National Science Foundation

A spider web's strength lies in more than its silk

While researchers have long known of the incredible strength of spider silk, the robust nature of the tiny filaments cannot alone explain how webs survive multiple tears and winds that exceed hurricane strength.

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists replicate key evolutionary step in life on earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- More than 500 million years ago, single-celled organisms on Earth's surface began forming multi-cellular clusters that ultimately became plants and animals.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (46) | comments 500 | with audio podcast

Link between air pollution and cyclone intensity in Arabian Sea

Pollution is making Arabian Sea cyclones more intense, according to a study in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Fossil sirenians give scientists new look at ancient climate

(PhysOrg.com) -- What tales they tell of their former lives, these old bones of sirenians, relatives of today's dugongs and manatees.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 21, 2011 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

A scratched coating heals itself quickly and easily, with light not heat (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine you're driving your own new car--or a rental car--and you need to park in a commercial garage. Maybe you're going to work, visiting a mall or attending an event at a sports stadium, ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Apr 20, 2011 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Size matters: Quantum dots could make solar panels more efficient

(PhysOrg.com) -- Studies done by Mark Lusk and colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. Their latest work describes how the size of light-absorbing ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 25, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Peaceful bonobos may have something to teach humans

Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 08, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (25) | comments 161 | with audio podcast

Like humans, amoebae pack a lunch before they travel

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some amoebae do what many people do. Before they travel, they pack a lunch. In results of a study reported today in the journal Nature, evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Quelle ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Key player in detoxification pathway isolated after decades of searching

(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemical reactions are happening all over the place all the time -- on the sun, on the Earth and in our bodies. In many cases, enzymes help make these reactions occur. One family of enzymes, ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 12, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

These cancer cells will self-destruct in 5...4...

Cancer is a difficult disease to treat because it's a personal disease. Each case is unique and based on a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Conventional chemotherapy employs treatment with ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 06, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

The Secret of Life May Be As Simple As What Happens Between the Sheets -- Mica Sheets

(PhysOrg.com) -- That age-old question, "where did life on Earth start?" now has a new answer. If the life between the mica sheets hypothesis is correct, life would have originated between sheets of mica that ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Aug 06, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (40) | comments 265 | with audio podcast

How 'spooky' quantum mechanical laws may affect everyday objects (Update)

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study published in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature, Dartmouth researchers describe one example of the microscopic quantum world influencing--even dominating, they say--the behavi ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 01, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (39) | comments 20 | with audio podcast

Odd Mosaic of Dental Features Reveals Undocumented Primate

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's in the teeth. An odd mosaic of dental features recently unearthed in northern Egypt reveals a previously undocumented, highly-specialized primate called Nosmips aenigmaticus that lived ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 10, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Archaeologists Uncover Land Before Wheel; Site Untouched for 6,000 Years

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, along with a team of Syrian colleagues, is uncovering new clues about a prehistoric society that formed the foundation ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 06, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (22) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Small But Mighty Female Lizards Control Genetic Destiny

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." Mother Teresa's words echo throughout the world. They ring particularly true in the biological kingdom among brown ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 05, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast