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. Sierra Space's shuttle-like Dream Chaser has been put through its paces at a powerful NASA vibration facility that mimics conditions during launch and atmospheric reentry, officials said Thursday ahead of its planned first flight to the ISS this year. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rattle-chaser-spaceplane-vibration.html Space Exploration Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:35:07 EST news626027703 Scientists have spent decades finding ways to efficiently and affordably degrade plant materials so that they can be converted into useful bioproducts that benefit everyday life. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-leafcutter-ants-cultivate-fungal-garden.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:28:04 EST news626027281 Photonic integrated circuits are an important next-wave technology. These sophisticated microchips hold the potential to substantially decrease costs and increase speed and efficiency for electronic devices across a wide range of application areas, including automotive technology, communications, health care, data storage, and computing for artificial intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-team-laser-printer-photonic-chips.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:10:14 EST news626026201 New research from Dartmouth College provides the first evidence that the Arctic's frozen soil is the dominant force shaping Earth's northernmost rivers. Permafrost, the thick layer of soil that stays frozen for two or more years at a time, is the reason that Arctic rivers are uniformly confined to smaller areas and shallower valleys than rivers to the south, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-permafrost-arctic-rivers-lot-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:56:07 EST news626025363 Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technologies, known for their high precision and rapid actuation, are essential to microfluidics and affect a broad spectrum of research areas. However, traditional fabrication methods are time-consuming, intricate, and necessitate costly cleanroom facilities. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-aerosol-jet-revolutionize-microfluidic-device.html Nanomaterials Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:52:03 EST news626025121 While much of the world is grappling with rising sea levels due to the melting of Greenland's ice sheet, the situation on the Greenlandic mainland is almost the opposite. The land is rising faster than the current sea level. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rapid-climate-greenland-bedrock-small.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:05:03 EST news626022302 Chemists at RIKEN have developed a method for making synthetic derivatives of the natural dye indigo that doesn't require harsh conditions. This discovery could inspire advances in electronic devices, including light-responsive gadgets and stretchy biomedical sensors. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-method-synthetic-derivative-natural-indigo.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:00:02 EST news626022001 University of the Sunshine Coast researchers have uncovered a new genus and five new species of millipedes in remote African jungles—and say the many-legged creatures could hold important clues to whether woody vines are choking or protecting the world's forests. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-genus-alien-multi-legged-forest.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:31:03 EST news626020261 Children who hear a language other than English at home currently make up more than 25% of the school-aged population in the United States. A large majority of those children hear Spanish because that is the native language of their parents. When their parents came to the U.S., they brought not only their language, but also their culture with them. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mom-immigrant-bilingual-latina-mothers.html Social Sciences Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:17:01 EST news626019414 A puppy's jaw spontaneously regrew after Cornell veterinarians removed a majority of his lower left mandible due to cancer. Although this phenomenon has been documented in children, this is the first reported case of its kind for dogs of any age or breed. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-french-bulldog-puppy-spontaneously-regrows.html Veterinary medicine Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:11:34 EST news626019086 New research published today in the journal Science has concluded that eradicating animals on the basis that they are not native in order to protect plant species can be a flawed practice costing millions of dollars, and resulting in the slaughter of millions of healthy wild animals. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-culling-animals-dont-flawed-nature.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626015548 Cells in the human body are constantly dividing. With each division, the genetic information contained in the chromosomes is duplicated, and each daughter cell receives a complete copy of the genetic material. It is a sophisticated process, a clockwork mechanism that involves refined and fast changes within the cell. To make this possible, the cell relies on microtubules, tiny structures that are indeed tube-shaped. Understanding how they start forming is a long-standing question. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-atomic-scale-movie-microtubules-key.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626003075 Anemonefish (also known as clownfish) are feisty little creatures, enthusiastically defending their anemone homes from intruders. And while it is sometimes fine to share with anemonefish of other species, it is never cool to cohabit with intruders of their own species: they always receive the frostiest reception. So how do anemonefish tell members of their own species apart from other stripy fish? https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-clownfish-stripes-distinguish-friend.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626002885 Bacteria are traditionally imagined as single-cell organisms, spread out sparsely over surfaces or suspended in liquids, but in many environments the true bacterial mode of growth is in sticky clusters called biofilms. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-bacteria-biofilms-affects-sensitivity-antibiotics.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626003149 Governments and businesses are relying on dangerous amounts of future removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, instead of more rapidly reducing emissions and phasing out fossil fuels. This problem is partly due to an incomplete picture of the damaging consequences of carbon dioxide removal for people, food security and natural ecosystems, according to new research published in Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-highlights-dangerous-overreliance-future.