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 series of new archaeological discoveries in the Sultanate of Oman, nestled in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, reveals the timing and identity of one of the first modern human groups to migrate out of Africa, according to a research article published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news241898552.html Other Sciences Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:02:51 EST news241898552 Interdisciplinary research between biology and physics aims to understand the cell and how it organizes internally. The mechanisms inside the cell are very complicated. LMU biophysicist Professor Erwin Frey, who is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM) is working with his group on one particular issue involved in the cell's life. The professor for statistical and biological physics and his team, Louis Reese and Anna Melbinger, investigate the interplay of so-called molecular motors with the skeleton of the cell, the cytoskeleton. http://phys.org/news239886216.html Biology Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:03:44 EST news239886216 A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star has spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets. http://phys.org/news238259809.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:17:00 EST news238259809 In a study recently published in European Physical Journal E (EPJE), a German scientist constructed a theoretical model to understand how to best avoid jamming of soft matter that can be applied in food and cosmetics production. http://phys.org/news237030881.html Physics Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:55:13 EST news237030881 It covers over two thirds of our planet, is essential for life on Earth and its chemical formula is one of the few most people can name, but we still have much to learn about the structure of H2O. Now, scientists working in Grenoble have developed a new technique using oxygen isotopes to study in detail the structure of disordered oxide materials such as water in biological processes or glasses in lasers and telecommunication devices. This new technique allowed a team from the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), University of Bath, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Stanford University to validate a new theoretical model for water's structure by measuring subtle differences between the molecular organisation of light and heavy water that result from quantum mechanics. http://phys.org/news236850003.html Physics Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:40:15 EST news236850003 The development of periodic structures in embryos giving rise to the formation of, e.g., spine segments, is controlled not by genes but by simple physical and chemical phenomena. Researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University Pierre et Marie Curie have proposed a straightforward theoretical model to describe the process, and studied how the segmentation is affected by internal, thermodynamic noise of the system. The results turned out to be counterintuitive. http://phys.org/news236510293.html Physics Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:18:49 EST news236510293 (PhysOrg.com) -- Amsterdam astronomers have discovered a neutron star that confounds existing models for thermonuclear explosions in such extreme objects. In the case of the accreting pulsar IGR J17480-2446, it seems to be a strong magnetic field that causes some parts of the star to burn more brightly than the rest. The results of the study, by Yuri Cavecchi et al. (2011), are to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. http://phys.org/news235236165.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:23:24 EST news235236165 In solid materials with regular atomic structures, figuring out weak points where the material will break under stress is relatively easy. But for disordered solids, like glass or sand, their disordered nature makes such predictions much more daunting tasks. http://phys.org/news234020828.html Physics Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:47:19 EST news234020828 Observing the structure of collapsing unstable atomic nuclei using electrons is an experimental goal that has not been achieved anywhere in the world. Masanori Wakasugi, director of the Instrumentation Development Group at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (RNC), is working on this challenging issue. http://phys.org/news233227910.html Nanotechnology Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:40:01 EST news233227910 Weizmann Institute scientists have added a significant piece to the puzzle of scaling – how patterns stay in sync with size as an embryo or organism grows and develops. In a new study appearing in Current Biology, Institute scientists Profs. Naama Barkai and Ben-Zion Shilo and research student Danny Ben-Zvi of the Molecular Genetics Department have shown how scaling works in developing fruit fly wings – in which the vein structure stays perfectly proportioned – and their findings should be applicable to many different examples of development, including human embryonic development. http://phys.org/news233222064.html Biology Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:54:43 EST news233222064 An ordinary laptop or PC is all you need to join a global project to help scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, one of the world's most ambitious science projects, understand what happened just after the Big Bang; or prepare maps to help humanitarian relief in the aftermath of a natural disaster. http://phys.org/news232014214.html Technology Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:50:01 EST news232014214 Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped a team of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating seed dispersal. The tracking data revealed what scientists have long suspected: toucans are excellent seed dispersers, particularly in the morning. Also, for the first time, the data enabled researchers to create a map of the relative patterns and distances that toucans distribute the seeds of a nutmeg tree. http://phys.org/news231070632.html Biology Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:50:02 EST news231070632 A total of 10 new planets have been unearthed by an international team of scientists, and one of these is orbiting a star just a few tens of millions years old. http://phys.org/news230291255.html Space & Earth Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:47:54 EST news230291255 (PhysOrg.com) -- Neutron stars are the unimaginably dense corpses of what were once much more massive stars that died while being ripped apart in a supernova explosion. Their average density is typically more than one billion tons per teaspoonful, even denser than the nucleus of an atom that is composed of protons and neutrons. Because these densities can never be reproduced on the Earth, these objects are great extraterrestrial laboratories for the study of how matter and exotic particles behave under extreme conditions. http://phys.org/news226050124.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 May 2011 08:42:23 EST news226050124 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two UK astronomers have found that the giant black holes in the centre of galaxies are on average spinning faster than at any time in the history of the Universe. Dr Alejo Martinez-Sansigre of the University of Portsmouth and Prof. Steve Rawlings of the University of Oxford made the new discovery by using radio, optical and X-ray data. They publish their findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news225353554.