Bird's playlist could signal mental strengths and weaknesses
Having the biggest playlist doesn't make a male songbird the brainiest of the bunch, a new study shows.
Physicists develop revolutionary low-power polariton laser
(Phys.org) —Lasers are an unseen backbone of modern society. They're integral to technologies ranging from high-speed Internet services to Blu-ray players.
New method for producing clean hydrogen
Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications.
Comprehensive analysis of impact spherules supports theory of cosmic impact 12,800 years ago
About 12,800 years ago when the Earth was warming and emerging from the last ice age, a dramatic and anomalous event occurred that abruptly reversed climatic conditions back to near-glacial state. According ...
Minus environment, patterns still emerge: Computational study tracks E. coli cells' regulatory mechanisms
Environment is not the only factor in shaping regulatory patterns—and it might not even be the primary factor, according to a new Rice University study that looks at how cells' protein networks relate to ...
Soft matter offers new ways to study how ordered materials arrange themselves
A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, ...
Bacterium uses natural 'thermometer' to trigger diarrheal disease, scientists find
How does the bacterium Shigella—the cause of a deadly diarrheal disease—detect that it's in a human host? Ohio University scientists have found that a biological "RNA thermometer" monitors whether the environment is rig ...
Going green: Nation equipped to grow serious amounts of pond scum for fuel
(Phys.org) —A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, ...
New evidence suggests some birds gave up flight to become better swimmers
(Phys.org) —An international team of wildlife researchers has found evidence to support the theory that some birds, such as penguins, lost the ability to fly because of adaptations that allowed for better ...
Researchers build curved insect-sized artificial compound eye (w/ video)
(Phys.org) —A team of European researchers working at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has created an artificial compound eye that is comparable to those in insects such ...
Microsoft touts Xbox One as all-in-one entertainment (Update 4)
Microsoft thinks it has the one. The company unveiled the Xbox One, an entertainment console that wants to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment. It ...
Making quantum encryption practical
One of the many promising applications of quantum mechanics in the information sciences is quantum key distribution (QKD), in which the counterintuitive behavior of quantum particles guarantees that no one can eavesdrop on ...
Allosaurus fed more like a falcon than a crocodile, new study finds
The mighty T. rex may have thrashed its massive head from side to side to dismember prey, but a new study shows that its smaller cousin Allosaurus was a more dexterous hunter and tugged at prey more like a m ...
Study provides better understanding of water's freezing behavior at nanoscale
The results of a new study led by George Washington University Professor Tianshu Li provide direct computational evidence that nucleation of ice in small droplets is strongly size-dependent, an important conclusion ...