https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed soft yet durable materials that glow in response to mechanical stress, such as compression, stretching or twisting. The materials derive their luminescence from single-celled algae known as dinoflagellates. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-soft-materials-algae-stress.html Biochemistry Materials Science Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:16:34 EDT news617030189 It's said that a dog is a man's best friend, but the wild dingo is much maligned in Australia. This may not always have been the case though, with new research led by experts at The Australian National University and The University of Western Australia suggesting that dingoes were buried—and even domesticated—by First Nations people prior to European colonization. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-dingoes-almost-human-status-pre-colonial-australia.html Archaeology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:14:03 EDT news617030041 It's a familiar story to many of us: In prehistoric times, men were hunters and women were gatherers. Women were not physically capable of hunting because their anatomy was different from men. And because men were hunters, they drove human evolution. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-prehistoric-gender-roles-women-hunters.html Archaeology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:07:04 EDT news617029621 Urbanization and human activities have transformed a significant proportion of the land on Earth, resulting in the formation of urban environments. These urban environments are man-made habitats that often impose several selective pressures on their inhabitants. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-urbanization-trigger-evolution.html Plants & Animals Evolution Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:00:01 EDT news617009730 Women faculty are more likely to leave academia than men faculty throughout all career stages in U.S. universities, University of Colorado Boulder researchers revealed in the most comprehensive analysis of retention in academia to date. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-analysis-reveals-harsh-workplace-climate.html Economics & Business Education Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:00:01 EDT news617010001 You may not realize it, but the Doppler effect is everywhere in our lives, from tracking the speed of cars with radar to locating satellites in the sky. It's all about how waves change their frequency when a source (like a radar signal) and a detector are in motion relative to each other. However, traditional radar systems hit a roadblock when trying to detect objects moving at right angles to their radar signals. This limitation has driven researchers to explore an entirely new approach. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-revolutionizing-radar-thz-emitter-precise.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:44:03 EDT news617028241 In an article published in the journal Flora, researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil examine some of the strategies developed over eons of evolution by plants in the Cerrado, Brazil's savanna-like biome, to protect themselves and resprout quickly after fire. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cerrado-combine-strategies-survive.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:49:04 EDT news617024941 With the aid of innovative statistical methods, researchers explore the complex interplay between life cycle, environmental factors and genetic information using wheat as an example. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-insights-crop-climate.html Agriculture Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:37:03 EDT news617024221 Almost 200 kilometers off the coast of Nova Scotia sits a slender, crescent-shaped spit of land known for mythic wild horses that roam its dunes, seals that dot its low-slung shores and hundreds of shipwrecks still populating its watery depths. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sable-island-shifting-landscape-insights.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:08:03 EDT news617022481 Have you ever bitten into a nut or a piece of chocolate, expecting a smooth, rich taste, only to encounter an unexpected and unpleasant chalky or sour flavor? That taste is rancidity in action, and it affects pretty much every product in your pantry. Now artificial intelligence can help scientists tackle this issue more precisely and efficiently. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-rancid-food-grossai-tools-scientists.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:46:04 EDT news617021162 Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic ends up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can't last forever. But our group of materials scientists has developed a new method for creating and deconstructing polymers that could lead to more easily recycled plastics—ones that don't require you to carefully sort out all your recycling on trash day. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-class-recyclable-polymer-materials-day.html Polymers Materials Science Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:41:04 EDT news617020861 A large team of atmospheric specialists has found that when the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano erupted last year, it took part of the ozone layer with it. Their findings are published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-eruption-depleted-ozone.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:30:01 EDT news617015778 Why are so few species able to regenerate damaged or missing body parts, even though regeneration might seem an obvious survival advantage? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, Germany, and colleagues have now found a possible explanation in planarian flatworms. Analyzing head regeneration abilities in a large collection of planarian species, they found that these capacities vary greatly and depend on how the different species reproduce. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-worms-regenerate.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:27:04 EDT news617020021 One third of the global terrestrial carbon stock is stored in grasslands. A new global study implies that this stock may decrease as plant biodiversity is reduced, especially in warm and arid areas. The reason is that a species-poor vegetation seems to decompose faster in the soil. The study was led by Marie Spohn from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-loss-biodiversity-soil-carbon-sequestration.html Ecology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:25:03 EDT news617019901 It has long been known that people can form defenses and thus antibodies against viruses. But antibodies can also develop against polyethylene glycol (PEG), a substance used in cosmetics, food and medicine. These influence the effectiveness of drugs. