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. (Phys.org)—A team of physicists in Israel has succeeded in generating an electron Airy beam for the first time. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers used a technique similar to that used by previous researchers to create Airy beams based on light. http://phys.org/news280733956.html Physics Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:50:01 EST news280733956 Each fall millions of monarch butterflies from across the eastern United States begin a southward migration in order to escape the frigid temperatures of their northern boundaries, traveling up to 2,000 miles to an overwintering site in a specific grove of fir trees in central Mexico. Surprisingly, a new study by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School published in Current Biology, suggests that exposure to coldness found in the microenvironment of the monarch's overwintering site triggers their return north every spring. Without this cold exposure, the monarch butterfly would continue flying south. http://phys.org/news280670252.html Biology Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:05 EST news280670252 Since the observations made by English naturalist Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands, researchers have been interested in how physical barriers, such as isolation on a particular island, can lead to the formation of new species through the process of natural selection. Natural selection is a process whereby heritable traits that enhance survival become more common in successive generations, while unfavorable heritable traits become less common. Over time, animals and plants that have morphologies or other attributes that enhance their suitability to a particular environment become more common and more adapted to that specific environment. http://phys.org/news279390735.html Biology Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:39:14 EST news279390735 Different people are exposed to different amounts of pollution, so current methods of using your postcode to calculate personal exposure levels could be giving inaccurate results. http://phys.org/news278231430.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 Jan 2013 06:30:49 EST news278231430 With climate change sparking concern about an increased risk of wildfires, scientists are reporting development of a way to detect grapes exposed to smoke from those fires, which otherwise could be vented into bad-tasting wine. Their report on the method for detecting smoke taint in both grapes and wine appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. http://phys.org/news278171622.html Chemistry Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:53:51 EST news278171622 Not many students can say they had to wait for their research to come back from space before they could collect their doctorate degrees. And not many can say that along the way they earned the top award in their professional community. Meet UA's Brian Fox. http://phys.org/news278157101.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:51:48 EST news278157101 (Phys.org)—Silica microwires are the tiny and as-yet underutilized cousins of optical fibers. If precisely manufactured, however, these hair-like slivers of silica could enable applications and technology not currently possible with comparatively bulky optical fiber. By carefully controlling the shape of water droplets with an ultraviolet laser, a team of researchers from Australia and France has found a way to coax silica nanoparticles to self-assemble into much more highly uniform silica wires. http://phys.org/news278155723.html Physics Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:29:02 EST news278155723 (Phys.org)—A high-tech robotic fish hatched at Michigan State University has a new look. A new skill. And a new name. http://phys.org/news277577461.html Electronics Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:51:13 EST news277577461 Optical fibers are rapidly replacing electrical wires as the primary medium for sending digital information over long distances. Without suffering from interference, pulses of light travelling along these thin strands of glass can carry more data than electrical signals. However, getting light into fibers can be difficult, and this inefficiency limits the total strength of the optical signal received at the far end. The solution may be a fiber structure that was recently proposed by Xia Yu at the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co‐workers which uses a metal core to reduce these aptly named insertion losses. "Our compact fiber-based coupler device is able to couple with light more efficiently and faster than conventional devices," says Yu.  http://phys.org/news277547794.html Physics Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:00:01 EST news277547794 Fiber optic cables provide the core backbone for military and civilian networks, enabling Internet, phone, video and other data to move at super-high speeds with virtually no degradation over long distances. In deployed environments, where a fiber optic backbone doesn't exist, other communications modes are used resulting in reduced data-rate capacity for the warfighter. http://phys.org/news275040373.html Technology Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:06:25 EST news275040373 Spores from Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) pose a serious threat to soybean production in the United States because they can be blown great distances by the wind. University of Illinois researchers have developed a method to determine whether these spores are viable. http://phys.org/news274446718.html Biology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:12:15 EST news274446718 Australians have been urged to defend their native landscapes against an insidious invasion of slow-spreading weeds. http://phys.org/news274437067.html Biology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:31:17 EST news274437067 (AP)—The city of Mildura is not at the end of a dirt road in the Australian bush, in tire-choking desert sand far from food and water. Unfortunately, Apple's much-maligned mapping application thinks it is. http://phys.org/news274420157.html Technology Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:50:53 EST news274420157 University of Alberta researchers discovered that elk are more frequently and more easily disturbed by human behaviour such as ATV drivers than by their natural predators like bears and wolves. http://phys.org/news273343048.html Biology Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:00:38 EST news273343048 For