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53 articles from PhysOrg

Researchers develop mobile rapid test to assess coral thermotolerance

Coral death is impacting oceans worldwide as a consequence of climate change. The concern is that corals cannot keep pace with the rate of ocean warming. In particular, because a temperature increase of only one degree Celsius can make the difference between healthy and dying coral reefs. Some corals, however, are more resistant to increasing temperatures. In order to effectively protect coral...

"Protect 30% of the planet for nature," scientists urge in new report

In the most comprehensive report to date on the economic implications of protecting nature, over 100 economists and scientists find that the global economy would benefit from the establishment of far more protected areas on land and at sea than exist today. The report considers various scenarios of protecting at least 30% of the world's land and ocean to find that the benefits outweigh the costs...

Study reveals how bacteria build essential carbon-fixing machinery

Scientists from the University of Liverpool have revealed new insight into how cyanobacteria construct the organelles that are essential for their ability to photosynthesise. The research, which carried out in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology of China, has been published in PNAS.

Helping drug-delivering particles squeeze through a syringe

Microparticles offer a promising way to deliver multiple doses of a drug or vaccine at once, because they can be designed to release their payload at specific intervals. However, the particles, which are about the size of a grain of sand, can be difficult to inject because they can get clogged in a typical syringe.

Bumblebee habitats and diets change over their lifecycle

Bumblebees change their home ranges and dietary preferences after establishing nests, suggesting that diversified landscapes help support bee populations as their needs change during different phases of their lifecycle, according to a study published July 8 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Pablo Cavigliasso of the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria in Argentina, and colleagues....

Fossil jawbone from Alaska is a rare case of a juvenile Arctic dromaeosaurid dinosaur

A small piece of fossil jawbone from Alaska represents a rare example of juvenile dromaeosaurid dinosaur remains from the Arctic, according to a study published July 8, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza of the Imperial College London, UK, and co-authors Anthony R. Fiorillo, Ronald S. Tykoski, Paul J. McCarthy, Peter P. Flaig, and Dori L. Contreras.

Study shows 'Bystander Effect' not exclusive to humans

A rat is less likely to help a trapped companion if it is with other rats that aren't helping, according to new research from the University of Chicago that showed the social psychological theory of the "bystander effect" in humans is present in these long-tailed rodents.

Bright early light of LEDs

LED lamps are lighting up the world more and more. Global LED sales in residential lighting have risen from five percent of the market in 2013 to 40 percent in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency, and other sectors mirror these trends. An unmatched energy efficiency and sturdiness have made LED lights popular with consumers.

7 things to know about the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission

In less than a month, NASA expects to launch the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Loaded with scientific instruments, advanced computational capabilities for landing, and other new systems, the Perseverance rover is the largest, heaviest, most sophisticated vehicle NASA has ever sent to the Red Planet.

Biobased chemicals take center stage

Usually, when oil prices fall, biobased chemical firms struggle. But these days, alternatives to petroleum-based products are undergoing a renaissance. Consumers are increasingly eco-conscious, leading companies to partner with chemical manufacturers to develop products that are both sustainable and high performing. A new article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the...

Learning more about particle collisions with machine learning

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland became famous around the world in 2012 with the detection of the Higgs boson. The observation marked a crucial confirmation of the Standard Model of particle physics, which organizes the subatomic particles into groups similar to elements in the periodic table from chemistry.

Physicists use oscillations of atoms to control a phase transition

The goal of 'femtochemistry' is to film and control chemical reactions with short flashes of light. Using consecutive laser pulses, atomic bonds can be excited precisely and broken as desired. So far, this has been demonstrated for selected molecules. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now succeeded in transferring this principle...

Texas will face driest conditions of the last 1,000 years

Texas' future climate will feature drier summers and decreasing water supplies for much of the state for the remainder of the 21st century—likely resulting in the driest conditions the state has endured in the last 1,000 years, according to a team of researchers led by a Texas A&M University professor.

Soil studies can be helpful for border control

Underground tunnels have been used by warriors and smugglers for thousands of years to infiltrate battlegrounds and cross borders. A new analysis published in the Open Journal of Soil Science presents a series of medieval and modern case studies to identify the most restrictive and ideal soil and geologic conditions for tunneling.

Milking algae mechanically: A process to succeed petroleum-derived chemicals

Algae hold a lot of untapped potential for use in industry. So far algae have provided invaluable nutrition in the health food sector but have struggled to be competitive against petroleum-derived chemical production. Algae are more favorable to petroleum from an environmental standpoint but the production cost of culturing, collecting, extracting and refining adds up to make the process too...

Regulating the properties of a single crystal via voltage and application

Lead halide perovskites can be turned into optoelectronic devices through low-cost solution depositions, but these approaches often leave numerous charge-trapping defects in the perovskite. Continuously improving the performance of these optoelectronic devices is needed to overcome the bottleneck problem. The defect (including surface defects and volume defects) density in perovskites is a key...

Misfolded membrane proteins cleared from cells by 'reubiquitinase'

Chinese researchers recently discovered a protein quality control mechanism called 'reubiquitination.' The mechanism, according to the researchers, could promote the elimination of misfolded membrane proteins, minimize their dwell time in cells, and thereby reduce their probability to form toxic aggregates in the human body.

Porous graphene ribbons doped with nitrogen for electronics and quantum computing

A team of physicists and chemists has produced the first porous graphene ribbons in which specific carbon atoms in the crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms. These ribbons have semiconducting properties that make them attractive for applications in electronics and quantum computing, as reported by researchers from the Universities of Basel, Bern, Lancaster and Warwick in the Journal of...

CRISPR enables one-step hybrid seed production in crops

Crop hybrid technologies have contributed to the significant yield improvement worldwide in the past decades. However, designing and maintaining a hybrid production line has always been complex and laborious. Now, researchers in China have developed a new system combining CRISPR-mediated genome editing with other approaches that could produce better seeds compared with conventional hybrid methods...

Scaling up the quantum chip

MIT researchers have developed a process to manufacture and integrate "artificial atoms," created by atomic-scale defects in microscopically thin slices of diamond, with photonic circuitry, producing the largest quantum chip of its type.

Hummingbirds found able to understand numerical order

A team of researchers from the University of St Andrews in the U.K. and the University of Lethbridge in Canada has found that hummingbirds are able to understand the concept of numerical order. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes experiments they conducted with wild hummingbirds and what they learned from them.

Graphene: It is all about the toppings

Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms. Exceptional electronic, thermal, mechanical, and optical properties have made graphene one of the most studied materials at the moment. For many applications in electronics and energy technology, however, graphene must be combined with other materials. Since graphene is so thin, its properties drastically change when other materials are brought...