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nanocarriers-antibodies-polyethylene-glycol-german.html Bio & Medicine Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:07:08 EDT news617018825 The ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), a serious respiratory infection, to form snake-like cords was first noted nearly 80 years ago. In a study published October 20 in the journal Cell, investigators report the biophysical mechanisms by which these cords form and demonstrate how several generations of dividing bacteria hang together to create these structures that enable resistance to antibiotics. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cord-like-aggregates-bacteria-tuberculosis-infections.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news617009720 There's no doubt that exercise does a body good, including strengthening and toning our muscles. But how exactly does exercise make this happen? https://phys.org/news/2023-10-gel-mat-muscle-cells.html Biochemistry Materials Science Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news617009988 The cosmetics industry is turning towards natural alternatives to chemical agents used in products to pave the way towards a more sustainable future. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sustainable-cosmetics-harnessing-cyanobacteria-natural.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:54:50 EDT news617018086 Similar to the process of photosynthesis in plants, the conversion and storage of solar energy into chemical energy hold significant promise for addressing critical energy and environmental challenges, including the depletion of fossil fuels and threat of global warming. One promising avenue in this pursuit involves harnessing light energy to convert CO2 into value-added chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-dinuclear-ruthenium-complex-photocatalyst-co2.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:31:57 EDT news617016715 A team of marine biologists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fishery Science Center has solved the mystery of why approximately 10 billion snow crabs vanished from the Bering Sea back in 2018/2019—the water there was too warm for them. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-billion-crabs-starved-death-bering.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:16:05 EDT news617015762 Doubling food production, saving water, and increasing carbon storage capacity—this may sound paradoxical, but would be theoretically feasible considering the biophysical potential of the Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-food-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:46:02 EDT news617013953 Scientists have discovered flagella in an unexpected place: hot spring-dwelling bacteria from the phylum Chloroflexota. Research shows that flagella were lost in other forms of Chloroflexota that adapted to marine environments hundreds of millions of years ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-marine-bacteria-ditched-flagella-traits.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:45:48 EDT news617013944 Whenever light interacts with matter, light appears to slow down. This is not a new observation and standard wave mechanics can describe most of these daily phenomena. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-major-problems-physics.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:45:40 EDT news617013937 In a Finnish study, significant differences in the gene activity of the fetal intestine, brain and placenta were identified, depending on the microbes in the mother's body and the compounds produced by them. The findings indicate that maternal microbes are important to her offspring's development and health. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-maternal-microbiota-affect-fetal.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:32:02 EDT news617013119 A broad-spectrum antiviral drug candidate, 2-thiouridine, that targets positive-strand RNA viruses has been identified and characterized. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-broad-spectrum-antiviral-candidate-dengue-sars-cov-.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:31:53 EDT news617013111 A combined team of geochemists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and California Institute of Technology has found evidence of high levels of helium-3 in rocks on Baffin Island—possible evidence that the Earth's core is leaking. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their study of helium-3 and helium-4 on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-evidence-earth-core-leaking-baffin.html Earth Sciences Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:18:38 EDT news617012313 Graphene is well-known for its high electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and flexibility. Stacking two layers of graphene with atomic layer thickness produces bilayer graphene, which possesses excellent electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. As such, bilayer graphene has attracted significant attention and is being utilized in a host of next-generation devices, including quantum computers. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-high-speed-electrical-readout-method-graphene.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:17:55 EDT news617012271 Bulk acoustic resonators—stacked material structures inside which acoustic waves resonate—can be used to amplify sounds or filter out undesired noise. These resonators have found wide use in today's RF telecommunication, like Front-End Modules (FEM) in iPhones. They could also be valuable components for various cutting-edge scientific applications, including quantum technologies and imaging devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-strategy-spin-acoustic-silicon-vacancies-4h.html Condensed Matter Quantum Physics Fri, 20 Oct 2023 07:00:02 EDT news616933556 In a finding that helps elucidate how molten salts in advanced nuclear reactors might behave, scientists have shown how electrons interacting with the ions of the molten salt can form three states with different properties. Understanding these states can help predict the impact of radiation on the performance of salt-fueled reactors. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-electrons-quick-change-artists-molten-salts.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:29:04 EDT news616955342 Golden retrievers are one of the most popular breeds of dogs. But research shows they have up to a 65% chance of dying from cancer. In a new study, University of California, Davis, researchers set out to find if certain genetic factors could help their survival rate. But instead of searching for genes associated with a cancer diagnosis in the breed, they instead chose to look for genes associated with longer life. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-golden-longer-gene-longevity.html Molecular & Computational biology Veterinary medicine Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:06:04 EDT news616953962