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254,217 articles from PhysOrg
A new way to identify stresses in complex fluids
Fluid dynamics researchers use many techniques to study turbulent flows like ocean currents, or the swirling atmosphere of other planets. Arezoo Adrekani's team has discovered that a mathematical construct used in these fields provides valuable information about stress in complex flow geometries.
ChatGPT: Study shows AI can produce academic papers good enough for journals—just as some ban it
Some of the world's biggest academic journal publishers have banned or curbed their authors from using the advanced chatbot, ChatGPT. Because the bot uses information from the internet to produce highly readable answers to questions, the publishers are worried that inaccurate or plagiarized work could enter the pages of academic literature.
First observation of de Broglie-Mackinnon wave packets achieved by exploiting loophole in 1980s theorem
University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics researchers achieved the first observation of de Broglie-Mackinnon wave packets by exploiting a loophole in a 1980s-era laser physics theorem.
European farms mix things up to guard against food-supply shocks
Greater diversification could help agriculture withstand climate, economic and geopolitical crises.
Growing borrowing costs offset easing inflation, finds consumer survey
Consumer sentiment lifted for the second straight month in January, rising 9% above December but remaining about 3% below a year ago, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.
UV lamps used for disinfection may impair indoor air quality
Using ultraviolet germicidal radiation (UVGI) to disinfect indoor spaces is a demonstrably effective way of deactivating various pathogens (including the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus). It deactivates bacteria and viruses by exposing them to high-energy UV radiation through the use of UV lamps.
Newly-named species of tree-dwelling snakes threatened by mining
Five new tree-dwelling snake species were discovered in the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Conservationists Leonardo DiCaprio, Brian Sheth, Re:wild, and Nature and Culture International chose the names for three of them in honor of loved ones while raising awareness about the issue of rainforest destruction at the hands of open-pit mining operations. The research was conducted by...
Instrument on JWST has gone offline
The JWST is having a problem. One of its instruments, the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), has gone offline. The NIRISS performs spectroscopy on exoplanet atmospheres, among other things.
Volcano-like rupture could have caused magnetar slowdown
On Oct. 5, 2020, the rapidly rotating corpse of a long-dead star about 30,000 light years from Earth changed speeds. In a cosmic instant, its spinning slowed. And a few days later, it abruptly started emitting radio waves.
Environmentalists to file lawsuit over Illinois' Bell Bowl Prairie, home to the endangered rusty patched bumblebee
The fight to preserve Bell Bowl Prairie in Rockford, Illinois, where federally endangered rusty patched bumblebees have been found, ramped up this week, with environmentalists saying they intend to return to federal court.
An AI bot passed this Wharton professor's exam. Here's why he's not concerned
Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch was sitting with his grown children around the dinner table when the subject of artificial intelligence came up. Both of his kids had been experimenting with the nascent technology in their respective fields: "one of them is interested in design...and the other one is interested in computer science."
Looking back at the Tonga eruption
A new analysis of seismic data recorded after the massively violent eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, on January 15, 2022, has revealed new and useful information on the sequence of events. Kotaro Tarumi and Kazunori Yoshizawa at Hokkaido University discuss their methods and findings in an article in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Movements in proteins reveal information about antibiotic resistance spreading
Researchers at Umeå University have discovered how a certain type of protein moves for DNA to be copied. The discovery could have implications for understanding how antibiotic resistance genes spread between bacteria.
Hubble views bright variable star V 372 Orionis and a smaller companion star
The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has also captured a smaller companion star in the upper left of this image. Both stars lie in the Orion Nebula, a colossal region of star formation roughly 1,450 light-years from Earth.
Research reveals how redlining grades influenced later life expectancy
Research from Washington University in St. Louis exposes the deadly legacy of redlining, the 1930s-era New Deal practice that graded neighborhoods by financial risk and solidified the notion that an area's property value was proportional to its racial composition.
Perseverance takes a selfie to show off some of its samples
One of the main jobs for the Perseverance Mars rover past few weeks has been collecting carefully selected samples of Mars rock and soil. These samples have been placed and sealed in special sample tubes and left in well-identified places so that a future sample return mission can collect them and bring the Martian samples back to Earth.