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 May 2011 07:14:07 EST news225353554 (PhysOrg.com) -- Origami, the ancient Japanese art of folding objects in simple, yet complicated ways, has in recent years been applied to various engineering challenges, such as how to fold up a solar array for transport to outer-space where it can be easily unfolded before use. http://phys.org/news220801742.html Other Sciences Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:49:39 EST news220801742 (PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic fields play an important role in the formation and evolution of stars, as they stretch around a hot medium like a rubber band and help to determine the flow of material onto or away from the star. http://phys.org/news220282294.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:47:37 EST news220282294 New insights into why and how nanowires take the form they do will have profound implications for the development of future electronic components. PhD student Peter Krogstrup from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen is behind the sensational new theoretical model, which is developed in collaboration with researchers from CINAM-CNRS in Marseille. The results have been published in the scientific magazine, Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news220261280.html Nanotechnology Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:41:38 EST news220261280 The discovery of a pattern of X-ray "stripes" in the remains of an exploded star may provide the first direct evidence that a cosmic event can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. http://phys.org/news220183673.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:08:13 EST news220183673 Until now it was thought that once a volcano's magma chamber had cooled down it remained dormant for centuries before it could be remobilized by fresh magma. A theoretical model developed by Alain Burgisser of the Orléans Institute of Earth Sciences together with a US researcher, was tested on two major eruptions and completely overturned this hypothesis: the reawakening of a chamber could take place in just a few months. This research should lead to a reassessment of the dangerousness of some dormant volcanoes. It is published in the journal Nature dated 3 March 2011. http://phys.org/news218718444.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:07:32 EST news218718444 The first stars in the universe were not as solitary as previously thought. In fact, they could have formed alongside numerous companions when the gas disks that surrounded them broke up during formation, giving birth to sibling stars in the fragments. These are the findings of studies performed with the aid of computer simulations by researchers at Heidelberg University's Centre for Astronomy together with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching and the University of Texas at Austin. http://phys.org/news216048378.html Space & Earth Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:26:58 EST news216048378 A research team led by astronomers from the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has discovered that inclined orbits may be typical rather than rare for exoplanetary systems -- those outside of our solar system. Their measurements of the angles between the axes of the star's rotation (stellar rotational axis) and the planet's orbit (planetary orbital axis) of exoplanets HAT-P-11b and XO-4b demonstrate that these exoplanets' orbits are highly tilted. This is the first time that scientists have measured the angle for a small planet like HAT-P-11 b. The new findings provide important observational indicators for testing different theoretical models of how the orbits of planetary systems have evolved. http://phys.org/news214141142.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:39:17 EST news214141142 The CMS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has completed a search for microscopic black holes produced in high-energy proton-proton collisions. No evidence for their production was found and their production has been excluded up to a black hole mass of 3.5-4.5 TeV (1012 electron volts) in a variety of theoretical models. http://phys.org/news211983845.html Physics Sun, 19 Dec 2010 12:24:37 EST news211983845 Twisted "ropes" of magnetic field lines erupt from the Sun and tanglewith the Earth's magnetic field. http://phys.org/news208416947.html Physics Mon, 08 Nov 2010 05:36:03 EST news208416947 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered the most massive neutron star yet found, a discovery with strong and wide-ranging impacts across several fields of physics and astrophysics. http://phys.org/news207404515.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:22:17 EST news207404515 There is a great deal of uncertainty and speculation about the direction of the housing market in the UK and the USA -- both for home-owners and renters. Social Scientists funded by the Economic and Social Research Council have devised a mathematical model to provide some foresight into changes into the housing market. The model could be beneficial to central banks and ministries of finance that have an interest in the effects of the housing market on their economies. http://phys.org/news206076289.html Other Sciences Tue, 12 Oct 2010 04:25:02 EST news206076289 Protein molecules inside cells are constantly reorganizing themselves, driven by very tiny forces exerted by all the other molecules in their crowded environment. Most experimental techniques and theoretical/computational models are necessarily built around much greater driving forces. A new theoretical model reported in the Journal of Chemical Physics investigates the unfolding of fibronectin under gentler conditions. http://phys.org/news205490452.html Chemistry Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:00:01 EST news205490452 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Arizona physicists have discovered a new way of harvesting waste heat and turning it into electrical power. Taking advantage of quantum effects, the technology holds great promise for making cars, power plants, factories and solar panels more efficient. http://phys.org/news204552797.html Nanotechnology Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:13:38 EST news204552797 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have measured the temperature of a young gas-giant planet around another star using the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the results are puzzling. They have found that its atmosphere is unlike that of any previously studied extrasolar planet. http://phys.org/news202575672.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:30:02 EST news202575672 For the casual observer it is fascinating to watch the orderly and seemingly choreographed motion of hundreds or even thousands of fish, birds or insects. However, the formation and the manifold motion patterns of such flocks raise numerous questions fundamental to the understanding of complex systems. http://phys.org/news202567291.html Physics Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:42:59 EST news202567291