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626003153 Researchers from the UAB and the ICN2 have developed an innovative material to fight against the spread of pathogens, infections and antimicrobial resistance. Inspired by the substances secreted by mussels to adhere to rocks, it can be used as a coating to protect health care fabrics and provides an effective alternative to commonly used materials such as paper, cotton, surgical masks and commercial plasters. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mussel-antimicrobial-coating-sanitary-fabrics.html Biochemistry Materials Science Thu, 01 Feb 2024 13:33:05 EST news626016782 Managing forest edge habitats to maintain a gradient of canopy cover and plant density could be key to conserving some threatened native plant species such as wild lupine, according to Penn State researchers. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-edge-habitats-roads-power-lines.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:56:39 EST news626014595 Experimental research conducted by a joint team from Los Alamos National Laboratory and D-Wave Quantum Systems examines the paradoxical role of fluctuations in inducing magnetic ordering on a network of qubits. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-experimentation-explores-defects-fluctuations-quantum.html Quantum Physics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:41:02 EST news626013661 Christopher Parzyck had done everything right. Parzyck, a postdoctoral researcher, had brought his nickelate samples—a newly discovered family of superconductors—to a synchrotron beamline for X-ray scattering experiments. He was measuring his samples, which he'd synthesized with a new method, in the hope of detecting the suspected presence of "charge ordering"—a phenomenon in which electrons self-organize into periodic patterns. The phenomenon has been linked to high-temperature superconductivity. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-flawed-material-superconductor-conundrum.html Superconductivity Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:39:04 EST news626013541 The interplay between ribonucleic acid (RNA) and proteins is not only important for maintaining cellular homeostasis but is also at the center of the tug-of-war between virus and host. Until now, there has been no method to globally map direct interactions of individual RNA regions in an unbiased fashion without the need for genetic modification of the target RNA or cell. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-method-interactions-specific-rna-regions.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:11:04 EST news626011861 Novel research led by Wei Qin, an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Oklahoma, that significantly changes the understanding of ammonia oxidation, a critical component of the global nitrogen cycle, has been published in the journal Nature Microbiology. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-microbial-unravels-global-nitrogen-mystery.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:02:03 EST news626011322 A study led by scientists at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil has shown that the Rio Grande Rise (RGR), a possibly continental basaltic plateau and chain of seamounts now submerged in the South Atlantic Ocean some 1,200 km from the coast of Brazil, was once a giant tropical island, rich in minerals and covered with vegetation. Geologists have dated sediments from the formation to between 45 million and 40 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rio-grande-giant-mineral-rich.html Earth Sciences Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:58:04 EST news626011081 Cambridge scientists have identified two crucial genetic factors needed to produce specialized root organs that can accommodate nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes such as peas and beans. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-lsh-genes-stems-required-root.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:42:04 EST news626010121 An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-skyscraper-size-asteroid-earth-friday.html Space Exploration Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:27:26 EST news626009241 The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making that has similarities to models describing stock market crashes. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-swarming-cicadas-stock-traders-wisdom.html Mathematics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:11:44 EST news626008299 Small, long-nosed (or dolichocephalic) dog breeds such as Whippets have the highest life expectancies in the UK, while male dogs from medium-sized flat-faced (or brachycephalic) breeds such as English Bulldogs have the lowest. The results, published in Scientific Reports, have been calculated from data on over 580,000 individual dogs from over 150 different breeds, and could help to identify those dogs most at risk of an early death. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-small-nosed-dogs-longest.html Plants & Animals Veterinary medicine Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:00:02 EST news626003158 A study by the Center for Integrated Technology and Organic Synthesis (CiTOS) demonstrates how glycerol carbonate, a biosourced industrial additive, can be produced in record time using CO2 and a by-product of the cooking oil recycling industry. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-production-high-compounds-industrial.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:58:46 EST news626007523 Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have discovered a change in what scientists already knew about global warming dynamics. It had been widely accepted since the 1950s that global temperature rises were not consistent throughout the day and night, with greater nighttime warming being observed. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-temperature-difference-day-night-affect.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:57:20 EST news626007437 Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year. The sun's ultraviolet light and ocean turbulence break down these plastics into invisible nanoparticles that threaten marine ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-unmask-nanoplastics-oceans-revealing-true.html Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:57:14 EST news626007432 In research that could jumpstart work toward the quantum internet, researchers at MIT and the University of Cambridge have built and tested an exquisitely small device that could allow the quick, efficient flow of quantum information over large distances. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-device-jumpstart-quantum-internet.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Physics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:56:56 EST news626007409