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74 articles from PhysOrg

Fish invasions follow Panama and Suez canal expansions

World maritime trade grows each year, aided by canal waterways that connect oceans and reduce shipping time, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Following recent expansions of the Panama and Suez canals, non-native fish species are invading new habitats according to a new report in Nature Ecology and Evolution by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and...

Brazilian Amazon fires near level of 2019 crisis

The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon last month was the second-highest in a decade for August, nearing the crisis levels that unleashed a flood of international condemnation last year, official figures showed Tuesday.

Study identifies effective linguistic styles for restaurant crowdfunding

Online crowdfunding is a multibillion dollar industry, but crafting a compelling pitch that stands out among thousands of projects and lands investors is challenging. This is especially true for small-scale independent restaurant concepts where, due to intense industry competition, risk is high. Kickstarter's food category can have about 30,000 active pitches at any given time, but only about 25%...

Differing diets of bonobo groups may offer insights into how culture is created

Human societies developed food preferences based on a blend of what was available and what the group decided it liked most. Those predilections were then passed along as part of the set of socially learned behaviors, values, knowledge, and customs that make up culture. Besides humans, many other social animals are believed to exhibit forms of culture in various ways, too.

Researchers predict location of novel candidate for mysterious dark energy

Astronomers have known for two decades that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, but the physics of this expansion remains a mystery. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa have made a novel prediction—the dark energy responsible for this accelerating growth comes from a vast sea of compact objects spread throughout the voids between galaxies. This conclusion...

New research provides solution for the 'Dust Bowl paradox'

Almost 100 years ago, there was a strange, slow-motion takeover of the Great Plains. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, as a historic heatwave and drought swept the middle of the United States, there was a dramatic shift in the types of plants occupying the region.

Memory in a metal, enabled by quantum geometry

The emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques is changing the world dramatically with novel applications such as internet of things, autonomous vehicles, real-time imaging processing and big data analytics in healthcare. In 2020, the global data volume is estimated to reach 44 Zettabytes, and it will continue to grow beyond the current capacity of computing and storage...

Notice me! Neglected for over a century, Black Sea spider crab re-described

Even though recognised in the Mediterranean Sea, the Macropodia czernjawskii spider crab was ignored by scientists (even by its namesake Vladimir Czernyavsky) in the regional faunal accounts of the Black Sea for more than a century. At the same time, although other species of the genus have been listed as Black Sea fauna, those listings are mostly wrong and occurred either due to historical...

Study finds gene targets to combat microorganisms binding to underwater surfaces

A group of synthetic biologists at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have identified new genetic targets that could lead to safe, biologically-based approaches to combat marine biofouling—the process of sea-based microorganisms, plants, or algae binding to underwater surfaces. Biofouling continues to present significant challenges for aquaculture and sea-based commercial activities, with one of the most...

Loggerhead turtles record a passing hurricane

In early June 2011, NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues placed satellite tags on 26 loggerhead sea turtles in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The tagging was part of ongoing studies of loggerhead movements and behavior. The Mid-Atlantic Bight, off the U.S. East Coast, is the coastal region from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to southern Massachusetts. A little more than 2 months later, on August 28,...

Solar telescope GREGOR unveils magnetic details of the sun

The Sun is our star and has a profound influence on our planet, life, and civilization. By studying the magnetism on the Sun, we can understand its influence on Earth and minimize damage of satellites and technological infrastructure. The GREGOR telescope allows scientists to resolve details as small as 50 km on the Sun, which is a tiny fraction of the solar diameter of 1.4 million km. This is as...

Swedish workers among Europe's best-paid in late 1800s

In 19th-century Sweden, workers' wages rose faster than in other European countries. By 1900, they were among the highest in Europe, and the steepest rise of all had been for those who earned least. This is shown by new research at Uppsala University: a study published in he Journal of Economic History.

Indigenous custody reporting made more effective

The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited ('ALS') is collaborating with Rapido Social at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to improve its Custody Notification Service (CNS), following project funding from the National Indigenous Advancement Agency (NIAA).

Different responses in individual cells give muscles more control

Minute differences in individual muscle cell contractions allow the entire muscle to flex with greater control and accuracy. Long dismissed as "noise" or error, experts now suspect that biological systems may have evolved to include unavoidable variation as a form of information in their communication channels. A team of experts from the University of Tokyo published these findings in the...

Detecting small amounts of virus in early infections

Diagnostic devices that are used at home or in doctors' offices are often not sensitive enough to detect small amounts of a virus that might be present in samples from asymptomatic patients, which can occur in early stage COVID-19. In Biomicrofluidics,, scientists report a membrane-based invention that can concentrate the virus content of a sample of urine or saliva, allowing it to be detected.

Mastodons took frequent trips north when climate changed

New research suggests that American mastodons were avid travelers, migrating vast distances across North America in response to dramatic climate change during the ice ages of the Pleistocene. The study, conducted by an international team of scientists and published today in the journal Nature Communications, also reveals that mastodon populations that headed northward to the Arctic during warm...

Direct observation of desorption of a melt of long polymer chains

In our everyday life it's not uncommon to see the same material in different states. Take for example water: it's a liquid at ambient temperature, we can convert into ice when cooled below 0°C and it becomes a gas when heated above 100°C. The passages between these different states of matter are called phase transitions.

Additive manufacturing of multi-functional parts

Additive manufacturing is currently one of the most significant trends in industry. Now a team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS has developed a Multi Material Jetting system that allows different materials to be combined into a single additively manufactured part. This makes it possible to create products with combined properties or functions. The new system...

The best of both worlds for economic predictions

Danish physicist Neils Bohr once quipped that prediction is hard, especially when it is about the future. But this is precisely what financial regulators need to do—forecasting the likely state of the economy in the future is crucial when deciding on policy levers like whether to slash or raise interest rates.

Q&A: Researchers set out to clear the seabed of plastic

Eighty-six million metric tons of plastics end up in the oceans every year, with devastating consequences for marine life, nature and, ultimately, for us humans. The vast floating patches of plastic carpeting the water's surface, some as large as entire countries, are only the tip of the iceberg. Around 90 percent of this garbage ends up on the seabed. The Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics...

How tadpoles provide insight into pandemics

A virus affecting wood frog tadpoles throughout the eastern United States is offering scientists a rare opportunity to investigate the role of environmental factors in the spread of infectious disease.

Stable supply of electrochromic metallo-supramolecular polymer

National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (TCI) have jointly developed a synthetic process capable of stably supplying a metallo-supramolecular polymer electrochromic (EC) material. Popularization of this material may stimulate growth in the market for dimming windows capable of electrically changing tint from transparent to dark.