In a new study, Professor Shin Sugiyama of Hokkaido University and his team have directly confirmed for the first time that water from melting snow and ice, or meltwater, found at the surface of a glacier can drain to its base, causing glaciers in Antarctica to speed up and move toward the ocean.
Long before vertebrates walked on land, millipedes had the place to themselves. Hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs arrived, these early decomposers were helping establish Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. But despite their ancient history, scientists still hadn't fully unraveled their evolutionary story.
Astronomers may have uncovered new details about one of the Milky Way's most important ancient collisions. Using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and a new clustering algorithm, researchers have found evidence suggesting the famous Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus structure (GSE) has a far more complicated origin than previously thought.
Artificial intelligence is often used to generate images. In research, specialized AI models are used for scientific applications—for example, to predict the positions of atoms in materials. The MatterGen model developed by Microsoft can generate complex crystal structures from just a few pieces of information—which atoms should be present and in what proportions—and researchers can then use these structures for computer simulations of new materials.
Around the world, ocean warming is causing fish to move poleward in search of cooler water.
Migration flights of dragonflies and damselflies crisscross much of our planet, new research reveals. Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Lund reviewed global evidence and found 100 dragonfly and damselfly species that migrate, and a further 85 possible migratory species. This means that only 1.5% of all dragonfly and damselfly species migrate (or 2.9% including possible migrants)—but the migrations can include millions of individuals, and some travel thousands of kilometers. The study is published in Biological Reviews.
Every year, hundreds of millions of tons of petrochemical-based plastics are produced, much of which ends up in the environment or is incinerated. This exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental crisis caused by plastic pollution. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona has produced a biodegradable bioplastic of high industrial value—polyhydroxybutyrate, or PHB—from unprocessed potato starch in a single 24-hour step, a strategic breakthrough that could help reduce dependence on oil and the volume of persistent plastic waste.
Oxidation reactions are indispensable to the chemical industry, but from a process safety perspective, they are among the most challenging transformations. A research team at the University of Bayreuth, working in collaboration with international partners, has now introduced a fundamentally new approach to oxidation reactions in which carbon dioxide is used as the oxygen source for chemical synthesis. This makes the reaction both safer and more sustainable. The researchers report on this new approach in Science.
Two independent research teams have achieved a longstanding goal in physics: building a working nuclear clock. The devices, developed by Beichen Huang and colleagues at Tsinghua University and by Luca Toscani De Col and colleagues at the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology in Austria, exploit the nucleus of a thorium-229 atom to keep time with extraordinary precision—possibly surpassing even the best atomic clocks available today.
Mechanoluminescent materials convert mechanical energy such as stress, strain and vibration directly into light, making them attractive as self-powered sensors that require no batteries or wiring. From biomedical sensors to self-powered infrastructure monitoring sensors, mechanoluminescent materials have a wide range of potential applications. However, high-performance mechanoluminescent materials have traditionally relied on expensive rare-earth materials or complex material compositions.
Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria and are not considered human pathogens. Yet researchers at the Translational Microbiology Laboratory of the Institute of Biochemistry, HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged, have shown that some gut phages can also physically interact with human cells. Their study identifies phage surface proteins that act as molecular anchors, promoting attachment to human cells, cellular uptake, and prolonged retention in the gastrointestinal tract. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, open new perspectives on how phages behave in the body and may create new opportunities for therapeutic development.
It's intuitive to think that if a tree is photosynthesizing, it's also growing. But that's not necessarily so—and a new study of oak trees, published in the journal Science Advances, found that even as they photosynthesize late into the year, their growth stops by midsummer.
Hilly and mountainous landscapes have a much greater ability to store carbon in the soil than previously thought, according to a new study co-led by scientists at the University of Oregon.
A research team with the participation of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) has described a new species of extinct carnivore from fossil remains recovered at the Els Casots site (Subirats, Alt Penedès). The study, published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution, describes Paludocyon moyasolai, a medium-sized amphicyonid that lived approximately 15.9 million years ago, during the early Middle Miocene. The specific epithet "moyasolai" pays tribute to Salvador Moyà-Solà, a key figure in the development of vertebrate paleontology in the Iberian Peninsula and director of the ICP from its foundation until 2017.
Pomacea canaliculata, commonly known as the apple snail, is a pest commonly found in Hong Kong's wetlands and farmlands. It feeds on aquatic plants and produces toxic pink egg masses resembling miniature grapes that adhere to plants or stone bunds. It is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) among 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species.
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