Four possible consequences of El Niño returning in 2023
Every two to seven years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean gets up to 3°C warmer (what we know as an El Niño event) or colder (La Niña) than usual, triggering a cascade of effects felt around the world. This cycle is called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) because every El Niño is naturally followed by a La Niña and vice versa, with some months of neutral conditions in between events. The...
It'll take 150 years to map Africa's biodiversity at the current rate, say researchers
The African continent is bursting with biodiversity. In a 2016 report, the United Nations Environment Program wrote: "Africa's biomes extend from mangroves to deserts, from Mediterranean to tropical forests, from temperate to sub-tropical and montane grasslands and savannas, and even to ice-capped mountains."
Large number of animal skulls found in Neanderthal cave
A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions across Spain, working with one colleague from Portugal and another from Austria, has discovered a large number of animal skulls placed by Neanderthals in Spanish cave more than 40,000 years ago.
Restoring land for livelihoods can have ecological benefits, study suggests
Small-scale restoration efforts that aim to help meet livelihood needs have the potential to contribute to ecological goals in the central Indian landscape, according to a new study published in Restoration Ecology.
Machine learning approach may aid water conservation push in the Colorado River basin
The Colorado River basin, which supplies water to 40 million people in the Western United States, is threatened by historic drought, a changing climate and water demands from growing cities. One potential response involves encouraging individuals to conserve water, and a new study may help identify those most likely to change their behaviors to contribute, according to scientists.
New model effectively predicts consumers' retail shopping mobility during a pandemic
COVID-19 forced people to contend with travel bans, stay-at-home orders and closure of nonessential businesses. A new study in the Journal of Business Research reveals how this significant event affected consumer mobility and shopping habits. And the results are hardly what one might predict.
Rosy finches are Colorado's high-alpine specialists, and researchers want to know why
Mountaineers who venture high into the Colorado Rockies have likely spotted medium-sized, brown-and-pink birds rummaging around on snow patches for insects and seeds. These high-elevation specialists are rosy finches, a type of bird that's evolved to survive in some of the most rugged places in North America.
Development of machine vision system capable of locating king flowers on apple trees
A machine vision system capable of locating and identifying apple king flowers within clusters of blossoms on trees in orchards was devised by Penn State researchers—a critical early step in the development of a robotic pollination system—in a first-of-its-kind study.
Disabled people were Holocaust victims, excluded from German society and murdered by Nazi programs
When Dominic Perrottet admitted to wearing a Nazi uniform to his 21st birthday party, he apologized to Jews and veterans—but not to the other groups who were persecuted by the Nazis, including disabled people.
Video: The Sample Transfer Arm: A helping hand for Mars
The mission to return Martian samples back to Earth will use a European 2.5 meter-long robotic arm to pick up tubes filled with precious soil from Mars and transfer them to a rocket for an historic interplanetary delivery.
Gas stoves: Why did they become the pariah du jour?
One-third of U.S. households—more than 40 million homes—cook with gas. There has been much consternation about the danger of gas stoves in the news lately and talk of banning them since a Consumer Product Safety commissioner recently suggested the move.
The impact of zoos on society is largely underestimated, says study
The benefits of zoos to society and local communities are largely underestimated by the wider population, new research shows.
Assessing weathering conditions around the globe to understand rate-limiting factors for major rock types
A quartet of researchers at Pennsylvania State University has assessed differing weathering conditions around the globe in an attempt to better understand the rate-limiting factors for major rock types.
Be kind to bees, build with bee bricks
We know that bees are important to natural ecosystems and also to human agriculture and horticulture. They are great pollinators of so plant flowering plant species and are also a source of food and materials we have used for thousands of years, namely honey, honeycomb, and beeswax.
THURSDAY 26. JANUARY 2023
Heat waves can decrease the biomass of phytoplankton in lakes
A recently published study showed that heat waves reduced the biomass of phytoplankton in a boreal lake. Summertime heat waves will become more frequent and stronger with climate change and can reduce the biomass of phytoplankton in stratified lakes.
