http://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 pioneering long-term University of Adelaide experiment to see how best to restore overgrazed land back to native woodland gets underway at Monarto Zoo today. http://phys.org/news290327781.html Biology Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:00:02 EST news290327781 (Phys.org) —We all know that the Earth rotates beneath our feet, but new research from ANU has revealed that the center of the Earth is out of sync with the rest of the planet, frequently speeding up and slowing down. http://phys.org/news287652251.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 May 2013 08:24:29 EST news287652251 (Phys.org)—Multiferroics are in a class of materials that exhibits more than one ferroic order simultaneously. One of the prototypical multiferroics is BiFeO3, an important material because it is one of a few materials that exhibit both ferroelectricity and magnetism at room temperature. The interaction of BiFeO3 with light has attracted great attention because optical control of either magnetism, ferroelectricity, or both has implications for future electronic devices. http://phys.org/news279798147.html Physics Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:42:37 EST news279798147 Chimps can learn more efficient ways to use a tool by watching what others do, according to research published January 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shinya Yamamoto and colleagues from Kyoto University and Kent University, UK. Their study presents the first experimental evidence that chimps, like humans, can watch and learn a group member's invention of a better technique. http://phys.org/news278788238.html Biology Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:10:47 EST news278788238 (Phys.org)—New research by the University of Southampton has found a mechanism as to how corals use their pink and purple hues as sunscreen to protect them against harmful sunlight. http://phys.org/news278144615.html Biology Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:23:45 EST news278144615 The detailed changes in the structure of a virus as it infects an E. coli bacterium have been observed for the first time, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) Medical School this week in Science Express. http://phys.org/news277054201.html Biology Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:13 EST news277054201 (Phys.org)—Researchers from Canada, California, and Poland have devised a straightforward way to test an intriguing idea about the nature of dark energy and dark matter. A global array of atomic magnetometers – small laboratory devices that can sense minute changes in magnetic fields – could signal when Earth passes through fractures in space known as domain walls. These structures could be the answer to the universe's darkest mysteries. http://phys.org/news276761980.html Physics Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:19:51 EST news276761980 Bigger brains can make animals, well, brainier, but that boost in brain size and ability comes at a price. That's according to new evidence reported on January 3rd in Current Biology, in which researchers artificially selected guppies for large and small brain sizes. http://phys.org/news276428529.html Biology Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:00:04 EST news276428529 (Phys.org)—A new study has thrown doubt on the ability of the average voter to make an accurate judgement of the performance of their politicians, showing that voter biases appear to be deep-seated and broad. http://phys.org/news275550820.html Other Sciences Mon, 24 Dec 2012 05:53:51 EST news275550820 The identified critical threshold for dangerous climate change saying that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius seems not to have helped the climate negotiations so far. New research from the University of Gothenburg and Columbia University shows that negotiations based on such a threshold fail because its value is determined by Nature and is inherently uncertain. Climate negotiators should therefore focus on other collective strategies. http://phys.org/news269538049.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:41:37 EST news269538049 Take a good look around on your next nature hike. Not only are you experiencing the wonders of the outdoors – you're probably also witnessing evolution in action. http://phys.org/news268577098.html Biology Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:00:01 EST news268577098 Scientists who study the ultra-small world of atoms know it is impossible to make certain simultaneous measurements, for example finding out both the location and momentum of an electron, with an arbitrarily high level of precision. Because measurements disturb the system, increased certainty in the first measurement leads to increased uncertainty in the second. The mathematics of this unintuitive concept – a hallmark of quantum mechanics – were first formulated by the famous physicist Werner Heisenberg at the beginning of the 20th century and became known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg and other scientists later generalized the equations to capture an intrinsic uncertainty in the properties of quantum systems, regardless of measurements, but the uncertainty principle is sometimes still loosely applied to Heisenberg's original measurement-disturbance relationship. Now researchers from the University of Toronto have gathered the most direct experimental evidence that Heisenberg's original formulation is wrong. http://phys.org/news268569309.html Physics Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:35:20 EST news268569309 (Phys.org)—Mathematical models developed by scientists at the University of Bristol are providing new insights into why the placebo effect exists and when it should occur. Their research is published today in the journal of Evolution and Human Behaviour. http://phys.org/news265626820.html Other Sciences Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:16:07 EST news265626820 Mating at night does not necessarily lead to offspring, at least in flies: males produce a buzzing sound with their wings that can be perceived by bats. Stefan Greif from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, and colleagues, observed this in a long-term study on wild Natterer's bats that eat the copulating flies in a double-sized meal. Flies that were just sitting or walking on the ceiling did not elicit a predatory response by the bats. This is the first experimental evidence how mating itself can be risky. http://phys.org/news262261086.html Biology Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:00:06 