the first time, researchers tracking the behavior of emperor penguins near the sea have identified the importance of sea ice for the penguins' feeding habits. The research, published November 21 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shinichi Watanabe from Fukuyama University, Japan and colleagues, Japan describes emperor penguin foraging behavior through the birds' chick-rearing season. http://phys.org/news272739944.html Biology Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:06:04 EST news272739944 Many animals travel long distances in groups but little is known about how this may influence the navigational skills of individuals. http://phys.org/news272200008.html Biology Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:40:01 EST news272200008 (Phys.org)— NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully have used an experimental version of interplanetary Internet to control an educational rover from the International Space Station. The experiment used NASA's Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transmit messages and demonstrate technology that one day may enable Internet-like communications with space vehicles and support habitats or infrastructure on another planet. http://phys.org/news271667839.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Nov 2012 07:18:16 EST news271667839 (Phys.org)—Researchers at Princeton University have demonstrated that coupling spin qubits may be feasible over long distances by measuring the microwave field inside of a superconducting circuit to determine the spin rate of a single electron quantum bit (qubit). Their work, as they explain in their paper published in the journal Nature, may be a first step towards creating a true quantum computer. http://phys.org/news269765531.html Physics Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:52:25 EST news269765531 Tsunamis cause damage even after they have traveled thousands of kilometers from their sources, and much of the damage is through generation of local strong currents. Even though wave heights of tsunamis that have traveled long distances are no greater than those of local tides or waves, tsunamis modify currents, resulting in unusually strong pulses of mixing, transport, and seiching (standing waves in enclosed water bodies). Seiching is common and is the most destructive hazard, particularly along narrow bays and harbors. http://phys.org/news269161130.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:00:01 EST news269161130 (Phys.org)—A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota has invented a unique microscale optical device that could greatly increase the speed of downloading information online and reduce the cost of Internet transmission. http://phys.org/news268406342.html Physics Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:19:17 EST news268406342 Tesla on Tuesday opened the first part of what it said would be a large network of stations that will provide free charges to its electric cars courtesy of the sun. http://phys.org/news267765719.html Technology Tue, 25 Sep 2012 04:22:15 EST news267765719 Physicists at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have achieved quantum teleportation over a record distance of 143 km. The experiment is a major step towards satellite-based quantum communication. The results have now been published in Nature. http://phys.org/news266067805.html Physics Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:00:14 EST news266067805 (Phys.org)—A small group of researchers from the University of California, Davis has found that a species of bird, the western scrub jay, responds to the presence of a dead specimen of one of their own, by calling out loudly to others of their kind and congregating around the body for up to day or two. The team, made up of T.L. Iglesias, R. McElreath and G.L. Patricelli discovered the birds' unique behavior by leaving dead jays in areas where the birds are known to exist and, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Animal Behavior, watching as they called out to others to join in, forming a loud aggregation. http://phys.org/news265876735.html Biology Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:10:04 EST news265876735 Move over Wi-Fi, there's a new wireless technology coming. http://phys.org/news265778602.html Technology Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:23:40 EST news265778602 (Phys.org)—Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have come a step closer to deciphering some of the basic mysteries and mechanisms behind earthquakes and how average-sized earthquakes may evolve into massive earthquakes. http://phys.org/news265459594.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:00:01 EST news265459594 (Phys.org) -- A simple longitudinal twist converts certain microstructured optical fibres into filters. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have measured this effect in detail in photonic crystal fibres and found a theory to explain it. The results of their research will allow new applications in optical communications and the construction of lasers, sensors and light amplifiers. http://phys.org/news263532970.html Physics Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:36:27 EST news263532970 (Phys.org) -- Batoid rays, such as stingrays and manta rays, are among nature's most elegant swimmers. They are fast, highly maneuverable, graceful, energy-efficient, can cruise, bird-like, for long distances in the deep, open ocean, and rest on the sea bottom. http://phys.org/news262339273.html Technology Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:01:34 EST news262339273 Mother goats do not forget the sound of their kids' voices, even a year after they have been weaned and separated, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London. http://phys.org/news259347555.html Biology Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:00:05 EST news259347555 American mountain lions, or cougars, are re-emerging in areas of the United States, reversing 100 years of decline. The evidence, published in The Journal of Wildlife Management, raises new conservation questions, such as how humans can live alongside the returning predators. http://phys.org/news258816054.html Biology Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:01 EST news258816054 Having natural habitat in farming areas that supports ladybugs could help increase their abundance in crops where they control pests and help farmers reduce their costs, says a Michigan State University study. http://phys.org/news255968167.html Biology Fri, 11 May 2012 15:16:13 EST news255968167