples bloomed, when the strawberries...

Frequency-domain STED microscopy for selective background noise suppression

Nanoscopy describes the ability to see beyond the generally accepted optical limit of 200–300 nm. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, developed by Stefan W. Hell and Jan Wichmann in 1994, and experimentally demonstrated by Hell and Thomas Klar in 1999, is a super-resolution technique for nanoscopy. STED microscopy has made considerable progress and is widely used in practical...

Early stone tools were not rocket science

Archaeologically excavated stone tools—some as much as 2.6 million years old—have been hailed as evidence for an early cultural heritage in human evolution. But are these tools proof that our ancestors were already becoming human, both mentally and culturally?

Novel quantum simulation method clarifies correlated properties of complex material 1T -TaS2

A team led by Philipp Werner, professor of physics at the University of Fribourg and leader of NCCR MARVEL's Phase 3 project Continued Support, Advanced Simulation Methods, has applied their advanced quantum simulation method to the investigation of the complex material 1T -TaS2. The research, recently published in Physical Review Letters, helped resolve a conflict between earlier experimental and...

Imaging solves mystery of how large HIV protein functions to form infectious virus

Understanding how HIV replicates within cells is key for developing new therapies that could help nearly 40 million people living with HIV globally. Now, a team of scientists from the Salk Institute and Rutgers University have for the first time determined the molecular structure of HIV Pol, a protein that plays a key role in the late stages of HIV replication, or the process through which the...

Photorhabdus luminescens is a true all-rounder: Insect pathogenic bacterium also helps to combat fungal infestation

Future food shortages are expected to become exacerbated in many parts of the world. With this in view, sustainable biological techniques are being explored that could increase the yield of cereals and other food crops and which, unlike the use of chemical pesticides, are environmentally compatible. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens is already used as bioinsecticide to protect crops against a...