EST news262261086 European researchers conducted state-of-the-art high-resolution imaging experiments of protein diffusion in artificial cell membranes. Results provided the first experimental evidence of an important theory regarding membrane dynamics that had remained untested for nearly 40 years due to its technically difficult nature. http://phys.org/news258972390.html Chemistry Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:46:38 EST news258972390 A bioinspired robot has provided the first experimental evidence that live zebrafish can be influenced by engineered robots. http://phys.org/news258306814.html Electronics Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:00:01 EST news258306814 (Phys.org) -- In the phenomenon of superlubricity, two solid surfaces can slide past each other with almost no friction. The effect occurs when the solid surfaces have crystalline structures and their lattices are rotated in such a way as to cancel out the friction force. A bit like stacking two egg cartons, if the lattices are aligned, they lock in to each other and it is hard to slide one over the other. But rotate one egg carton a bit, and it no longer locks in this way. http://phys.org/news258017893.html Nanotechnology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 09:30:01 EST news258017893 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international collaboration of scientists has reported a landmark calculation of the decay process of a kaon into two pions, using breakthrough techniques on some of the world's fastest supercomputers. This is the same subatomic particle decay explored in a 1964 Nobel Prize-winning experiment performed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), which revealed the first experimental evidence of charge-parity (CP) violation — a lack of symmetry between particles and their corresponding antiparticles that may hold the answer to the question "Why are we made of matter and not antimatter?" http://phys.org/news252237007.html Physics Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:50:28 EST news252237007 Researchers from King's College London have provided the first experimental evidence confirming a great British mathematician's theory of how biological patterns such as tiger stripes or leopard spots are formed. http://phys.org/news248868911.html Biology Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:00:19 EST news248868911 Results of a new study by researchers from UCI and the University of Kansas suggest that, contrary to popular belief, greater amounts of innovation, productivity and social wealth may occur when people are required to pay damages for illegally using an invention rather than prohibited from using it at all. http://phys.org/news247126965.html Other Sciences Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:23:01 EST news247126965 Supercomputer simulations at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are giving scientists unprecedented access to a key class of proteins involved in drug detoxification. http://phys.org/news242411916.html Chemistry Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:38:44 EST news242411916 The French may have had a better chance at the Battle of Agincourt had they not been weighed down by heavy body armour, say researchers. http://phys.org/news230352910.html Other Sciences Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:55:25 EST news230352910 The spreading of a liquid drop on a solid surface is a simple, everyday phenomenon. And while it is known that when a drop of oil is placed on a solid surface, its radius increases as its thickness decreases, the mechanisms underlying the process are still not well understood on a microscopic level, particularly at the moving edge between the liquid and solid, which is known as the "contact line" region. http://phys.org/news228721439.html Physics Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:45:18 EST news228721439 A new study provides support for Darwin's hypothesis that the struggle for existence is stronger between more closely related species than those distantly related. While ecologists generally accept the premise, this new study contains the strongest direct experimental evidence yet to support its validity. http://phys.org/news227200044.html Biology Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:00:01 EST news227200044 Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia's already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species. http://phys.org/news225548159.html Biology Wed, 25 May 2011 13:16:19 EST news225548159 Researchers from Virginia Tech and Oxford University have proposed a novel molecular mechanism for the living cell's remarkable ability to detect the alignment of replicated chromosomes on the mitotic spindle in the final phase of the cell division cycle. This checkpoint mechanism prevents mistakes in the cell division process that could damage dividing cells and the organism they inhabit. http://phys.org/news225372738.html Biology Mon, 23 May 2011 15:00:07 EST news225372738 Most people who have had the experience of having pet animals in their houses have the gut feeling that the animals can "recognize" us. They seem to recognize our faces, our voices and our smell. One way or another, they respond to us differently from other people. http://phys.org/news224523320.html Biology Fri, 13 May 2011 16:36:19 EST news224523320 (PhysOrg.com) -- Several speculative theories in physics involve extra dimensions beyond our well-known four (which are broken down into three dimensions of space and one of time). Some theories have suggested 5, 10, 26, or more, with the extra spatial dimensions "hiding" within our observable three dimensions. One thing that all of these extra dimensions have in common is that none has ever been experimentally detected; they are all mathematical predictions. http://phys.org/news219649566.html Physics Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:00:01 EST news219649566 Using atoms at temperatures colder than deep space, Rice University physicists have delivered overwhelming proof for a once-scoffed-at theory that's become a hotbed for research some 40 years after it first appeared. In a paper available online in Science Express, Rice's team offers experimental evidence for a universal quantum mechanism that allows trios of particles to appear and reappear at higher energy levels in an infinite progression. The triplets, often called trimers, form in special cases where pairs cannot. http://phys.org/news179749630.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:27:59 EST news179749630