A hymn to the stars: What happens when science puts the universe into music?
A little over six months ago, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) delivered its first photographs, dazzling the world as it revealed the cosmos in glorious technicolor. The first picture transmitted in July showed a galaxy cluster located in the Southern hemisphere sky, 5.12 billion light years from Earth. In the words of US president Joe Biden, it represented "the deepest and sharpest...
How rising household debt could slow UK labor strikes this year
After decades of declining real wages and deteriorating working conditions, strike activity has spiked over the last year, particularly in the United Kingdom. From nurses and teachers to railway and postal workers, employees are demanding wage increases and improved working conditions—and walking out if they believe employers' offers won't stave off the rising cost of living.
Deep sea reefs are spectacular and barely explored—researcher says they must be conserved
Sunlit coral reefs are perhaps the most famous marine habitat and many people will have snorkeled over or dived down to one at some point. Home to a quarter of all known ocean life, these "rainforests of the ocean" have been at the forefront of marine research for decades and been featured in documentaries like Blue Planet and animations such as Finding Nemo.
How assigning labels at work can delegitimize employees
Have you or a colleague ever been negatively labeled at work, whether it's based on your gender, age, race or ethnicity? Labels can often be mundane because we use them spontaneously on an everyday basis. But they can also be far from innocuous. Labels convey value judgments and serve to control the behavior of the people they're applied to.
California wants to ban the toxic chemical that gives chrome its classic shine
For decades, hexavalent chromium has provided the silvery showroom finish to countless consumer products, from automobile bumpers and grilles to kitchen faucets and light fixtures. It has also served as an indispensable rust-resistant coating for aviation components, such as airplane landing gear.
Preserving endangered languages as 3D shapes
Half of the world's languages are endangered and more than a thousand are expected to be lost in coming decades. A team at UCL is using animation software to preserve these languages in an entirely new way.
An open-source stopwatch to time interactions between molecules inside living cells
A stopwatch to investigate what happens inside living cells at a thousandth of a millisecond scale: this is the open-source platform BrightEyes-TTM developed by the research team led by Giuseppe Vicidomini at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology).
Scientists observe 'quasiparticles' in classical systems for the first time
Starting with the emergence of quantum mechanics, the world of physics has been divided between classical and quantum physics. Classical physics deals with the motions of objects we typically see every day in the macroscopic world, while quantum physics explains the exotic behaviors of elementary particles in the microscopic world.
Rapid production of antibubbles with a jet
University of Twente researchers succeeded in the rapid fabrication of microscopic "antibubbles." Previous methods to produce these liquid droplets surrounded by an air layer were either lacked controllability or were prone to clogging and were much slower. The team of researchers recently published their findings in the journal Advanced Materials.
Why do cats and dogs get 'the zoomies'?
Does your cat or dog suddenly get a burst of energy and perform athletic feats around the house that would make even a gold medalist jealous? Welcome to the world of zoomies.
These five spectacular impact craters on Earth highlight our planet's wild history
I think all craters are cool, I'm just going to start with that. I am very biased.
Economists have misunderstood a key indicator—and it's a big problem, says researcher
In studies, forecasts and recommendations to governments, markets are seen as capable of processing so-called rational information. Economists claim that firms' market prices result from rational expectation about their future monetary flows and intangible assets not accounted by bookkeeping, which, however, would enable those future monetary flows to occur.
Fossil teeth reveal how brains developed in utero over millions of years of human evolution
Fossilized bones help tell the story of what human beings and our predecessors were doing hundreds of thousands of years ago. But how can you learn about important parts of our ancestors' life cycle—like pregnancy or gestation—that leave no obvious trace in the fossil record?
Atlanta's BeltLine shows how urban parks can drive 'green gentrification,' inequality
Is Atlanta a good place to live? Recent rankings certainly say so. In September 2022, Money magazine rated Atlanta the best place to live in the U.S., based on its strong labor market and job growth. The National Association of Realtors calls it the top housing market to watch in 2023, noting that Atlanta's housing prices are lower than those in comparable cities and that it has a rapidly growing...