Hubble sees a unique cluster: One of the 'hidden 15'
(Phys.org) —Palomar 2 is part of a group of 15 globulars known as the Palomar clusters. These clusters, as the name suggests, were discovered in survey plates from the first Palomar Observatory Sky...
View ArticleNew technique can detect structure of promising semiconductor material MoS2
(Phys.org) —In 2010, the discoverers of graphene—a revolutionary material made of a carbon "monolayer" just one atom thick—snagged the Nobel Prize in physics. An extremely efficient conductor of heat...
View ArticleResearchers discover sperm move along a 'twisting ribbon'
(Phys.org) —Opening the door to more sophisticated investigation of sperm locomotion and biophysics, researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have identified...
View ArticleSupernovae and the origin of cosmic rays
(Phys.org) —In the spring of the year 1006, one thousand and seven years ago this April, observers in China, Egypt, Iraq, Japan, Switzerland (and perhaps North America) reported seeing what might be...
View ArticleRegional insights set latest study of climate history apart
(Phys.org) —As climate studies saturate scientific journals and mainstream media, with opposing viewpoints quickly squaring off in reaction and debate, new findings can easily be lost in the noise.
View ArticleNew evidence suggests site near Stonehenge was occupied far earlier than thought
(Phys.org) —New tests using carbon dating techniques on materials found at a site approximately a mile from Stonehenge suggest that the area was continuously occupied thousands of years earlier than...
View ArticleSimulation shows it's possible to move H2O@C60 using electrical charge
(Phys.org) —Researchers Baoxing Xu and Xi Chen, working at Columbia University, have created a computer simulation that shows it's possible to manipulate the movement of a 60-atom fullerene, with a...
View ArticleResearchers develop formula that can calculate person's speed by just looking...
Two Spanish scientists have designed an equation that provides a highly accurate estimate of an individual's speed based on stride length. They used data from professional athletes and walking and...
View ArticleUsing black holes to measure the Universe's rate of expansion
(Phys.org)—Prof. Hagai Netzer of Tel Aviv University has developed a method that uses black holes to measure distances of billions of light years with a high degree of accuracy. The ability to measure...
View ArticleGoogle announces $600 million expansion for North Carolina data center
Google announced Friday a $600 million expansion of its Lenoir data center, bringing the company's total investment in North Carolina to $1.2 billion. The announcement came little more than six years...
View ArticleStudy shows reproductive effects of pesticide exposure span generations
(Phys.org) —North Carolina State University researchers studying aquatic organisms called Daphnia have found that exposure to a chemical pesticide has impacts that span multiple generations – causing...
View ArticleScientists measure near-field behavior of semiconductor plasmonic microparticles
(Phys.org) —Recent progress in the engineering of plasmonic structures has enabled new kinds of nanometer-scale optoelectronic devices as well as high-resolution optical sensing. But until now, there...
View ArticleCan the friend of my friend be my enemy? Choice affects stability of the...
Just as humans can follow complex social situations in deciding who to befriend or to abandon, it turns out that animals use the same level of sophistication in judging social configurations, according...
View ArticleRivers act as 'horizontal cooling towers,' study finds
Running two computer models in tandem, scientists from the University of New Hampshire have detailed for the first time how thermoelectric power plants interact with climate, hydrology, and aquatic...
View ArticleMore accurate, powerful genetic analysis tool opens new gene-regulation realms
Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have developed a novel and powerful technique to identify the targets for a group of enzymes called RNA cytosine...
View ArticleThe emergence of complex behaviors through causal entropic forces
(Phys.org) —An ambitious new paper published in Physical Review Letters seeks to describe intelligence as a fundamentally thermodynamic process. The authors made an appeal to entropy to inspire a new...
View ArticleEscherichia coli bacteria produce diesel on demand
It sounds like science fiction but a team from the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, has developed a method to make bacteria produce diesel on demand. While the technology still faces many...
View ArticleHepatitis C-like viruses identified in bats and rodents
As many as one in 50 people around the world is infected with some type of hepacivirus or pegivirus, including up to 200 million with hepatitis C virus (HCV), a leading cause of liver failure and liver...
View ArticleBiological activity alters the ability of sea spray to seed clouds
Ocean biology alters the chemical composition of sea spray in ways that influence their ability to form clouds over the ocean. That's the conclusion of a team of scientists using a new approach to...
View ArticleFossil shells and new geochemical technique provide clues to ancient climate...
Using a new laboratory technique to analyze fossil snail shells, scientists have gained insights into an abrupt climate shift that transformed the planet nearly 34 million years ago.
View Article