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96 articles from PhysOrg

Research shows success of working from home depends on company health

While more businesses continue to shift to remote work, some well-known CEOs remain steadfast against the movement. Naresh Khatri, an associate professor of health management and informatics in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri, said the success of shifting to remote work depends on the flexibility of the organization to adjust to individual employees and the technology...

What 'Chernobyl dogs' can tell us about survival in contaminated environments

In the first step toward understanding how dogs—and perhaps humans—might adapt to intense environmental pressures such as exposure to radiation, heavy metals, or toxic chemicals, researchers have found that two groups of dogs living within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, one at the site of the former Chernobyl reactors, and another 16.5 km away in Chernobyl City, showed significant genetic...

NASA-ISRO science instruments arrive in India ahead of 2024 launch

The NISAR Earth science mission has moved a step closer to its 2024 launch. Its science payload of two radar systems, one built by NASA and the other by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), recently completed the journey from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to ISRO's U R Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru, India. Soon, teams at the facility will combine the radar...

Eyes in the sky: Using drones to assess the severity of crop diseases

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world and constitutes the primary food source for over half of Earth's population. Protecting rice plantations from disease is therefore an essential endeavor in modern agriculture. Of the many pathogens that can infect rice plants, the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae, which is responsible for bacterial blight (BB), is among the worst. Hundreds of...

Researchers create world's first energy-saving paint—inspired by butterflies

University of Central Florida researcher Debashis Chanda, a professor in UCF's NanoScience Technology Center, has drawn inspiration from butterflies to create the first environmentally friendly, large-scale and multicolor alternative to pigment-based colorants, which can contribute to energy-saving efforts and help reduce global warming.

Powerful yet lonely: The distant quasar left alone in its group

Looking at the night sky with the naked eye, we can only see an infinitesimal part of what the Universe contains, and the largest part cannot even be "seen". Radio wavelengths have gifted us some of the most fascinating astronomical sources: radio-loud active galactic nuclei in the centers of galaxies, which can produce jets that extend way farther out from the optical galaxy itself.

Researchers build hard, self-healing plastic that can be reshaped and recycled

Rigid plastic is very useful, but difficult to recycle. At least it was, until the discovery of so-called vitrimers. Using those vitrimers, Researchers at Wageningen University & Research have laid the foundation for a new type of sustainable, hard plastic that is easy to deform and grows back together on its own. Although researchers only have a prototype so far, in the future it could be an...

Examining how digitalization excludes older adults

Technology developments mean that older adults are increasingly at risk of digital exclusion. Moreover, it is more difficult for them to make use of the possibilities offered by technology in countries like Sweden, where the degree of digitalization is high. This is shown in a doctoral thesis on older adults and digitalization by Sofia Alexopoulou.

Engineering nitrogenases for synthetic nitrogen fixation: From pathway engineering to directed evolution

Fertilizers are one of the main reasons that we are able to grow enough crops to feed the almost 8 billion humans living on Earth. Modern agriculture depends largely on nitrogen-based fertilizers, which significantly increase the yield of crops. Unfortunately, a great portion of these fertilizers are produced at an industrial level, consuming fossil fuel energy and causing nitrogen pollution.

Relatively minor support can improve access to childcare and employment in Germany

Relatively minor support with the application process is enough to help families with lower educational attainment secure childcare. A new study shows that mothers subsequently pursue more working hours and that the earnings gap between mothers and fathers becomes narrower. A causal link has now been demonstrated for the first time in the case of women with a relatively low school certificate who...

Gender targets miss the mark for women in leadership

Gender diversity experts at the University of South Australia are urging governments to rethink their approach to gender targets as new research by UniSA scholars shows that they do not lead to expected improvements in gender equity for women in leadership. The study is published in the Australian Journal of Public Administration.